Category: Archive

Mark your calendars! The Duke University Congressional Briefing Series returns to Capitol Hill next Tuesday, July 23 for a lunch-time panel entitled “Improving and Streamlining Airport Screening Through Science.”

Duke University is a national leader among universities in Department of Homeland Security sponsored research, with much of the current funding used to support projects that seek to improve airport and baggage screening protocols.  Please join us for a discussion of the latest breakthroughs that seek to improve and streamline screening procedures, both through revolutionary x-ray technology that goes beyond providing the outline of a bag’s contents to decipher its molecular structure and through visual cognition performance in airport screening procedures.

Moderated by Robin Hamilton, an Emmy-award winning journalist, the panel will feature David Brady, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Stephen Mitroff, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Here are the need-to-knows:
Date: July 23, 2013
Time: 12:00-1:00 pm
Location: 421 Cannon House Office Building
RSVP: By Friday, July 19 to dukefederalrelations@duke.edu.
Lunch provided. 
Find all the details by clicking here.

In early June, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) set a goal: to have the full Senate debate and vote upon a comprehensive immigration measure before the end of the month. And indeed, they did just that. After two weeks of discussions, compromises, proposals adopted and withdrawn, the Senate approved the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act by a vote of 68-32.

Following this vote, Duke University President Richard Brodhead sent a letter to North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan thanking her for her support of the bill. In the letter, President Brodhead said the current bill would mean that “pursuing an education or research at Duke will be less complicated for the thousands of students and faculty who come to Durham each year from countries all over the world.”

These thousands – 1,685 employees and 3,004 students according to Duke’s visa services statistics – “are Duke students. They are no different than a student in China, or India or South Africa or North Carolina or California in a sense that we want what is best for them,” said Chris Simmons, Duke’s associate vice president for federal relations, in an interview with DukeToday.com. “And if they think it is best for them to stay in the United States and work and contribute to our economy, we want to help them do that.”

“We want to make sure that they have opportunities and options,” Simmons said. “We want that for all students and if there’s something we can do to influence the law so that’s possible for more of our students, then we are going to be supportive.”

On Wednesday, Republicans in the House of Representatives will meet to discuss their priorities for immigration reform. With the feedback gained there, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will develop a plan for bringing forth immigration reform measures to the floor of the House.

he Office of Federal Relations will remain an active participant in the discussion.

A few weeks ago, Duke University participated in the iMarch for Innovation, a call from across the tech, government, and higher education sectors for the Senate to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The virtual march brought out supporters from North Carolina to Idaho to California and connected individuals from the Republican, Democratic Parties – and even some Independents – to demonstrate the importance of immigration reform to our economy, our universities, and — as the name implies — our nation’s ability to remain on the frontline of innovation.

Today (ICYMI) @DukeFedRel hosted a Twitter Town Hall to talk more about how immigration impacts the students and faculty at Duke University. Here’s a recap:

Right now, international students who come to study at Duke don’t have a choice of staying in the country after finishing their degree.  Their visas automatically expire, meaning they have to return to the home countries. The “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill has a provision that would give graduates in many disciplines a choice to stay in America and contribute to our economy. According to studies by the Center for American Progress, immigration reform would help create 1.4 million jobs and add $329 billion dollars to the economy by 2030.

As Dick Brodhead said in a statement last June, ““Each year, bright, talented students from around the world come to Duke to pursue graduate degrees. Along with their academic training, they absorb an American approach to thinking, problem-solving, and innovating, and they graduate with skills that can lead directly to new companies and jobs for our country. It’s in our national interest to keep them here.”

The Gang of Eight bill also includes the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which offers a path to permanent residency for those individuals brought to the country illegally as children.

A recent study, conducted by Jiali Luo and David Jamieson-Drake, the assistant director and director of Duke’s institutional research office found that Americans who engaged with international students while on campus are more likely in later life to appreciate art and literature, place current problems in historical perspective and read or speak a foreign language. They also are more likely to reexamine their political and religious viewpoints and their beliefs about other races or ethnicities, according to the research. These findings apply to U.S. students who actively interacted with international students in classes, dorms or elsewhere, as opposed to just sharing the campus with them.

