The Pivot Bliwise

THE PIVOT

ONE PANDEMIC, ONE UNIVERSITY

November 224 pages, 15 illustrations paper, 978-1-4780-1912-1 $25.95tr/£19.99 cloth, 978-1-4780-1648-9 $99.95/£80.00

Robert J. Bliwise is Editor Emeritus of Duke Magazine, where he served as Editor for almost forty years.

The Pivot

One Pandemic, One University ROBERT J. BLIWISE

“Robert J. Bliwise is a first-rate journalist with a keen eye for relevant details, wideranging curiosity, a penchant for thoughtful comments, and a crystal clear writing style. In The Pivot, he presents a huge amount of rich information on how the pandemic has affected the full gamut of university operations—from the central administration and student life to admissions, libraries, and, of course, health services.” —EDWARD B. FISKE, former Education Editor of the New York Times and author of the Fiske Guide to Colleges

“Robert J. Bliwise provides a fascinating perspective on a complex institution coping with a ‘perfect storm.’ He has used his status as a long-time Dukie and his well-honed talents as a journalist to show how administrators, faculty, and students in every corner of Duke have handled covid and other contemporary challenges.” —NANNERL O. KEOHANE, President Emerita of Duke University

The COVID19 pandemic presented higher education with an unprecedented challenge: how could institutions continue the basic work of teaching and research while maintaining safe environments for their faculty, staff, and students. In The Pivot, Robert J. Bliwise traces Duke University’s response to the pandemic to show how higher education broadly met that challenge head on. Bliwise interviews people from across campus: from bus drivers and vaccine researchers to student activists, dining hall managers, and professors in areas from English to ecology. He explores the shift to teaching online and the reshaping of research programs; how surveillance testing and reconfiguring residence halls and dining sites helped limit the virus spread on campus; the efforts to promote student wellbeing and to sustain extracurricular programs; and what the surge in COVID19 cases meant for the university health system. Bliwise also shows how broad cultural conversations surrounding the 2020 presidential election, climate change, free speech on campus, and systemic racism unfolded in this changed campus environment. Although the pandemic put remarkable pressures on the campus community, Bliwise demonstrates that it ultimately reaffirmed the importance of the campus experience in all its richness and complexity.