Benefits of Integrating Community and Academic Life
Faculty and Staff
What benefits do graduate students gain by stepping beyond their departments and taking advantage of the resources (academic, professional, social) of the wider Duke and Durham communities?
Myrna Adams
Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President
While achievement may be an individual accomplishment, success is definitely a group phenomenon. The point is that one cannot be “successful” in isolation; we need others to approve, endorse, support, evaluate, market, and promote our achievements. Whether and how we learn to reach out to others, learn to assess and evaluate people, find opportunities to explain and discuss our thoughts and our work, get responses and feedback from others, are critically important aspects of our professional development and, perhaps, more importantly, of our personal growth and “emotional intelligence.” My Mom warned me against becoming an “educated fool,” and she was right to do so.
Those graduate students who participated in the Student Movement last spring spoke eloquently about the personal value of their interaction with the group of students, faculty, and staff who collectively engaged the issues presented by the Horowitz advertisement. I recall vividly the woman who described her transformation from a “graduate student of _____” into a “member of the Duke community.” I was pleased to become a part of her new network of acquaintances. Partly because of her comments, we renewed our effort to increase the contacts among people of color at Duke—one of many positive outcomes of that experience.
Cathy Davidson
Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies
The best part of an American graduate education is its specialized intensity. That can also be the worst part. Spending time only with one’s departmental or even subfield colleagues can lead to conversations that become increasingly narrow. It’s easy to lose perspective. The graduate school “fish bowl” can also feel competitive, overwrought, and depressing—especially for those in fields where it is not certain that there will be a job at the end of the years of struggling for professional excellence.
By stepping beyond the department and taking advantage of the resources available elsewhere at Duke and in Durham, one can, most importantly, be reminded that there is a world out there beyond one’s dissertation. In addition, explaining one’s dissertation to someone from a different field or a different walk of life can help to clarify its claims, its importance, and its assumptions. The exchange can be invigorating and even inspiring. It can also remind you that you are a full human being and not simply a “dissertator.”
Donna Dyer
Assistant Director, Sanford Institute for Public Policy
Since we are training our students for careers in public service and solving public problems, interaction with the community is critical. It’s important that our students have Durham and Raleigh as laboratories for applying the tools they learn in their core courses. We are grateful to the organizations that allow our students to study them, and we hope that the organizations benefit as well. It is also important for our students to interact with students from other disciplines in order to clarify their own ideas about Public Policy as a multi-disciplinary paradigm for addressing problems involving the common good.
Our program is intense, and our students need to find ways to escape from the stress of graduate school. Our students have a wide array of outside interests, from swing dancing to mountain biking to volunteer tutoring to opera. Because our program is so small, we need to take advantage of social and volunteer activities throughout the community. In any given class, there are just a few students who are gay or African American or international, or a member of some other underrepresented group. Although our community works hard to be welcoming, everyone needs to have affinity groups, and many of our students find those affinity groups outside the Sanford Institute.
Thomas Pfau
Associate Professor, English
I can’t help but point out that our graduate students (at least those in the humanities) struggle to balance their coursework and dissertation research with their teaching responsibilities. Beyond that, many also take on some part-time job that allows them to make ends meet in a rapid-growth area with its typical upward pressures on rent and other cost-of-living expenses. While graduate involvement in community life is certainly desirable and, in some instances, has proven a significant factor in the overall development of Duke graduate students, there is little evidence suggesting that potential future employers of our Ph.D.’s will reward such engagement. Still, the kinds of activities that one typically recognizes as community-oriented certainly strengthen communal ties between Duke and Triangle area communities, and that is obviously a good thing in itself.
Monty Reichert
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
The main issue is the transition from a dorm rat to a tax-paying adult, and the responsibilities thereof. This is important given the greater independence that comes along with being a grad student. Becoming involved in local political issues and voting for mayor and school board is all part of this. Grad students are clearly amongst the brightest and most engaging of young adults in Durham and they should stake their claim. When I was a grad student in Ann Arbor, we had grad students on the city council. It was a bit much at times, like ordering out for pizzas during the meetings, but they brought to the table some important issues like low-cost housing and opposition to the Vietnam War. Different time, but the involvement was invigorating.
Students
How do you move beyond your department to take advantage of the resources (academic, professional, social) of the wider Duke and Durham communities?
Elayne Heisler, Sociology student and Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC) president
My involvement in GPSC has been one mechanism of getting me involved beyond my department. One of the goals of GPSC next year is to provide more social events. We also want to start some community service initiatives and diversity programming. GPSC will also be co-sponsoring more events (with the professional schools, the union board, etc.).
On a personal front, I teach Hebrew School to 6th graders at Temple Beth El on Watts Street, attend services and events hosted by the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, and volunteer through Jewish Family Services at the Durham Regent, leading a Sabbath service program for older adults on Friday nights, once every other month or so.
The students who seem to enjoy and thrive in graduate school are those who have contacts beyond their department and basically things going on in their lives that are non-departmental. It seems that religious and cultural groups provide a good forum for that for many people.
Sharron Hunter-Rainey, Business Administration
My involvement in the larger community is basically kid-centered. I am a member of the PTA Executive Board at my son’s school, Hope Valley Elementary; Assistant Den Leader of his Cub Scout Pack 461 at Epworth United Methodist Church; and assistant baseball coach for his team with Whippoorwill Youth Athletic Association.
Katherine Lambert-Pennington, Cultural Anthropology
Creating a network of friends, resources, and experiences beyond one’s department is no simple task, especially for people as busy as graduate students. Although, if you can make the time, it is definitely worth it. From the outset of my graduate experience, I got involved in the Center for International Studies Graduate Seminars (formerly known as the Ford Seminars). This was a wonderful opportunity to get together with graduate students from other disciplines to discuss issues/topics of mutual interest. The graduate seminars, however are only one of many ways to meet new people from within the University. I have also attended a number of events sponsored by the Mary Lou Williams Center where I have enjoyed interacting with other students and staff at Duke. Taking classes in other departments at Duke or at one of the other local institutions (UNC, NCCU, State, etc.) can also be a great opportunity to travel to another part of the Triangle and meet a cross section of people.
Outside of school, I find it good to live in a non-student dominated environment, where I meet local Durhamites that are not associated with the university. I have made it a point to get to know my neighbors and to participate in activities sponsored by my neighborhood association. Durham sponsors a couple of citywide outdoor festivals throughout the year, and they are a great opportunity to commune with the wider Durham and Triangle communities.
Finally, perhaps one of the most useful but least glamorous things that has helped me feel like a part of the Durham community is staying in town during the summer months. It is relatively easy to get a part-time job, either on campus or off, and in the summertime, American Dance Festival performances and Durham Bulls games are great ways to be part of local life in Durham.