One year after the Board of Trustees approved Building on Excellence, administrators say the University's long-term plan is moving forward, but that it is too early to tell how successful it will be.
Most notably, Duke has made several faculty hires and initiated a myriad of construction projects. Administrators said they were also pleased with progress made in sciences and engineering, technology and interdisciplinary programs; other goals remain less developed.
Provost Peter Lange presented an overall update on the strategic plan and a report on faculty recruitment--an important component of the plan--to trustees at their meeting this past weekend.
He said that so far, recruitment has not slowed--the faculty has grown by 6 percent across the University, a net gain last year of 125 professors, mostly in the School of Medicine.
But further growth could be limited in Arts and Sciences, which will likely run a deficit this year. William Chafe, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, has urged a task force to look at ways to balance that budget--including a cut in either faculty salaries or the number of hires.
The Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences is also facing a tight year, and other schools are cautious for the future.
Katharine Bartlett, dean of the School of Law, said she has hired several "superstars" in the intellectual property area, per the law school's long-term plan. "The process of identifying the best faculty and recruiting them is a multi-year process," she said. "I wish we had made more faculty appointments in this period, but I am optimistic that we will be adding several new, first-rate faculty in the next couple of years."
But improving the faculty is just one of nine goals in the plan. Last year, long-term planners identified significant improvement in the sciences and engineering as the University's second goal.
"Things have gone terrifically well," said Berndt Mueller, dean of the natural sciences. "The first and most important thing for me is that we actually have made a number of excellent appointments, junior and senior people."
Mueller pointed to success in bioinformatics and brain sciences this year. Grants increased last year by 16 percent--including large grants in genomics and nanosciences--and new proposals increased by 37 percent.
In addition, four new science buildings are in planning or construction phases: the engineering, multidisciplinary science and two genomics buildings. Lange said development of transitional space will be a priority next year as campus offices shift to new homes.
He stressed that although the plan remains on course, it is largely dependent on hires.
"The timing is dependent on how fast we can make the critical hires," Lange said. "Since we have an annual cycle of hires, if you miss out on a cycle of hires, you have to wait another year. That is a potential area of delay. We also want to hire the best people. We're not going to hire someone just to [speed up the process]."
The process became much easier in July when new deans took office in the business, medical and environment schools. All of them are now fine-tuning their respective schools' long-term plans.
Dr. Sandy Williams, dean of the School of Medicine, has spent the year reorganizing parts of his school, beginning several searches to replace retiring department chairs and laying groundwork for the genomics initiative. His hiring allowed the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy to gain speed after more than a year of administrative inaction. By this summer, administrators hope to hire a genomics director.
Other hires--of a new vice provost for information technology and for international affairs--have helped Duke meet two other long-term goals: the use of instructional technology and the extension of Duke's global reach.
The latter goal has been furthered by the University's decision to offer financial assistance to foreign students. The preliminary numbers showed a 41 percent increase in international applications.
In terms of technology, the University has added wireless technology across campus and has expanded the number of courses taught using an online component through Blackboard, a web-based program that allows students to access consolidated class information in one place.
Lange's report also noted that the University should develop new programs integrating teaching and research, another goal of the plan. Although there is a research component to Curriculum 2000, Lange said the University has taken few steps in forming wide-ranging programs to integrate teaching and research.
Additional long-term goals, such as increasing diversity, are not nearly as easy to measure, but Lange's report pointed to an 18.7 percent increase in applications from black students and progress on the University's Black Faculty Strategic Initiative.
Another goal--nurturing the personal and intellectual growth of students--is equally difficult to measure. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta's new residential life plan hopes to move toward that goal by offering academic services through the quad system.
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