Anonymous wrote:The alumni giving rate has declined sharply over the last 20 years and in my group of friends very few if any donate lacrosse fiasco, liberal turn to woke look at the alumni magazine and feature articles conservatives and Trump voting grads are not sending checks. Former Duke President Terry Sanford a moderate Democrat wouldn’t recognize the place.

Anonymous wrote:so much excessive spending. it almost gauche.

Anonymous wrote:Duke has become very woke and alienated a good percentage of its alumni base

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The alumni giving rate has declined sharply over the last 20 years and in my group of friends very few if any donate lacrosse fiasco, liberal turn to woke look at the alumni magazine and feature articles conservatives and Trump voting grads are not sending checks. Former Duke President Terry Sanford a moderate Democrat wouldn’t recognize the place.

You travel in very different circles than I do, and are seeing inaccurate data.

And even if you are correct, I think it is fine for Duke to distance itself from MAGA. Everything Trump stands for stands opposed to everything an elite university should stand for. And the way the typical Trump voter regurgitates Fox News talking points and completely falls in line with everything Trump does rather than thinking critically and defending their arguments intelligently is also opposite to everything Duke stands for.

And before you jump into your whataboutisms, most Democrats frequently criticize the party's policy. Yes, plenty of people defended Biden, but many questioned him, and many of those who defended him did it solely because they saw him as the best chance to beat Trump, which was the primary goal, and knew he would surround himself with morally decent people (don't give me Hunter crap), unlike Trump whose cabinet is 75% total morally bankrupt losers. Trumpers refuse to say one negative word about him. At least admit he is fat!

6'3, 215 is a BMI of 26.9. Slightly overweight (assuming average body composition) but nowhere near obese.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The alumni giving rate has declined sharply over the last 20 years and in my group of friends very few if any donate lacrosse fiasco, liberal turn to woke look at the alumni magazine and feature articles conservatives and Trump voting grads are not sending checks. Former Duke President Terry Sanford a moderate Democrat wouldn’t recognize the place.

You travel in very different circles than I do, and are seeing inaccurate data.

And even if you are correct, I think it is fine for Duke to distance itself from MAGA. Everything Trump stands for stands opposed to everything an elite university should stand for. And the way the typical Trump voter regurgitates Fox News talking points and completely falls in line with everything Trump does rather than thinking critically and defending their arguments intelligently is also opposite to everything Duke stands for.

And before you jump into your whataboutisms, most Democrats frequently criticize the party's policy. Yes, plenty of people defended Biden, but many questioned him, and many of those who defended him did it solely because they saw him as the best chance to beat Trump, which was the primary goal, and knew he would surround himself with morally decent people (don't give me Hunter crap), unlike Trump whose cabinet is 75% total morally bankrupt losers. Trumpers refuse to say one negative word about him. At least admit he is fat!

Anonymous wrote:Agree with other posters, Duke has alienated a sizable chunk of moderate and conservative grads. The appeal of Duke was that it wasn’t a liberal Ivy like Brown or Penn. Haven’t written a check in a long time.

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Anonymous wrote:As an alum who donated and volunteered for decades, agree way too much faculty and staff. News mentions Duke at 48,000 employees is second largest private employer and sure a large part of that base is medical and hospital employees. The growth in development staff, DEI, non-teaching faculty is staggering and has to be cut back and this is not unique to Duke as other elite universities are facing similar fiscal problems. Also when a school like Duke and the Ivies rejects active donating grads’ kids don’t expect checks to continue. Time for these schools to operate more like a business.

Agree with much of this. Staff is definitely bloated. And the development people I have met have often been very underwhelming. Perhaps they trot out the better people for the bigger hitters but I feel like I have met some of them as well and they have not been great. And several have been flat out rude to friends who wanted to be actively involved but couldn't right big checks.

Duke is better about admitting legacies than many peer schools but could still do more. Price over-reacted to the NYT hit job article about Duke not having enough financial aid kids - Duke was marginally worse based on very statistically suspect metrics then made to look evil. Price should have ignored it. Instead he rolled out a bunch of programs to recruit more FA kids. It is largely a zero sum game so this means fewer legacies and/or full pay kids. I am all for diversity, but Duke is going a bit too far.

Meanwhile, there are a bunch of underqualified rich non-legacies who get in because Duke wants to be seen as "cool." Great to have Seinfeld at Duke in People Magazine. And Springsteen's kid. And so on. I get that they probably donated a lot and this helps pay the bills. But again, there are limited seats.

Anonymous wrote:The appeal of Duke was that it wasn’t a liberal Ivy like Brown or Penn.