During this time of year, undergraduate admissions officers Stacy Scarfutti-Rusak, Anne Sjostrom and Carrie Williams would normally be traveling around the country meeting with high school seniors. Instead, they are spending time with another group of youngsters who really need attention--their new babies.
It became clear last spring that three admissions officers would be taking maternity leave during the late summer and fall of this year, a busy time for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The absence of three members from a 15 member staff forced the office to adapt.
"From a staffing perspective, it presents certain challenges," said Director of Undergraduate Admissions Christopher Guttentag. "[Senior Associate Director] Leonard Satterwhite really did a terrific job finding ways for us to make up for their absence."
One way that Satterwhite responded to the smaller staff was to recruit help from former admissions officers and other University administrators. According to Satterwhite, the added staff made visits to areas of the country typically visited by the three admissions officers on leave. Satterwhite himself made one trip oversees to make up for the staff shortage.
Barbara Wise, program coordinator of the FOCUS [First-year Opportunity for Comprehensive, Unified Study] program, made a recruitment trip during the summer --along with representatives from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University--to the Gulf Coast area, and said she was happy to make the trip.
"FOCUS works so closely with first-year students and [the Office of Undergraduate Admissions] has helped us out in the past," Wise said.
"When any department in the University needs help, we should all help each other out."
Another way that the office has dealt with the shortage, said Satterwhite, has been to slightly reduce the number of high school visits by holding general information sessions in larger cities, such as Miami, where a great number of smaller sessions occurred in the past.
Satterwhite said the office has maintained similar amounts of visits compared to past years and kept up with its day-to-day work, through a combination of increased temporary staff support and a general shouldering of the work-load.
"Other staff members are picking up some extra work," Satterwhite said. "Everyone is sort of doubling up."
Although their absence has caused a minor headache for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the members of the staff have all been supportive, Williams, an assistant director, said. She added that the office threw a baby shower for the pregnant staff members.
"Our office is very family-oriented and makes family a priority; everyone, including the director, was tremendously supportive of all of us," said Williams, who gave birth to her first child, a girl named Sarah in July.
Associate Director Stacy Scarfutti-Rusak, who delivered her second child, Alexandra Kate in August, also praised the support from the staff, and made special mention of Duke's new parental leave policy.
"It was really delightful to begin my leave knowing that President [Nan] Keohane and the University had approved that three weeks would be paid by the University," Scarfutti-Rusak said. "It was an incredibly generous surprise."
Satterwhite said the admission officers would return in time for the reading of early-decision applications in November. Sjostrom, the third admissions officer on maternity leave, could not be reached for comment.
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