The dust has yet to settle after President Nan Keohane's controversial elimination of University vice president and vice provost post more than two months ago.
Keohane replaced that post with a vice president for institutional equity, but questions still remain as how best to reassign the former post's administrative responsibilities. Last week, the Duke University Movement Organized for Racial Equity, a student group dedicated to keeping tabs on the definition of the new post, submitted a proposal to Keohane and the committee searching for the new vice president, offering recommendations for administrative delegation of community affairs.
The present administrative structure places community affairs issues in the hands of both the University vice president and vice provost and the Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs, a fourth-level administrative office. The Office of the Vice President of Public Affairs--which handles such diverse areas as the Duke News Service, University photography and research and federal relations--oversees government relations and community affairs.
DUMORE has advocated creating a separate Office of Community Affairs to report directly to the vice president for institutional equity. The office would focus on such issues as public education, health, housing and community development, and while it would share facilities and resources with the Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs to cut down on costs, the Office of Community Affairs would also have its own full-time director and staff.
"Eliminating responsibility for community affairs from the new vice president's position and assigning that responsibility to an already overworked fourth-level administrator is a clear indication that establishing a meaningful, mutually beneficial relationship with the Durham community is currently not a priority for Duke University," the DUMORE proposal states.
Keohane said she is "confident that Garrick Francis [assistant to the director of government relations] and his colleagues can take on a range of new responsibilities that are easily consonant with what they are already doing in government and community relations."
Paul Vick, director of the Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs, said the office does have a full workload, but is not sure that any overflow from the old vice presidential post would prove problematic.
"Prior to this whole situation, [Francis'] post has been traditionally handling local government and community relations," Vick said. "I have no indication of what responsibilities would transfer [after the vice-presidential post is filled]."
DUMORE also favors expanding the new post's charge to include University and Durham relations and equity among groups within the University community. But Keohane said the new office will be involved in such issues, even if that involvement is not explicit in the position's description.
"I would... expect the new [vice president for institutional equity], as an officer of the University concerned with employee relations, to be interested in, and involved personally with the affairs of the city of Durham, particularly as far as workforce issues are concerned," she said.
Meanwhile, some members of the search committee said they back the DUMORE proposal, although such concerns may be out of their hands.
Trinity junior Shavar Jeffries, immediate past-president of the Black Student Alliance and a member of the search committee, said that the committee hopes to find time amidst searching for a viable candidate to recommend an administrative framework to Keohane.
DUMORE members stressed that community affairs are integral to such internal issues as employee concerns, and that Duke-Durham relations have been put on the back burner for far too long.
"For years Duke has stated that it seeks to be a responsible citizen of the Durham community.... Unfortunately, at present, the sincerity of the University's commitment to responsible citizenship in the Durham community is suspect," DUMORE states in its proposal.
Some DUMORE members said they believe Keohane will not heed their recommendations.
"[Keohane] has separated herself from the political heat by placing it in a search committee," said Trinity senior Brian McLaughlin, a member of DUMORE. "She's really left us hanging on this issue and she's really using the calendar. DUMORE is going to lose a lot of its vigor [when the semester ends] and she's using that to her advantage."
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