Initiative to subsidize local, worldwide efforts

BY RAY GRONBERG

DURHAM -- Duke University officials have secured a $30 million endowment that will allow them to send about 25 percent of the school's undergraduates on fully subsidized service missions in the next five years.

The initiative, called DukeEngage, "fits perfectly" with the university's strategic plan and helps officials "adapt our educational methods to the more modern ways students are learning," Provost Peter Lange said.

Lange and other officials are financing the program with $15 million from the The Duke Endowment, and another $15 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda Gates, the wife of Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, is a Duke alumna.

Organizers expect the program, when fully involved, to consume about $2.5 million a year. The money will cover the travel expenses of students who participate, pay them a stipend and, for students on financial aid, offset earnings they'd ordinarily generate working a summer job.

Summer earnings are a customary requirement for financial-aid recipients, so the university's agreement to cover that potential loss for DukeEngage participants is a major part of the program, said Eric Mlyn, the professor President Richard Brodhead's administration has hired to head the effort.

Other universities in the country have service-learning programs, but not "with the kind of financial commitment Duke is making and with the commitment that any student can do this," Mlyn said.

The money will enable students who have completed their first two semesters at Duke to spend a summer or a semester working on a service project locally or anywhere in the world.

Duke students are already participating in such efforts. "Some are working in a village in some Third World country, some are teaching in schools in the U.S. and Durham, some are working in redevelopment in New Orleans and some are working for an arts organization somewhere in the world," Lange said.

Duke officials intend to ramp up the program in stages. A pilot effort will occur this summer, with between 50 and 75 students. The full launch of DukeEngage will follow in the summer of 2008 and the 2008-09 academic year.

Faculty and staff members will supervise students' work and receive stipends from the program in return.

Officials aren't sure how fast student demand for program slots will grow, but they're not worried about finding enough students to participate.

"My anxiety is that it will rise faster, rather than slower, than we're anticipating," Lange said, adding that the limiting factor on the program's expansion might be the university's ability to find quality volunteer opportunities.

The university intends to sponsor some service opportunities, through classes or existing programs, and coordinate others organized by outside agencies. Students will be able to suggest their own service opportunities as well.

Those who do will need to arrange for a faculty mentor to help develop a plan and a budget for their work.

Mlyn -- who will head the Duke Center for Civic Engagement beginning July 1 -- hopes half or more of the service assignments will be student-generated. "That's where the best projects come from," he said. "That's how students get passionate about it, through their own ideas."

A committee organized by Lange developed the proposal for DukeEngage last fall, and university officials quickly convinced The Duke Endowment and the Gates Foundation to fund it. Those were the only organizations Duke approached during its fundraising effort, and the only hold-up was that "they wanted to see the proposal in its finished form" before agreeing to commit the money, Lange said.

Mlyn currently directs the Robertson Scholars Program, a scholarship program that allows recipients to attend classes for credit at both Duke and UNC Chapel Hill.

The Center for Civic Engagement will be the umbrella organization for all service-learning programs at Duke, but existing programs will retain their autonomy.

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