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Burness still has Duke job
Topic Started: Feb 1 2009, 07:54 AM (1,215 Views)
Quasimodo

http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/PublicPolicy/faculty/john.burness

John F Burness, Visiting Professor of the Practice



Areas of Expertise

* Media and Communications, Higher Education

Education:
BA Franklin and Marshall College

Highlight:
Prior to joining the Sanford Institute faculty, John F. Burness was for 17 years Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations at Duke University.

A member of Duke’s senior leadership team under three Duke presidents (H. Keith H. Brodie, Nannerl O. Keohane and Richard Brodhead), Burness guided the university’s interactions with reporters, elected officials, community leaders and others beyond the campus. He was directly responsible for the university’s offices of news and communications, community affairs, photography and government relations in Washington, Raleigh and Durham, and served broadly as an advisor to trustees, deans, faculty, student leaders and others across the university.

Bio/Profile
Prior to coming to Duke in 1991, Burness was the senior public affairs officer of three major research universities---vice president for university relations at Cornell University, associate chancellor for public affairs at the University of Illinois and deputy to the president for university relations at Stony Brook University.

Among his civic duties, Burness has been particularly active in K-12 education. He was the founding chairman of the Board of Directors of the Durham Communities in Schools dropout prevention program and a director of the Durham Public Education network.

He also headed Duke’s nationally recognized Neighborhood Partnership with 12 neighborhoods near Duke’s campus and seven public schools that serve them. When he retired from his administrative post in 2008, Duke University’s Board of Trustees created the John F. Burness Endowment to support the programs of the Neighborhood Partnership.

Burness is a director of MDC, Inc., a member of Durham's Renaissance Group, and a past director of the United Way of Greater Durham, the Museum of Life and Science and Downtown Durham, Inc.

Burness is a Trustee of his alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College, where he was president of the student government and on the Dean’s List. He has done graduate work at Stony Brook and Boston University, and pursued his doctoral study in higher education management at the University of Maryland.



Edited by Quasimodo, Feb 1 2009, 07:59 AM.
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Quasimodo

I'd like to see the Board of Trustees create a David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann endowment...

but I guess they can't be bothered with that...
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
Prior to joining the Sanford Institute faculty, John F. Burness was for 17 years Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations at Duke University.


As it is, it seems like they made certain to reward Burness for all his years of service...and maybe to keep him within the corral...he may be "forced" to retire (?) but he won't have to look for another job--unlike Pressler, for whom Duke did not feel it proper to assist in finding other work. And Pressler had been at Duke for 16 years...
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Bill Anderson
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Maybe His Corpulance might be able to teach his students some easy ways to lie (off the record, of course) about other Duke students and their families. Burness was one of the most two-faced administration figures at Duke, saying one thing to the families and quite another to the media. I'm sure that the families have not forgotten the Great Fat One.

:bill:
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chatham
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I am betting that burness had more influence in dukes part of the LAX frame than we are giving him credit for. He hated too much to not be in the middle of the decision and influence part in determining the direction of dukes actions.
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
When he retired from his administrative post in 2008, Duke University’s Board of Trustees created the John F. Burness Endowment to support the programs of the Neighborhood Partnership.


I can only consider this to be an endorsement of his actions and career by the BOT. Had the BOT considered that he had acted illegally or with reckless disregard for the truth, and injured both Duke students and Duke's reputation in the process, they likely wouldn't have thus honored him. (I hope the attorneys take note.)

To repeat: the BOT certainly haven't similarly honored three wrongly-accused Duke students, whose response to being placed under great pressure during "Scottsboro II" should have been held up as examples (as Delbarton honored one of them).

And Duke could similarly honor Elmo, for being an exemplary citizen and helping save three wrongfully-charged students.

And Duke should have invited the attorneys of their students to speak and conduct a seminar at the law school.

But I guess that Duke still feels it didn't nothing wrong. In the immoral words of Burness when asked if Duke would apologize, "What for?"





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sceptical

Bill Anderson
Feb 1 2009, 08:43 AM
Maybe His Corpulance might be able to teach his students some easy ways to lie (off the record, of course) about other Duke students and their families. Burness was one of the most two-faced administration figures at Duke, saying one thing to the families and quite another to the media. I'm sure that the families have not forgotten the Great Fat One.

