John Burness Quotations

There are some folks who want us to do a full investigation ourselves. But the fact of the matter is this is a police investigation, and we can't impede it. The more information we have, if the allegations are true, there will be grave consequences.

Until we have greater clarity, it would be inappropriate to comment further.

Since the early '90s, Duke has been helping stabilize neighborhoods near campus by increasing the stock of owner-occupied housing.

I believe there will be a report saying that the university acted responsibly.

If what is alleged is true, it's deplorable.

Joe wanted to reach out to students who felt they'd like support and provide answers for anything they felt they needed to know.

President Brodhead has had a positive influence on town-gown relations. Duke's relations with the Durham community actually have been far stronger than one might have guessed from recent media reports. I suspect that's why despite all the tensions the media describe, the community has not splintered but, in fact, has come together during the current crisis.

We are aware that the district attorney made a presentation to the grand jury today, but we have no knowledge about the contents of his presentation.

We know there are these questions in the community and on campus about why didn't Duke respond sooner. We thought, why not let someone who is independent come in and take a look?

We're doing the same things we always do. One of the main things is that Duke has earned its reputation over the years as a world-class institution because of our first-rate academics, as well as medical care and, yes, athletics.

We've just decided that transparency is the way to go. President Brodhead thought it very important to think about people on the outside ... people of absolute integrity and genuine leadership.

We don't think we have a problem at Duke.

At this point it isn't clear that there's any action we can take.

Duke University is monitoring the situation and cooperating with officials, as are the students.

The rumors are just running wild around here ... the latest set of allegations only reinforce the sense of history and anger about the racial issues involved. The president wanted people of this power who could come in and do an investigation and let the chips fall where they may.

It's always been a priority that Duke be engaged with the public schools in an effort to strengthen them. We have a really large number of people who live in Durham; therefore, the quality of education is very important because it affects our employees.

It's very disturbing at one level, but at the same time, until police complete their investigation, we really don't know what happened.

The main thing to know is we don't plan to make a profit on this. The houses will go for what the market will bear.