Education is a process of enablement:  it’s about giving people the exposures, stimulations, challenges, and encouragements that allow them to discover their powers and build the most capable version of themselves. 

Richard Brodhead

But we need many more people to get the benefit of education than those whose families can pay the bill. Inequality of educational opportunity is a profound problem in America, and in tolerating this fact, our country pays far too little heed to the social cost: the losses we incur through the talent we're failing to develop. No university has the power to solve the whole of this problem, but just for that reason, we have an obligation to do what we can. Those of us of a certain age can remember a time when the full benefits of education were open to some and closed to others on the basis of gender, race, or other irrelevant external considerations. During my adult lifetime, those injustices have been remedied in substantial measure. But it would be a poor sequel for less visible economic discriminations to be allowed to continue when others have been abolished. That's why great universities must open their doors to deserving students without regard to family circumstances.

When we do this, when we make sure that those gifted with intelligence and creativity get the education that will allow them to give the greatest return on their innate abilities, all of us benefit-for on whom does the future of our culture, economy, and quality of life depend? Our society has a profound self-interest in seeing that the brightest young people have access to quality education, because it's a safe bet that the talent we will someday want to draw on is not confined to a single social origin or income band. Financial aid is the investment we make to produce the trained talent our future world will require.

Of course, some of our future leaders come from families that can afford a Duke education, and to them, I say, you too benefit from Duke's financial aid program. You cannot have a great university without having the greatest possible group of students, and what that means is students from a range of income groups, regions, and backgrounds all drawn together by their talent and dedication and accomplishment and entirely without reference to their family's financial situation. If my long life in school has taught me anything, it's that everything is more interesting when people come to issues from different places.

For these reasons-in the name of justice, society, and education-Duke spends hefty sums on financial aid each year. But in spite of Duke's ability to become a great university in a short span of time, Duke also suffers a deficiency derived from its youth. Namely, we have not yet amassed the permanent endowment that ought to be attached to such a fundamental priority as this. So Duke must meet the majority of its aid commitments out of the same pool of funds that supports most everything else here, including academic programs. What this means is that, in lean years or hard times, Duke's need to fund student aid may be in competition with its need to fund the programs that draw top students and faculty here in the first place.

I want to keep Duke accessible and I want to prevent any future collision between our obligation to social openness and our obligation to academic excellence. That's why I asked Duke's Board of Trustees to launch this Financial Aid Initiative, and that's why some of our closest supporters have pledged $100 million to challenge others to join in this effort. By significantly strengthening Duke's permanent support for financial aid, we're doing something crucial for this university's future health.

Sincerely,

Richard H. Brodhead
President

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