Durham labor groups looking to improve wages, housing affordability, and workers’ rights have set their sights on Duke University, the city’s largest employer and private landowner. With local elections getting underway, organizers have found willing partners in the menagerie of Durham council candidates, all of whom seem to agree that Duke University should do better by the people of Durham.
Organizers are trying to tap into election season—and anti-corporate, anti-billionaire, and not-infrequent anti-Duke sentiment—to push the university to put its $12 billion endowment towards its workers and the community.
Last year, the Duke Respect Durham campaign called for Duke to make $50 million annual direct payments to the city (referred to as payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT). A recent forum, organized by a similar local campaign, Durham Rising, focused on getting candidates for council and mayor to get Duke, per signs at the event, to “show up for Durham.”
“Duke owns property all across Durham, but unlike the rest of us, it is exempt from paying property taxes on most of it. Other universities have agreed to a payment in lieu of taxes program, which is also called a PILOT. Do you believe that Duke owes it to the community to contribute to the public school system by implementing a similar PILOT program?” asked one questioner at the forum. “Do you agree that Duke should stand up to protect workers, students, faculty, programs and our communities from attacks by the federal government?” asked another.
Representatives for Duke have previously argued that the university contributes $24 million to the community annually. That includes the more than $2 million the university pays in taxes for non-academic buildings it owns, $7 million in taxes connected to the 2.8 million square feet of space the school leases, $4 million in direct payments for emergency services in Durham, and another $10 million it gives to local nonprofits. Duke administrators haven’t commented publicly on Durham Rising.
The forum was something of a tug of war between incumbents, who tried to point out the council’s ongoing efforts to get more money out of the university, and challengers, many of whom advocated for more to be done.
Mark-Anthony Middleton, seeking to hold his Ward 2 seat, pointed out that he had previously pushed for using eminent domain to take Duke’s land to build a light rail system.
“I learned some things during that process about negotiation, about our legal guardrails, and about how to treat people,” said Middleton. “So I’m glad we’re all talking about getting tough with Duke. Welcome to the party.”
Middleton often notes that Duke contributed to the 70 units of affordable housing on Willard Street next to the downtown bus station. Just last month, a smiling Duke president Vincent Price helped cut the ribbon at the Ashton Place residences for low-income residents 55 and older, which the university also helped fund.
Middleton is fond of adapting a Chris Rock quote (“It’s like your uncle who molested you but paid for you to go to college,” he often says) to describe the relationship between the city and the university.
Some challengers pitched their more dramatic ideas for collecting from the university.
Terry McCann, candidate for mayor, suggested that the city stop providing waste and police services to the university. “Think about it,” said McCann. “The students who go to Duke, their parents are going to complain. They’re going to force their little, little youngins there to report it to the administration.”
Durant Long, seeking to usurp Chelsea Cook from her Ward 3 seat, said Duke and Durham have a “parasitic relationship” and called on Duke employees to strike. “While Duke has profited from the backs of Durhamites, they’ve gained their endowment, they’ve disenfranchised us, they’ve pushed us out, they haven’t contributed in any meaningful way,” said Long.
At the end of the forum, nearly all of the candidates present (mayor Leo Williams, who is seeking reelection, did not attend) signed a petition with Durham Rising’s core demands: that Duke raise its minimum wage to $25 an hour, make direct payments to the City of Durham (to support public schools, address the need for affordable housing, and pay city workers), and do a better job of protecting its workers and students from the federal government and ICE (McCann, a Republican who was jeered by the crowd for his approval of Trump’s immigration policies, declined to sign on).
As some candidates noted, a lot has changed since the blue and yellow Duke Respect Durham signs first hit lawns a year ago.
Duke announced in April that it would be cutting 10 percent, or about $350 million, from its budget as the Trump administration slashed research funding and threatened other cuts. Officials said that target was based on projections that the federal funding cuts and policy changes (including tiered tax rates on college endowments) could result in losses totaling as much as $500 million to $750 million. The university offered voluntary buyouts, which 600 employees accepted, and has continued to lay off staff, leaving some departments scrambling.
“Duke is set to lose up to the tune of $200 million in federal funding,” said Samaria McKenzie, a marketing specialist hoping to grab DeDreana Freeman’s Ward 1 seat. “And so I can sit up here, and I can tell you all the things that get the crowd going, but that just is not actually going to do anything.”
Except for its power to accept or reject rezoning requests, the city has few official (and lawful) avenues to make demands of Duke.
Last year, the university petitioned the council to approve an open-ended rezoning for several chunks of campus, including parcels that Duke owns in the Burch Avenue neighborhood. Residents and council members were skeptical when Duke declined to commit to not building a parking garage or bus depot inside the quiet neighborhood, and Duke eventually withdrew that portion of the request.
Early voting begins this week ahead of the October 7 primary election. From there, two candidates in each race will proceed to the general elections on November 3.
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].