We were pleased to join the iMarch for Innovation in highlighting the support for immigration reform across North Carolina. Thanks to those who joined in the conversation, sent us questions, retweeted our remarks and helped us get the word out: don’t miss this chance! Duke University urges the Senate to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Find out more at: www.marchforinnovation.com

In “Playing Politics with Student Debt,” Senators Lamar Alexander, Richard Burr and Tom Coburn outline a plan to solve the pending student loan interest rate increase on July 1.  Providing students and families with a “sure thing” interest rate for the life of the student loan, means that graduates can more easily plan their finances and a path to pay off their education after commencement. It is both fair to the student and fiscally reasonable.

Unfortunately, their proposal is getting lost in the discussion – which is ironic. At a time when there is much criticism about transparency and information in the student aid programs – both at the institutional and federal levels – the proposals getting the most consideration might in fact, make it more difficult for students to predict those rates, could possibly increase debt levels and perhaps exacerbate default on student loans.

There are no easy choices, but the Alexander-Burr-Coburn solution takes us in the right direction.

It’s the summer after high school graduation – a time for beaches, summer jobs, and bittersweet farewells to life-long friends. Or, at least that’s how it looks in the movies.

In real life, this summer is for choosing classes, buying dorm room furniture, picking a dining plan, and – for a number of students – signing up for a student loan. Many of these students will choose federally backed loans, commonly known as Stafford and PLUS loans, which means the federal government decides the terms and conditions. In other words, the federal government decides how large these loans can be, the repayment structure, and the interest rate.

And so it is fitting, as summertime sets in, that Congress turns its attention to legislation affecting the interest rates on these federally backed loans. As it stands, the interest rate on federal student loans is set to increase for 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1. This would be a fixed interest rate – meaning that a student would sign a loan agreement knowing in advance how much interest he would pay over the duration of the loan. President Obama, the House of Representatives, and the Senate have all put forth proposals that would change the way in which the federal government calculates the interest rates of student loans. Today, let’s check in on the House proposal.

This week the House of Representatives passed HR 1911, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act, which would lower interest rates for student loans starting on July 1.  Instead of a fixed rate, this bill would make the interest rate a market-based rate. The bill authorizes student loan interest rates to be reset once a year and move with the market. Interest rates would be set using the following formula: Stafford Loans (both subsidized and unsubsidized): 10-year Treasury note plus 2.5 percent, capped at 8.5 percent. PLUS loans (graduate and parent): 10-year Treasury note plus 4.5 percent, capped at 10.5 percent.

Right now, this is a desirable rate on the part of the students. Unfortunately, however, the variable rate prescribed in the bill is capped at a very high rate, so it could eventually rise to 8.5 percent as the economy improves.

In addition, the bill does nothing to improve repayment policies or other benefits that have been stripped from the student loan program over the last few years.  At a time when Congress is intensely interested (rightly so) in student debt issues, it seems counterintuitive that legislation is passed that makes it more difficult for students to plan their financial future on variable loan rates, with fewer financing options and the possibility of extremely high rates of interest.

Stay tuned – we’ll be bringing updated coverage as the Senate takes up the issue.

Do you want to see Duke University continue to attract the best and brightest students and faculty? Do you want to continue encouraging innovation and growth in the American economy?

We sure do! That’s why Duke University Office of Federal Relations has been showing our support, on Twitter, Facebook, and our website for the iMarch for Innovation and calling for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

It’s time.

Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee did a remarkable thing: in a bipartisan vote, it sent a comprehensive immigration reform bill to floor of the Senate. Now is the time to reach out to Senators from across the country — and both sides of the aisle — to let them know why you want them to support comprehensive immigration reform.

Here’s why Duke University is joining in:

• Every 100 immigrants who earn advanced degrees in the US and then stay to work in technical fields create 262 jobs for American workers.
• Did you know — one-fourth of the Americans who have won Nobel Prizes have been immigrants, despite being just one-eighth of the population.
• 76% of patents that the top 10 US patent-producing universities received in 2011 had an immigrant inventor.
• Even if every American advanced degree STEM graduate gets a job, the US will face 200,000 unfilled advanced-degree STEM jobs by 2018.
• More than one-fourth of tech firms report difficulty hiring and the number of Americans studying STEM grows by less than 1% per year.

Visit www.marchforinnovation.com to learn more and let your voice be heard!