The Duke Endowment's $80 million gift to Duke University for a series of construction projects is the largest in school history.

It supplants another Duke Endowment gift at the top of the list - a $75 million gift in 2005 towards a financial aid initiative.

Other big gifts to Duke include:

• $70 million from Peter Nicholas in 2003 to the Nicholas School of the Environment
• $50 million from the Duke Endowment in 2008 for two uses - $35 million for a medical educational facility and $15 million for a pediatric care facility.
• $46.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006 to accelerate the development of an HIV vaccine.
• $40 million from the Duke Endowment in 2007 for a strategic faculty initiative.

A conversation on a Duke University blog is prompting some interesting questions about the role a dean should play in public affairs issues.

The blog is The Green Grok and is written by Bill Chameides, dean of Duke's School of the Environment.

In a Feb. 21 blog post, Chameides takes aim at House Republicans hoping to de-fund environmental initiatives.

His comments on several political moves raised the ire of some of his readers. The result is a fairly thoughtful, occasionally testy exchange worth a read.

Chameides has some pretty pointed thoughts in this blog post. A few examples:

He points to the recent elimination of the role of U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, held by Todd Stern. Chameides writes that Stern's role as America's chief negotiator at the United Nations global warming talks is vital, and notes that while his job was being eliminated, legislators "courageously beat back an amendment that would have halted the Defense Department's sponsorship of NASCAR."

Chameides then takes aim at Mike Beard, a Minnesota state representative who, in a media interview, suggested that God will guarantee that the world doesn't run out of any energy sources or important resources.

"I guess words like famine and drought have not made it into the Minnesotan's lexicon," Chameides wrote in part.

He adds later: "Thank the lord that our creativity and ingenuity do not include the ability to make bombs so powerful they can destroy whole cities and with enough o them an entire planet. Oh...my bad,"

Chameides' word and tone bothered some readers.

In the blog's response section, one writes:

"The sarcasm in this column is deaming of an academic institution. I am embarrassed by this particular blog. We cannot claim to be objective - speaking and listening to all sides - with this statement/wording from our Dean. This is poisonous not only to those outside Duke, who look to univrsersities as a source of objectivity, but it also says volumes to our prospective students about teh Dean's ...blatant advocacy."

In later comments, other readers add their thoughts as well. Some come to Chameides' defense. Another asks for a smidge more objectivity and diplomacy.

What do you think?

A new award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will recognize the best environmentally themed film.

You may have read last week about some of the ethical dilemmas facing university professors who have flocked to the Gulf Coast this summer to aid in oil-spill cleanup and to do research.

You didn't? Click here.

The spill has proven a massive catastrophe and has drawn the interest of plenty of experts on the environment. Among them: The folks from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke, which recently sent a delegation to the Gulf to check things out.

They have documented their trip in words and pictures.

Have a look.

Lots of oil spill news in the paper today related to higher education.

On one front, the ethical dilemma facing university researchers heading to the Gulf Coast this summer to do work on the oil spill cleanup. It can be dicey, maneuvering through some of the obstacles, scientists say.

And then there's some scientists down at UNC Wilmington, wading through the surf to collect water samples to gauge whether the oil spill will ever reach the shores of North Carolina. Matt Ehlers has that story.

The School of the Environment at Duke has a new resource for folks interested in the latest news related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The school's new website offers expert opinion, links to the newest news coverage, and the views of William Chameides, the school's dean, who is blogging about the situation.

Former Vice President Albert A. Gore Jr., who received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy of environmental causes, will speak April 8 at Duke University.

Gore will give the 2010 spring Duke Environment and Society Lecture at 6 p.m. in Page Auditorium on Duke's West Campus.

The event is open to the public. It is sponsored by Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

Though it is free, you need a ticket to get in. Ticket and event information are available online at www.nicholas.duke.edu/deanseries.
 
“Since the beginning of his career, Al Gore has been relentless in his quest to bring the truth about global warming to the world, even when the world wasn’t listening,” said William L. Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School, in a news release distributed by the university. “But the world can hear him now. We are fortunate and thrilled to have him bring his message to Duke.”

Gore, the 45th vice president and former presidential candidate, emerged from the political arena in 2000 to write “An Inconvenient Truth,” the best-selling book on the threat of and solutions to global warming. The movie made from the book received an Academy Award in 2007 and is one of the best-known documentary films in history.
 
On Oct. 12, 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations’ global warming committee.
 

Duke University has set an ambitious goal: Become climate neutral by 2024.

Plenty of universities are going in this direction, making public declarations of their intent to cease harmful carbon emission activity. But most have set a 2050 goal. Duke's is far more aggressive.

Read more here.

A Duke initiative will distribute 1,500 books Tuesday, in English and Spanish, to children in low-income families in Durham.

The Children's Environmental Health Initiative, housed within Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, is teaming with Durham Head Start to provide books in 27 classrooms serving about 500 students through the Head Start program.

Cisco Systems is providing bookcases for each of the classrooms. A presentation of books and their bookcases will take place tomorrow - Tuesday - at 9 a.m. at the Durham Head Start office at 215 W. Seminary St.