INC NEWS - Duke & Durham: The Blue Devil is in the details (Indy)

[John Schelp]

"...maybe those potshots would be fewer and farther
between if Duke took greater pains not to provide the
ammunition."

Duke and Durham: The Blue Devil is in the details
By Bob Burtman, Independent Weekly, 6 Dec 2006

By any objective standard, Duke University has been
more than generous when it comes to funding the
proposed performing arts center in downtown Durham.
Duke initially committed $5.5 million to the project,
a tidy sum considering that the university will have
only limited access to the facility.

When city officials recently turned to Duke once again
to bail them out of a shortfall in the center's
financing, Duke agreed to donate an additional $2
million to city coffers that could be used to cover
the deficit. In exchange, Duke wanted the City Council
to approve a reconfiguration of Anderson Street,
thereby paving the way for its massive Central Campus
development plan.

Instead of praise for its largess, however, Duke was
essentially accused of trying to bribe the city in
order to gain approval for various elements of the
Central Campus plan beyond the roadway. In particular,
critics charged that Duke wanted free reign to develop
a retail sector on Central Campus that would unfairly
compete with surrounding businesses; the $2 million
was meant to ensure that the city would not stand in
its way. As the Herald-Sun editorialized, "[The deal]
would leave the impression City Council's vote was
being purchased."

The flap over the $2 million is nothing new for Duke,
which has seen its name publicly tarnished numerous
times in the past year, most notably in the aftermath
of the lacrosse scandal. News stories about Duke's
Central Campus retail aspirations and otherwise
strained town-gown relations have cemented
longstanding impressions in the Durham community that
Duke wants to create a self-contained universe for its
students and keep every dime of every revenue stream
in its own pocket.

But that perception denies the facts. Duke contributes
significant volumes of cash and resources to the
community, especially those neighborhoods surrounding
the campus. The medical center operates several school
and community health clinics that serve everyone
without regard for the ability to pay. Duke's
Neighborhood Partnership program has developed and
operated more than a dozen education and training
programs in conjunction with the Durham Public
Schools, and collaborated with advocacy groups to
improve distressed housing and provide loans for
low-income home ownership. Hundreds of Duke students
volunteer annually for a host of community
organizations and projects. In June, Duke committed to
invest $5 million in the Latino Community Credit Union
and has historically been one of the credit union's
staunchest supporters. In addition to contributing its
own funds, the university has raised more than $12
million to support its community programs.

In fact, says John Burness, Duke senior vice president
for public affairs and government relations, the
university goes above and beyond the call in its
dealings with the community. "If you watch our
behavior over the last 15 years," Burness says, "the
reality is that we have been stepping up on any number
of fronts. We're under no obligation to do any of
that."

So why does Duke still have an image problem? For one,
the university hasn't done itself many favors in the
PR department of late. Much of the media fallout has
been beyond Duke's control, as with the lacrosse case.
Still, it's hard to shake the feeling that many of the
hits were unnecessary and could have been sidestepped
with a little forethought and attention to detail.

For example, the perception that Duke's $2 million
arts center donation was a thinly disguised attempt to
leverage a thumbs-up on its Central Campus retail plan
might have been avoided with a simple word change. The
agreement with the city stated that the bulk of the
money would be paid only after the changes to Anderson
Street were authorized as well as "any other necessary
approvals required by the city for Duke to undertake
the improvements." Several council members as well as
local business owners interpreted this vague clause to
mean that the rezoning request had to go Duke's way,
or else the money would be held back.

Similarly, the question of how much retail space will
be available on Central Campus has been simmering for
almost three years and has been a longstanding source
of frustration in Durham's business community. Area
merchants fear that stores on Central Campus catering
to students but open to the public would hurt existing
businesses, with Duke's tax-exempt status providing an
unfair competitive advantage. Though any retail would
be significantly limited by city ordinance, federal
tax law and other factors, those fears have not been
unfounded—in negotiations with stakeholders, Duke
repeatedly resisted attempts to cap the amount of
retail space or otherwise commit to specific
restrictions, and as late as October submitted a
proposal that would have allowed an unlimited number
of 20,000-foot stores (the size of a full-service
sports bar or computer outlet or drugstore) on the
site.

The university finally offered a 50,000-square-foot
retail cap, 20,000 of which would be transferred from
existing campus retail operations. The offer was
communicated not during negotiations with the
stakeholders, but at a city Planning Commission
meeting—minutes before the commission was to vote on
the Central Campus rezoning request. Despite the
concession, the commission voted to recommend that the
request be denied.

Burness has explanations for these and other seemingly
suspect actions. The problematic clause in the $2
million agreement was "lawyer language," he says,
noting that it was cleared in advance by the Institute
of Government. The timing of the $2 million deal in
conjunction with the rezoning request was
"unfortunate" but driven by the city's needs. Same for
the retail cap: Duke needed something for the Planning
Commission meeting on short notice and didn't have
time to reach consensus with the stakeholders in
advance.

But Burness and other administrators must know that
any new disclosure that looks or smells funny can
reinforce old attitudes and undo much more significant
acts of goodwill. That's especially true of Duke,
which carries significant historical baggage rooted in
its segregated past and early isolationism from the
city—in some quarters, as Burness notes, Duke is still
known as "The Plantation." Any opportunity to portray
Duke as protecting its own interests at the expense of
the community will be seized upon by those inclined to
do so. "I fully recognize that there's a history that
has led to suspicion," says Provost Peter Lange, who
has been active in the Central Campus planning and
negotiations and is widely credited with bridging some
deep divides.

The suspicion lingers. According to Lange and George
Stanziale, a consultant who has been representing
Duke's interests in its negotiations with the city,
the university is firmly on board with the
50,000-square-foot Central Campus retail cap, which
the area merchants have already agreed is acceptable.
Duke has even promised in writing not to build a
bookstore that would compete with Ninth Street's
Regulator Bookshop, even though it would arguably be
within the university's right to do so and had been
considered an option at various points. But that's not
enough for skeptics, who see loopholes and obfuscation
in the language of the commitments.

In fact, Stanziale and city planning staff offered
varying interpretations of the cap language that have
dramatically different implications depending on which
interpretation is used. While it seems a small matter
to work out that kink, the fact that the confusion has
fueled more mistrust underscores the need to get it
right, preferably early in the process rather than
after damage has been done.

Burness agrees that Duke could always do things
better, and that the benefit of hindsight has revealed
some of how that can be accomplished. But he argues
that the majority of Durham residents understand that
Duke is a good community citizen and exercises its
obligations accordingly. Town-gown tensions are the
norm, he notes, not the exception—the constant
grappling between UNC and the town of Chapel Hill over
UNC's own major development plans and other issues
stands as a prime example.

And while he acknowledges that Duke has its
detractors, Burness says they come with the territory.
Some folks are always going to be suspicious of Duke
and cynical about its motives, no matter what the
university does. "When you're as large an entity as
Duke is, people are going to take potshots at you."

On the other hand, maybe those potshots would be fewer
and farther between if Duke took greater pains not to
provide the ammunition.