2.1.6: Sanford Institute of Public Policy

Create a concentrated home of expertise, teaching, and research that could be a catalyst and resource for activities throughout the university that bear on public policy broadly defined.

Other Information:

The Sanford Institute, founded in 1994, has brought Duke distinction through its innovative approaches to fuse disciplines and address complex policy questions, paired with active engagement in real-world policy issues. During the planning process, a task force explored the critical question of whether our core values and strategic goals would be better served by creating the Sanford School of Public Policy. Given the strength of Sanford's current faculty, the quality of its instructional programs, the productivity of its research centers, and the extent of its facilities, investing in a Sanford School of Public Policy would significantly enhance Duke's capabilities as a national and international leader in the field of public policy. A Sanford School would create a concentrated home of expertise, teaching, and research that could be a catalyst and resource for activities throughout the university that bear on public policy broadly defined. This furthers Terry Sanford's vision of an enterprise that would serve to improve the quality of decision-making in society through an innovative, experimental, interdisciplinary curriculum that integrates analytical rigor with ethics and service learning; that emphasizes research, teaching, and engagement; and that develops centers to interface with the outside world. The synergies between centers and teaching programs provide a rich educational environment for Duke students, while mentorships and internships engage Duke students directly in the world's problems, nurture their interests in trying to solve them, and, in the process, help develop their critical reflection and leadership abilities. A Sanford School would contribute to our commitment to internationalization and help students recognize the impact of globalization, that all of us are citizens of an increasingly interdependent world, with all the responsibilities that this citizenship entails. Educating students to understand these responsibilities - in areas such as the environment, health, development, demography, the relationship between media and democracy, and broad issues of social policy and international security - increases the importance of maintaining the analytical rigor that has always been part of Sanford's mission. But this educational mission also requires that Sanford broaden the earlier framework to include a less parochial, more interdependent world, and that it seek to effect a closer integration between analytical methods and the more diverse social and cultural contexts within which those methods can be applied to real-world problems.

Stakeholder(s):

• Sanford Institute of Public Policy

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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