As the University increasingly emphasizes interdisciplinarity, officials look to new certificate programs to help provide structure.
The recently approved certificate programs in documentary studies and another in information science and information studies have been highly touted, but some worry that adding many more programs may strain core departments' budgets.
A certificate is much like a minor, but is based within an interdisciplinary center, program or sphere rather than an established department.
Over the past decade, the number of certificates has steadily increased. Currently there are 13 certificate programs--five more, including ones in media studies, ethics studies and Americas studies, are in the planning stages or have already been approved by the Arts and Sciences Council.
The latest certificate programs are more interdisciplinary than any before them.
"ISIS is not affiliated with any particular department," said Edward Shanken, ISIS executive director. "If you look at most other certificate programs, like markets and management, [African and African-American Studies], film and video, they are connected with departments.... The logic is if you are really committed to truly interdisciplinary work, then having a certificate program that is independent from any department makes a lot of sense."
The documentary studies certificate introduces students to documentary methods, and allows undergraduates to use those methods to study any kind of discipline.
"This center is defined not by subject matter but by methodology," said Thomas Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies. "Any subject matter's on the table. The methodology is what we're about, offering a unique blend in which to look at whatever subject matter is of interest."
Like many certificates, ISIS culminates in a capstone course, in which students use information technology to design a project, which could vary from analyzing a video game to conducting an environmental impact study, Shanken said.
Robert Thompson, dean of Trinity College, said he would like to see as many certificates as the departmental infrastructure can support, but that eventually, there may be a limit.
"The tension is, there's no extra part of the budget that will fund certificate programs," Thompson said. "The other tension is how many of these can you develop before departments say, OWhoa!'"
Certificate programs pull funding and faculty from department budgets.
Thompson said many certificate programs use adjunct professors but may be better served by more regular-rank faculty.
Gary Gereffi, director of the markets and management studies certificate program, said a shift in interdisciplinary thinking has affected the way departments are organized at Duke.
"It seems what's happening at the undergraduate level is an extension of that [increased interdisciplinary] knowledge, spilling over traditional boundaries," he said.
The markets and management certificate, which was started in 1990 and brings together economics, sociology and business courses, is by far the largest at Duke, attracting one out of every eight undergraduates.
Gereffi said certificate programs help ensure Duke provides a liberal arts education. "If we're saying liberal arts [is a broad education], which means integrated knowledge, we have to have programs to bring those ideas together," he said.
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