The American Association of Universities, an elite organization of institutions that excel in research, has taken the rare step of kicking out one of its members.

The group, of which Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill are members, has expelled the University of Nebraska, the first time the group has kicked out one of its own, according to this coverage in Inside Higher Ed.

The move has drawn a great deal of attention within the higher education elite. Membership in AAU is coveted, and the group rarely adds or removes members. It expelled Nebraska a year after revising its membership criteria and focuses largely on the level of biomedical research and research funding.

Members voted on Nebraska's fate last week, and the university would have remained in the group had two fewer universities voted to expel it, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Vote details are not public, but presumably, UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp and Duke President Richard Brodhead cast votes representing their respective institutions.

A spokesman for Thorp declined to comment Monday, deferring to AAU itself. I haven't heard definitively yet today from Duke, though it will likely decline to comment as well, I'm guessing.

A second university is leaving AAU under pressure. Syracuse University, whose credentials are also receiving scrutiny now from AAU, has announced plans to voluntarily withdraw.

The AAU's newest member is Georgia Tech, added in 2010. It has 62 members in all; Duke joined in 1938, while UNC has been a member since 1922.

N.C. State is not a member, though some feel it carries the necessary credentials. When Georgia Tech joined last year, NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson told the Chronicle of Higher Education he'd like his institution considered.

"The AAU is the pre-eminent research-intensive membership group," Woodson told that publication. "To be part of that organization is something N.C. State aspires to."

Annual dues are $80,500, according to that same Chronicle story.

Duke University announced the largest private gift in its history - an $80 million donation from the Duke Endowment.

The gift - $10 million of which has already been delivered, the balanced pledged over coming years - will pay for renovations to three campus meeting and performance spaces.

They are the West Union and Page Auditorium on Duke's West Campus, and Baldwin Auditorium on East Campus.

These are projects Duke would not have been able to pay for were it not for the largesse of the Duke Endowment, the private philanthropic organization established by James B. Duke, said a very grateful Richard Brodhead, Duke's president, following the gift announcement Monday.

"The university is committed to insurinmg the highest quality of experience to students," Brodhead said.

Collectively, the three renovation projects aim to create better meeting spaces for students, faculty and staff. Page and Baldwin are performance venues while the West Union houses restaurants and meeting spaces.

Brodhead promises a startling transformation that will retain the historic character of each building while making a quantum leap forward in terms of modernization and utility.

"We'll have to take 'before' and 'after' pictures of the sites," he said. "Because people will take the 'after' for granted."

Read more on this in Tuesday's News & Observer.

It's on, now.

As you may recall, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp stirred the pot something fierce this morning, calling out Duke University and its Krzyzewskiville tent city in the tweet you see below.

Subtle, huh?

Now, Duke President Richard Brodhead isn't on Twitter. But he's also apparently reluctant to let Thorp's gameday taunt stand unaddressed.

So here's his response, which just arrived in my in-box.

"Hey Holden, someone hacked your Twitter account to talk trash. May the best team win. From the land of TRUE Blue, Dick. "

On Nov. 15, Duke President Richard Brodhead wrote a letter to students, urging better behavior and a broader embrace of values and good behavior.

It was an unusual move. Students aren't accustomed to hearing from their president or being gently chided by him.

The letter was far from scathing. Prompted by a succession of embarrassing incidents, it suggested that Duke's image was being distorted but asked students to "face up" to behavior they feel isn't appropriate.

Was Brodhead being a strong leader by sending this letter? No way, argues Jay Schalin of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.

Writing on the Pope Center's website today, Schalin interprets Brodhead as being irritated rather than outraged by the misbehavior of some of his curent and former students.

He writes in part:

The email does not convey a deep concern by Brodhead for the students’ self-destructive behavior, but rather his irritation that their antics are getting in the way of the school’s image. Nor is there any outraged call for serious culture change on campus—just a timid suggestion that students change their ways. And it demonstrated a lack of leadership; his administration should be out in front on this issue, not merely willing to “cooperate with you [the student body] fully.”

What do you think?

Click here for some background and to read the entire letter.
 

At Duke, some enterprising graduate students found a clever way to register their distaste for bonuses paid to top executives with Duke's health system and investment management company.

Dressed as Depression-era fruit sellers and paperboys, a handful of students mocked the high pay through a faux fundraiser.

The students were registering their disagreement with bonuses, revealed on federal tax forms, paid to several higher-ups. The students criticized the payments, saying they came while the university was freezing pay and reducing campus resources.

Duke officials, however, say the criticism is misinformed. The compensation, they say, is contractually obligated and linked to work performance years ago.

Here's the story.

Duke has an image problem.

It is not a fatal affliction. Universities and other institutions with high profiles go through this stuff from time to time when a series of problematic events collide.

