Thursday's meeting of the Arts & Sciences Council was one of departures and arrivals, as the council said goodbye to current Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences William Chafe and welcomed Dean-elect George McLendon.
Chafe gave his final presentation as the dean to the council, praising the faculty and evaluating its accomplishments during his nine-year tenure. "It's been an honor to be part of this engaged, energetic and bold enterprise that we call Duke University," he said, speaking with great admiration.
Chafe credited the faculty for the significant increase in the University's national and international reputation during the past decade.
"The faculty is the lifeblood of every great educational institution," he said. "You accomplish our most important mission: teaching the next generation. You also [have provided] the research, discovery, and imaginative and creative thinking that has made possible this university's meteoric rise in the past decade."
Chafe said he was grateful for the opportunity to work with the broad range of faculty outside of his particular field of study.
"I'll never be a physicist, a psychologist or a scholar in Germanic studies, but what a joy being introduced to this world of learning that an historian never dreamed of encountering," he said. "It's been an exciting journey to discover so much I had not previously even been aware of, and better than that, it has been extraordinarily rewarding to get to know most of you as individuals."
In addition to reflecting on the personal relationships he has enjoyed with faculty members, he discussed his cooperative working relationship with the faculty when responding to the various crises--including budgetary shortfalls that "sharply curtailed" faculty searches, issues of academic freedom and the uneasy intellectual climate following the Sept. 11 attacks--that arose during the past decade.
"You have responded to our candor with both understanding and confidence, both of which have made it possible for us to move beyond times of crisis to a larger picture of growth, progress and success, exemplified by the more than 10 percent increase in the size of faculty over the last decade, and the multitude of facilities [now available]," Chafe said.
Chafe outlined the four priorities that defined his tenure as dean: improving the undergraduate experience, making Duke a more diverse environment, emphasizing interdiscipinarity throughout the various departments and engaging with the world outside of Duke.
Curriculum 2000, the FOCUS program and improvements to the living environment on campus with the move of all sophomores to West Campus were all on Chafe's list of the greatest successes in the area of undergraduate life.
In terms of diversity, Chafe highlighted the increased level of diversity among the student body, the greater number of female faculty members in the natural sciences and the nearly doubled rate of black professors at the University. Despite the increased diversity, Chafe stressed that the University still has ground to cover in order "to make diversity a reality... rather than just a demographic statistic."
IN OTHER BUSINESS:
McLendon told the council he was delighted to have the opportunity to meet faculty members he had not yet had time to talk with and he looked forward to meeting with the council in the fall to discuss its vision for the new academic year. He said kept his statement brief due to the day's beautiful weather.
The council approved a change in the regulations for professors that will permit hour-long tests to be administered in the final week of classes, although such tests may not act as substitutes for a final exam. Currently, in a course that does not have a scheduled final, a professor is not allowed to administer a test in the last week before finals, but the practice often happens anyway, said Vice Provost for Academic and Administrative Services Judith Ruderman.
The clarification allows for regularly scheduled exams, although it does not allow these exams to replace a final exam, which must be administered after reading period.
The council first debated the original resolution passed by the Engineering Council, which included a ban on "cumulative exams" during the final week of classes. Some professors, notably in the natural sciences, said that all their exams were cumulative, not just final exams. While the resolution seemed stalled, McLendon--already making his presence felt--helped sift through the language of the proposal to allow for a vote.
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