As Duke University faces attacks from the Trump administration, more than 100 staff, faculty and alumni have signed a letter urging top campus leaders to stand against “authoritarian intrusions.”

The open letter calls for a stronger response to the administration’s allegations of “vile racism” and violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at the Duke University School of Medicine and Duke Health system. The letter was sent by mail on Aug. 6 to President Vincent Price, Board of Trustees Chair Adam Silver and School of Medicine Dean Mary Klotman.

“These accusations ignore the necessity, urgency, legitimacy and integrity of recognizing all Duke community citizens’ dignity and value, including historically excluded people,” the letter reads.

The writers said the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws were “milestone efforts” to outlaw racial discrimination and that the Trump administration “demeans, degrades, and attacks much of that history. This assault is an effort to erase Duke history.”

In late July, the Trump administration, Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., and Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced investigations into the university, Duke Law School and the Duke Law Journal for alleged violations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on sex, religion, national origin or race.

In a July 28 letter, Kennedy and McMahon accused the Durham campus, consistently ranked a top-10 U.S. university nationally, of using “racial preferences” in hiring, student admissions, governance, and patient care, that “endanger human lives” and betray the medical profession’s mission.

The administration also froze $108 million in National Institutes of Health funding to Duke Health and told the school to create a committee to “review all policies and practices at Duke Health for the illegal use of race preferences” and to reform all the practices that “unlawfully take account of race or ethnicity to bestow benefits or advantages.”

The News & Observer reached out to Duke about the open letter celebrating its diversity efforts, but campus officials did not respond.

Letter hails Duke’s efforts to promote diversity

Among the signers of the letter to Vincent are dozens of Duke alumni, including former Durham mayors Steve Schewel and Wib Gulley, as well as former UNC Chapel Hill dean John Charles Boger, Maryellen Fullterton, former dean of Brooklyn Law School, and Mark Gitenstein, former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union.

The letter was written by retired clinical psychologist Jeff Gold and Duke cardiologist Douglas Schocken.

It begins by recounting the 1968 Silent Vigil on Duke’s campus and the 1969 Allen Building takeover organized by Black students to bring attention to the needs of the university’s minority population.

The vigil was organized after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when students worked to “persuade Duke’s administration and Trustees to formally acknowledge minority employees’ unionizing efforts,” the letter says.

“This memorialization, and all subsequent Duke efforts to create a diverse and more vibrant learning community of students and scholars more representative of our country, is under attack,” the letter says.

The letter says laws like the 1964 Civil Rights Act, meant to protect marginalized populations, “have now been weaponized to dismantle our democracy and punish the higher education enterprise.”

“We are not privy to selection processes at Duke Law School, the Duke Law Journal, Duke Health, or for Duke undergraduates. We do, however, recognize the Trump administration’s routine strong-arm tactics to control prominent institutions like Columbia, Harvard, the University of Virginia and Brown University,” the letter reads.

Since Trump took office nearly eight months ago, there have been seven other investigations into health care organizations, according to the administration’s Health Department Office for Civil Rights. Duke was also one of the 45 universities being investigated in March for alleged violations of the Civil Rights Act, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Last month, Columbia University settled with the federal government for $221 million over claims of antisemitism to restore research funding. Brown University struck a similar agreement to restore lost funding. In June, Harvard University was accused of violating the Civil Rights Act and antisemitism by the Trump administration, threatening federal funding.

Duke receives significant funding each year from NIH, totaling $580 million last year, the Duke Chronicle reported.

The government’s letter to Duke does not cite specific examples of how the university violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But a complaint from Do No Harm, a group opposing diversity, equity and inclusion programming, says Duke initiatives that expanded the medical school’s minority enrollment and the school’s “Minority Recruitment and Retention Committee” violate the federal law.

Campus officials have not publicly commented on the federal funding freeze or said whether they will form a committee to review any alleged discriminatory practices, as demanded by the Trump administration.

The letter from faculty, alumni and staff urges them to resist.

“We understand the strategic approach to preserving Duke’s future financially,” they wrote. “We feel it is better in the long term to stand up to Trump administration threats, both for our university and higher education nationally. Now is not the time for institutional neutrality.”

The letter continues: “We strongly encourage Duke’s Board of Trustees, President Price, the faculty, the Law School and Law Journal, Duke Health, and current undergraduates to step forward and claim our history as a source of pride and inspiration.”

100 Duke Grads, Faculty, Students Talk Back to Trump Admin & Price by Kristen Johnson on Scribd

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