But the past semester has been a particular head-scratcher at Duke thanks to a series of tawdry and distasteful misadventures on the part of students.

These incidents have all the trappings for Internet buzz - sex and drunkenness chief among them. The result: an avalanche of the sort of negative press that isn't likely to be mentioned to parents on those orientation campus tours.

Have a read.

The question was rhetorical. The answer, a given.

Though acknowledging that he hadn't known Drew Everson nearly as well as so many of those attending a memorial service Wednesday, Duke President Richard Brodhead told his story of his first interaction with the popular student.

Though just a freshman, Everson stood out at the mixer for new students Brodhead hosted several years ago. He was the extrovert, the one with a little more self-confidence, a little more pizazz to his personality. The one you noticed.

"I, too, knew him," Brodhead said, speaking after several of Everson's friends told stories about their fallen buddy. "Because is there anyone at Duke who didn't know him?"

Everson died Sunday after what the university has deemed an accidental fall. On Wednesday, mourners packed Duke Chapel to laugh and cry and remember a student they insisted was not your ordinary 21-year-old.

It was a ceremony marked by light moments and wrenching ones, as friend after friend tried to explain Everson's particular brand of interpersonal magic.

They spoke of his many loves - Duke basketball, deep debate and a good scotch whiskey.

They spoke of his dedication and loyalty to his friends, and his uncanny knack for always being the best shoulder to cry on.

"Drew was the person to call about absolutely anything," said Lauren Haigler, a friend Everson comforted as she struggled with her parents' divorce. "He was the perfect friend."

As his friends describe him, Everson was one of those devour-and-cherish-every-moment sorts - like the time he and friends jumped into a fountain in downtown Indianapolis at 4 a.m. earlier this year after having watched Duke win the national basketball title in that city.

Another friend, Matt Byrne, read aloud a letter to Everson.

"You see beyond the superficial," he said. "You see me for who I am."

There were more than 1,000 mourners at Duke Chapel Wednesday, and for the most part, they seemed to hold it together.

Until the end.

That's when Edie Wellman, another Duke student, closed the memorial with a poignant, utterly brave solo. Saluting her friend by wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and strumming a guitar, Wellman sang the Green Day song "The Time of Your Life," and it wasn't easy.

Her lilting voice trembled as she worked her way through the song. Stanza after stanza, she inhaled deeply and forged on, her visceral grief on public display.

Across Duke Chapel, people inhaled with her. You could feel it.

She could barely speak the last lines:

"It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.

I hope you have the time of your life."

With that, she leaned into the microphone, and whispered: "I love you, Drew."

Duke President Richard Brodhead is a word guy.

An 19th century American literature expert, Brodhead has written or edited more than a dozen texts on Melville, Hawthorne and other literary giants.

And all of those writings went well past 140 characters, the writing limit set by Twitter, the popular social networking site.

No, Brodhead does not tweet.

"I believe some thoughts require more words than a tweet," he said with a laugh during a Wednesday meeting with reporter and editors from the News & Observer. "I like to read the headlines, but I like to read the story."

Brodhead discussed a variety of issues Wednesday. To learn more about those more substantive issues, read Thursday's News & Observer.

Duke employees won't get a raise again this year.

But if they make $80,000 or less, they will get a one-time payment of $1,000.

This plan does not affect Duke health system employees; a separate plan is in the works for them and will be unveiled at a later date.

Duke University President Richard Brodhead made these announcements last Friday, the salary news buried in about the ninth paragraph of a letter to the university community about Duke's budget situation.

If you work at Duke and your primary concern is your paycheck, here's the important stuff.

Brodhead writes:

"For the fiscal year running from July 2010 to June 2011, base salaries for faculty and staff will not be changed. However, Duke will provide all benefits-eligible university employees making $80,000 or less with a one-time payment of $1,000. 

Duke University Health System employees are covered by a separate policy that will be announced later this year, and employees whose positions reside within a collective bargaining unit will be governed under the terms of the respective contracts."

Here's his entire letter, in case you missed it.

Duke instituted a salary freeze last year as one of many measures aimed at cutting the university's operating budget $125 million over the next three years.

The Blue Devils descended on Wall Street.

Duke University president Richard Brodhead led about 350 Duke alumni and students in ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq stock market this afternoon.

The ceremony was arranged by Bradley Zimmer, a Duke graduate who works with the Nasdaq. Duke officials jumped at the chance for some exposure the day before the men's basketball team plays Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden.

"It's a fun opportunity to celebrate with our alumni and friends in New York," said Duke spokesman Mike Schoenfeld. "There are lot of Duke people in town" for that game.

The Nasdaq's giant video board in Times Square flashed Duke blue and white this afternoon and showed the event live.