The Duke Digest - June 17, 2011
In Today's Issue:
- Brodhead Highlights Duke Research, Visits with Alumni in Washington
- Duke Prof on Immigration: What the U.S. Does Right
- Duke CFO Survey: Moderate Economic Growth, Slow Job Market
- Research Blog: Duke's Marine Lab Director on Deep Sea Mining
BRODHEAD HIGHLIGHTS DUKE RESEARCH, VISITS WITH ALUMNI IN WASHINGTON
Duke
President Richard H. Brodhead traveled to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday
and Wednesday of this week to discuss university priorities with
policymakers, administration officials, alumni, and other friends of
Duke.
The discussions focused on Congressional issues of
particular importance to the university, including continued support of
research funding and of Department of Education student aid programs.
Brodhead
also attended the Duke Club of Washington's annual DCW Congressional
Breakfast. This year's event, held in the Dirksen Senate Office
Building on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning, featured remarks by Duke
Medical School alumnus Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and drew a record number
of Duke alumni living in the Washington area.
Read More:
Brodhead Highlights Duke Research, Visits with Alumni in Washington (today.duke.edu)
DUKE PROF ON IMMIGRATION: WHAT THE U.S. DOES RIGHT
in a commentary that was originally published in the Los Angeles Times, Jacob L. Vigdor, a professor of public policy and economics at the Sanford School of Public Policy, writes:
"The nation recently received two contradictory signals about the importance of immigration reform. President Obama stood near the Mexican border in El Paso on May 10 and called (again) for immigration reform. The next week, Gallup released a poll showing that a scant 4% of Americans consider immigration to be the nation's most important problem. That's down from 11% four years ago.
What's happened to our national immigration angst? Clearly, the economic slump that began in late 2007 has given us other things to worry about. The long recession and slow recovery have had more direct effects on our perception of immigration problems too...The recession brought immigration to a virtual halt, and in the process smoothed over the differences between immigrants and natives that provoked so much worry in headier times."
Read More:
Immigration: What the U.S. Does Right (sanford.duke.edu)
DUKE CFO SURVEY: MODERATE ECONOMIC GROWTH, SLOW JOB MARKET
According to the most recent Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, optimism among chief financial officers in the U.S. has fallen, but spending plans indicate continued moderate growth over the next year. Hiring will be minimal — less than 1 percent over the next year — though many companies plan to reinstitute some employee benefits.
Read More:
CFO Survey: Moderate Economic Growth, Slow Job Market (fuqua.duke.edu)
If mountaintop mining were being conducted 1600 meters under the ocean – where very few people would ever see it – would it make any difference?
Well, it just might, says Cindy Lee Van Dover, director of the Duke Marine Lab and one of the world's authorities on the unique life forms surrounding deep sea hydrothermal vents.
Read More:
Mining Beneath the Sea (research.duke.edu)