Dean Gary Bennett Shares Strategic Ambitions During New Fall Opening Event

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Dean Gary Bennett laid out his strategic ambitions for the college on Tuesday, Sept. 2, during a new Fall Opening event.

Over 250 faculty and staff from across Trinity gathered in Penn Pavilion and heard Bennett speak to the importance of faculty excellence, educational excellence and workplace excellence as foundational to achieving "permanent good.” The phrase is drawn from a 1914 letter by James Preston Few, the president of Trinity College and then first president of Duke University, to Duke benefactor James B. Duke, whose philanthropy Few wrote had “done some permanent good upon the earth.” 

“Our strategic ambitions are rooted in an interest in furthering our commitment to ‘permanent good,’” Bennett said. “It’s about the foundational commitments that we make to our mission. It's about ensuring excellence in our faculty and our educational domains, and in Trinity College as a workplace.”

Bennett has begun sharing his strategic vision for the college during a time when Trinity and Duke have both been adapting to changes in the higher education landscape. Bennett said he is prioritizing conversations with leaders, faculty and staff across the college to ensure they have a clearer sense of what Trinity is, how its key educational and research missions remain central to the work the community undertakes, and how the college is continuing to improve, even during a challenging time. 

“We’re still Trinity, and that means a lot of things,” Bennett said. “It means that we still believe in the power of knowledge creation in a world that is increasingly cynical, polarized, disbelieving and full of misinformation. We still believe in the import of knowledge, facts, iteration and critical approaches to what we thought we knew. We believe in the power of rigorous debate.

“We still believe in that one class that changes everything,” he said. “It’s critically important that we’re clear about who we are, what it is we’re doing and why it all matters.”

Underscoring a commitment to faculty excellence, Bennett reminded that Duke became what it is today because of investments made decades ago into its faculty, particularly within the arts and humanities. We will continue to support departments, scholarship and lines of inquiry, he said, and key to that is recruiting and supporting junior faculty as they launch and build their scholarly careers in Trinity, Bennett said. 

“Faculty are central to our mission — in case anyone told you otherwise — and they’re the strength upon which the reputation of this institution is built,” Bennett said. “This is the moment for us to think critically as a community about how we ensure excellence for the next generation of terrific Trinity faculty.”

Educational models are evolving, and Trinity will continue to explore new ways to enhance the educational experience in the pursuit of excellence, Bennett said. That includes providing opportunities for students to explore topics from different and differing perspectives, helping them slow down as they build knowledge, and focusing on language, culture, history and writing. Bennett said those areas are more important than ever given the evolution and expansion of artificial intelligence, and are central to Trinity’s new Arts & Sciences curriculum that launched this fall. 

“The world has changed a good bit here in the last 25 years,” Bennett said. “Because the world has changed, our models of education have to evolve as well.”

Bennett’s third focus was on workplace excellence, noting that Trinity has long been a great place to work, with faculty and staff devoting their time, energy and talents to the college’s mission. “They choose to be here, to support us, to support the mission and to contribute to the permanent good,” he said. 

However, there is a need to evolve and continue to improve, Bennett said, while positioning Trinity for long-term fiscal sustainability. “Today, work has changed, the nature of work has changed, the workforce has changed and we need to catch up,” he said. “We will work harder to ensure that our employees are supported with the kinds of resources and the kinds of structures that help them to be able to do their best work.”

Supported by these strategic foundations, a number of initiatives and areas of emphasis advancing Trinity’s pursuit of excellence being undertaken this year were highlighted by members of Trinity’s leadership team and faculty leaders for this new academic year.

Research Support

Scott Huettel, Trinity’s inaugural senior associate dean for research, shared the details about the Year One Program, a pilot effort designed to connect new junior faculty with resources and foster community within the cohort and across Trinity. Through regular communication and events as well as new research concierge support delivered with other Duke entities, the Trinity program seeks to support these new faculty and invest in their success, Huettel said.  

Undergraduate Education

New this year within Trinity is the Arts & Sciences Curriculum, the college’s first new curriculum in 25 years, as well as a new academic advising and deaning model that is aligned with residential quads. Deb Reisinger, dean of undergraduate education, explained that first-year students are engaging with the new curriculum as members of one of 16 new Constellations, cohort-based programs that explore a topic from multiple perspectives. 

Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, appointed earlier this year as Trinity's first director of the first-year experience, offered an overview of the breadth of experiences and opportunities for connection that students will have as part of their Constellation, and also shared that FOCUS, Trinity’s much-loved and established first-year program, continues to be a popular option. 

Reisinger also previewed upcoming efforts this year to support departments in the development of Century Courses, the next phase of the curriculum to be implemented. 

Arts & Humanities

The arts and humanities are thriving at Duke and Trinity is focusing on making these disciplines even stronger, said Leo Ching, dean of the Arts & Humanities Division within Trinity. He shared that, this year, Duke saw a record number of transfer students thanks to an effort undertaken in partnership with faculty to attract students who have expressed an interest in the arts and humanities. Trinity seeks to amplify the humanities by building student confidence, strengthening intellectual community, and co-creating opportunities to elevate the arts and humanities across Duke. 

Trinity College does not traditionally host an annual event to bring together both faculty and staff, and Bennett said the idea behind the Fall Opening was to help celebrate the community while sharing information to make sure everyone is on the same page at the start of the academic year. Bennett said he will be meeting with groups small and large across Trinity in the coming months to listen to faculty and staff and to provide more details about his strategic ambitions for Trinity. A second collegewide gathering for Trinity faculty and staff planned for the spring will be focused on the college’s budget. 

“We want to share with you and learn from you and work with you to advance the interest of this very fine place,” Bennett said.