Richard H. Brodhead

Richard Halleck Brodhead (born 1947) currently serves as the ninth president of Duke University and is a scholar of 19th-century American literature.

Early life and education

Brodhead was born in 1947 in Dayton, Ohio. His family moved to Fairfield, Connecticut when he was six years old, where he attended public schools. He went on to attend Phillips Academy, where his high school classmates included Dick Wolf and George W. Bush. Brodhead graduated from Yale College in 1968 (summa cum laude with Highest Distinction in the English major). During his senior year at Yale was tapped for membership in the secret society Manuscript and was granted a Ph.D. in English from Yale Graduate School in 1972. He met his wife, Cynthia Degnan, while both were graduate students at Yale.

Career at Yale

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1972, Brodhead was appointed an assistant professor of English at Yale. In 1980, he received tenure and was named Director of Undergraduate Studies in English. By 1985, he had been made a full professor and was named chair of the English department. He was appointed Dean of Yale College in 1993 and served until 2004. During his deanship at Yale, Brodhead was popular with both faculty and students, and was known as an involved and dedicated dean. Together with current Yale President Richard C. Levin, Brodhead oversaw a major curricular review at Yale.

Brodhead's critical works were on such American authors as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Chesnutt, and Herman Melville. As Dean, Brodhead was involved in the controversy surrounding efforts by graduate student-employees (GESO) to unionize.

In 2003, Broadhead was named a defendant along with, Richard Levin, Linda Lorimer in a lawsuit by Yale professor James Van de Velde after he was accused of murdering a female student. In 2007, A Connecticut Judge reopened Velde's lawsuit against Broadhead et al. [ [http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/22835 Yale Daily News - District judge reopens Van de Velde suit ] ]

Career at Duke

He left New Haven in 2004 to become President of Duke University, succeeding Nan Keohane.

On Brodhead's first day in his new role, Duke's star basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, announced that the Los Angeles Lakers had offered him $40 million to become their new coach. Brodhead, who had had no previous experience with a nationally-known, star university athletic team, helped avert a crisis by working to convince Krzyzewski to remain at Duke.

One month into Brodhead's tenure as president, the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) was scheduled to hold their annual conference on Duke's campus. While this led to opposition, Brodhead approved the conference, citing free speech and the desire for improved dialogue regarding this contentious issue. [cite news
first = HELEN
last = ECKINGER
authorlink =
author =
coauthors =
title = Brodhead confronts controversy
url = http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=3331
work = Yale Herald | location = New Haven, Connecticut | date = 2004-09-03 | accessdate = 2007-12-27]

Workers' rights became an issue when Duke began to outsource hospital laundry services to Angelica Corporation. This led to complaints that the university was avoiding the responsibility of providing a living wage for people who do work for the university. [cite news
first = Bridget | last = Newman | title = Duke's dirty laundry
url = http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2004/10/07/Editorialcolumns/Dukes.Dirty.Laundry-1471521.shtml
work = Duke Chronicle | location = Durham, North Carolina | date = 2004-10-07
accessdate = 2007-12-27 ] Despite demands by student activists organized judgment in the Duke chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops, Duke refused to enter the dispute; Angelica later settled with the UNITE HERE, the union representing the workers, with no input from the university. Angelica has continued its work with Duke.

Brodhead announced a $300 million financial aid campaign in late 2005. Its goals are to ensure continued need-blind admissions and meeting 100% of students' demonstrated need. [cite news | first = Jane | last = Stancill | title = Duke wants $300 million: Boost to student aid would be small
url = http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/373439.html
work = The News & Observer | location = Raleigh, North Carolina | date = 2005-12-02 | accessdate = 2007-12-27]

Duke Lacrosse Scandal

Brodhead's actions during the Duke lacrosse scandal proved very controversial and garnered much criticism after three members of the nationally-ranked men's lacrosse team were accused of raping a stripper hired to perform at a team party off campus on March 13, 2006. Brodhead stated that "whatever they did is bad enough." [ [http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/157148/ Lacrosse Publicity 'Unwished' For Duke, Durham, Brodhead Says :: WRAL.com ] ] while saying "our students must be presumed innocent until proven otherwise," while also talking about the horrors of sexual assault and racism in society. [ [http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2006/03/brodheadlacrosse.html Statement by President Richard H. Brodhead on Duke Men’s Lacrosse Team] ."Duke News & Communications." 25 March 2006.] On April 5, 2006, Duke's lacrosse coach Mike Pressler was fired and Brodhead canceled the remainder of the 2006 season. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2398409 Duke lacrosse coach resigns, rest of season canceled, ESPN] ] [ [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/magazine/06/22/duke0626/index.html SI.com Special Report: The Damage Done] ] Student body president Elliott Wolf said that Brodhead faced a public perception "that [Duke] simply washes its hands of students." [cite news | first = Anne | last = Blythe | title = Faculty revisits case, Nifong
url = http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/573369.html | work = The News & Observer
location = Raleigh, North Carolina | date = 2007-05-12 | accessdate = 2007-12-27 ]

On December 20, 2006, Brodhead stated that "the DA's case will be on trial just as much as our students will be." [http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/523377.html Criticism directed at Nifong and Duke] . "The News & Observer." 20 December 2006.] On April 11, 2007, the N.C. Attorney General's Office dropped all charges against the players, declared them innocent, and called them victims of a rogue prosecutor's "tragic rush to accuse."cite news|last=Beard|first=Aaron|title=Prosecutors Drop Charges in Duke Case|publisher=Associated Press|date=2007-04-11|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/04/11/national/a113721D83.DTL|accessdate=2007-04-11] Later, Brodhead apologized to the lacrosse players and their families for the university's "failure to reach out" in a "time of extraordinary peril." [cite news|last=Beard|first=Aaron|title=Duke President Brodhead apologizes to lacrosse players, families|publisher=Associated Press|date=2007-09-29|url=http://www.newsobserver.com/1565/story/720509.html|accessdate=2007-09-29] Brodhead has been named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed in 2008 by the unindicted members of the lacrosse team. [ [http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1968602/ Second Federal Suit Filed in Duke Lacrosse Case :: WRAL.com ] ]

Notes

* cite book | last = Stuart | first = Taylor Jr. | coauthors = KC Johnson
title = Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case
origyear = 2007 | year = 2007 | publisher = St. Martin's Press | location = New York, New York | isbn = 978-0-312-36912-5
chapter = Chapter 10 - Richard Brodhead's test of courage | ref = Taylor