:bill:
And, of course, Burness is the target of Pressler's lawsuit against Duke University.

Big John dissed Pressler in violation of Duke's agreement, just like he inconveniently gave an interview attacking the team a couple of days before the exoneration.
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MikeZPU

What strikes me about Burness is that he has a big ego and he is vindictive.

My take is that he could not stand how the players and coach came out of this affair
exhalted for their character and how they conducted themselves with dignity and resolve,
despite being put through an intense false prosecution by Nifong, the DPD, Duke, and the media.

WHILE at the same time, Brodhead and Burness were exposed for being cowards, fools,
and even ignorant about the basic tenets of our legal system. Burness could not admit to
himself that his beloved boss made terrible decisions that almost ruined the lives of
demonstrably innocent people, so he had to defend those decisions;
he had to defend the indefensible with his disparaging comments about Coach Pressler
and the team, even when it was clear by that time that they had been very seriously wronged.

=========================================================

Statement from John Burness upon his decision to retire -- just look at the disdain
with which he refers to the lacrosse case, when he should have been apologetic!

Quote:
 
It's been a long time in the making, but I wanted you to know that we are announcing today that I will be retiring at the end of this academic year. I told President Brodhead when I was renewed a few years ago that I'd give him two more years. Little did I realize that lacrosse would emerge with a half-life that extends seemingly forever.

Since I've been at Duke, I've had perhaps the best and most interesting job in higher education and truly outstanding colleagues to work with. This place has been on a roll and it's been a joy to be in the middle of it. But I'm coming up on my 63rd birthday, and after 17 years of 70+-hour work weeks at Duke-accentuated by the intensity of the saga of the past year-and-a-half-it's surely time for me to slow down and get a new life. I plan to lose weight and do some writing on issues on issues in higher education-not necessarily in that order. Anne and I plan to stay in Durham, and I'm looking forward to continuing to be active in issues that matter to me.

I had a massage this morning, and my masseuse told me she had never seen me so relaxed. Must be a sign.
Edited by MikeZPU, Feb 1 2009, 11:25 AM.
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Baldo
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This is slap in the face of the Families. It is Duke at its supreme arrogance.

John Burness "Off the Record" caused damage to that team.

The "Gang that couldn't shoot straight" just shot themselves in the foot again.
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MikeZPU

Baldo
Feb 1 2009, 11:39 AM
This is slap in the face of the Families. It is Duke at its supreme arrogance.

John Burness "Off the Record" caused damage to that team.

The "Gang that couldn't shoot straight" just shot themselves in the foot again.
I'll never forget that jerk loved to brag that when he
was asked once if Duke should apologize to the LAX payers,
he thought he was so coy to respond "For what?"
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
and do some writing on issues on issues in higher education


Probably the only thing which keeps him from writing about the lax case at the moment are the suits.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see him issuing revisionist history in the future. . .
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abb
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Quasimodo
Feb 1 2009, 12:23 PM
Quote:
 
and do some writing on issues on issues in higher education


Probably the only thing which keeps him from writing about the lax case at the moment are the suits.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see him issuing revisionist history in the future. . .
Ain't happening as long as I'm alive. I have plenty of "pile of shit" labels ready to use.
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60slib

abb
Feb 1 2009, 02:59 PM
Quasimodo
Feb 1 2009, 12:23 PM
Quote:
 
and do some writing on issues on issues in higher education


Probably the only thing which keeps him from writing about the lax case at the moment are the suits.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see him issuing revisionist history in the future. . .
Ain't happening as long as I'm alive. I have plenty of "pile of shit" labels ready to use.
:har: You go abb!
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MikeZPU

abb
Feb 1 2009, 02:59 PM
Quasimodo
Feb 1 2009, 12:23 PM
Quote:
 
and do some writing on issues on issues in higher education


Probably the only thing which keeps him from writing about the lax case at the moment are the suits.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see him issuing revisionist history in the future. . .
Ain't happening as long as I'm alive. I have plenty of "pile of shit" labels ready to use.
:roflmao: :D Egr93:
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Payback
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I could have lived more happily if I had not had to visualize again Burness getting a massage.
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