News & Features

August 20, 2007
Endowment Gifts Reach Nearly $16 Million
for New School of Public Policy Initiative

List of gifts and pledges
through June 30, 2007 Calling the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy the “glue” that brings together the university’s efforts to apply research to real-world problems, Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead today announced nearly $16 million in gifts and pledges for the Institute’s endowment, including almost $10 million for student financial aid.

The commitments support an initiative to transform the Institute into a new School of Public Policy at Duke, which would be the university’s tenth school.

The gift total is the sum of 14 individual gifts (below), most from Duke alumni, and $4.75 million in funds that match contributions for public policy financial aid endowment, as part of Duke’s $300 million Financial Aid Initiative.

“Academic life can be very abstract,” Brodhead said. “A public policy institute or school takes intellectual work and applies it to real-world situations, educating well-trained, talented people who can go into the world and take on its challenges. I am grateful for the leadership and generosity of the donors who support this vision, as well as our pledge to increase financial aid to the students who want to help solve the world's problems. These donors are providing the permanent resources that will make both the new school initiative and the Financial Aid Initiative a success.”

The new school initiative seeks a minimum of $65 million in permanent endowment --$40 million in faculty support and $25 million for scholarships, fellowships, internships,and other student support. When they approved the initiative in 2005-06, Brodhead and Provost Peter Lange set a fundraising threshold for recognition as a school of $40 million by June 30, 2009.

“The very generous gifts we have received will help the new school address the two fundamental challenges that Terry Sanford and Joel Fleishman designed the institute to meet,” said Bruce R. Kuniholm, director of the Sanford Institute. “The first is the need to educate smart, pragmatic, ethical students and empower them through academic training, character, and real-world experience to make the world a better place. The second is finding solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.”

The number of students currently graduating from Sanford -- about 280 each year -- is expected to remain the same in the new school. Rather than enrolling more students, new resources will allow the school to provide increased student financial aid and to offer a greater variety of courses and in-depth areas of concentration.

“We want to concentrate our resources on the students that we have and give them an even higher quality education,” Kuniholm said. “We’ll be able to provide students with more mentoring, and more opportunities to engage in research, internships and leadership training.”

The new school plans to double the number of faculty members to 42. New faculty from a variety of disciplines will strengthen the school’s ability to conduct collaborative research across campus and to achieve a broader, deeper engagement in public life. Sanford’s faculty recently was ranked first in scholarly productivity among all U.S. schools of public policy and public affairs by Academic Analytics, an independent research firm.

“The new school initiative will significantly enhance a distinguished faculty,” Kuniholm said. “What we aspire to do by doubling the faculty is to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Through partnerships with the top-ranked schools and programs in the university and added expertise in the critical areas of health, energy and the environment, globalization and development, and social policy, we can bring Duke’s resources to bear on some of the most pressing public policy challenges.”