By Keith Lawrence
I joke that when I started at Duke, dinosaurs roamed the campus. And that’s not too far from the truth.
When I first stepped foot on campus 25 years ago, Duke’s news office sent out press releases through the U.S. Mail. Within a year, we’d advanced to a brand-new device called the fax machine. Whoa!
It’s true that much has changed in the news business in the last quarter century. The most obvious difference revolves around technology. Our office still goes to great effort to get media attention for Duke-related news or Duke faculty experts, but the truth is we can reach most audiences directly through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or whatever is the latest and greatest social platform. (Thank goodness Twitter didn’t exist during the 2006 lacrosse unpleasantness.)
Another major change is the media landscape itself. Once upon a time, the News & Observer and Herald-Sun each assigned reporters full-time to cover Duke; today neither paper considers Duke or any other Triangle university worthy of being a full-time beat. Only The Chronicle keeps a watchful eye on Duke, and that is not a bad thing (even if their digging often creates extra work for offices like ours).
But there are a number of things that remain constant. Even during a time of alternative facts, being a trusted source for accurate information is vital for any news operation, including university communications offices. My former boss used to say that honesty was the coin of the realm in our line of work. Schools that stonewall or mislead don’t seem to realize, or care, that this not only jeopardizes their reputation with the public, but also provides red meat for the media. Even though views (especially politics) often spectacularly clash within our campus walls (again, not a bad thing), that doesn’t mean universities should eschew honesty and transparency.
In my initial role at Duke as a senior writer, I reported on the activities of a number of different departments, including what was then the Sanford Institute for Public Policy. One day, while roaming the halls introducing myself to faculty and staff assistants (who are great sources of information), a certain person asked me to join him in his office. And so, for the next 20 minutes, former Governor, U.S. Senator and Duke President Terry Sanford described with great clarity and passion why my job was so important for Duke – that I was in a position to tell the world why Duke was (and is) a special place and how I and my colleagues were largely responsible for building and protecting the university’s reputation. Above all, he said, carry out your job with integrity.
I confess to having had misgivings about making the shift from being a life-long newspaper reporter and editor to a university representative — going to the dark side, as my former colleagues suggested — but the man the students called “Uncle Terry” quickly erased that concern. I wish I had taped the conversation so I could share it with other communicators today.
When I retire in a few weeks, I will carry with me so many memories – some fabulous, some less so.
I once drove former President Nan Keohane to a TV interview in my two-seater pickup truck. She was so tickled that she rolled down the window and shouted at then-Provost Peter Lange, “Peter, look at me!”
Speaking of memory, let me tell you about Dick Brodhead’s. In 2004, he was about to leave New Haven to become Duke’s president when he was approached by my sister at her son’s Yale graduation. She mentioned to Brodhead that her brother worked at Duke. Several weeks later, when I was among several people being introduced to Duke’s new president, he said without missing a beat, “Oh, I met your sister.” Double whoa!
Not all memories are pleasant. On the day the lacrosse story broke on the front page of the News & Observer, I was getting my car serviced because my daughter and I were about to leave for a series of college tours. As I read the paper in the waiting area, I called my supervisor, David Jarmul, and said, “This is bad. Do you want me to stay and help out?” He said, “No, go on. It will still be here when you get back.” He got that right.
I will always be appreciative to Duke for what it’s allowed me to do both professionally and personally. I am especially grateful for the chance to spend two months in China helping Duke Kunshan’s fledgling communications operation, and for the support needed to grow a summer internship program that employed NCCU students in Duke communications offices. Outside of work, I had time to coach my kids’ basketball and baseball teams and spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with the family (opportunities that typically do not exist for newspaper people.)
Throughout my time at Duke, I have tried to heed Terry Sanford’s wise advice. There are so many incredible people and endeavors at Duke and it’s been a pleasure to publicize them all. There is also a responsibility for communicators to be truthful conveyors of information to all of our audiences. That observation may not merit a “Whoa,” but it is worth keeping in mind by those who represent this great university.
Keith Lawrence is executive director of news and communications in the Office of University Communications. His last day at Duke is Feb. 1, 2020. He can be reached at keith.lawrence47@gmail.com.