Money can't buy you love, but it could have saved Duke some serious sex talk.
The Curriculum Committee has officially suspended the Certificate Program in the Studies of Sexualities, first established in 1992, for the coming school year. The committee cited insufficient funding to find a professor who would teach the introductory and capstone courses that are required for every certificate program, but noted that the program will return as soon as an appropriate faculty member can be found.
The sexualities studies program passed the Curriculum Committee's annual review of certificate programs last fall and was approved for the coming school year, but its organizers were unable to hire a professor within the given budget of $20,000. Although a visiting professor was in line to teach the two courses, he declined the position due to the given salary.
Alex Roland, chair of the Curriculum Committee, emphasized that the restoration of the sexualities certificate was contingent upon the hiring of an appropriate professor and not upon the program's curriculum.
"Their plan was still acceptable to the committee, but they were not able to staff it," he said, "so we mutually agreed that they would suspend the program with the expectation that they will resume the next year, if these problems are not repeated."
Anne Allison, the sexualities program's director, reiterated the strength of the program and its readiness to resume next year, as long as the necessary funding is established.
"Everything is perfectly in place--we have a good curriculum, a good advisory board, enthusiastic professors and students--but we need money, and without that money for that position we cannot do it," she said.
The introductory and capstone courses have been a trouble spot for certificate programs across the University, because the two classes must be totally unique to that program and cannot be crosslisted in another department. Consequently, the professors who teach these classes must be pulled from their respective departments or newly hired to teach solely in the certificate program.
"For most programs, the introduction and the capstone classes are the most difficult to staff, being that the other courses in the program are regularly-taught courses," Roland said. "But introduction and capstone classes have to be tailored to that specific certificate program."
Allison said that the problem arose because none of the professors involved in the program could leave their departments and take on the two classes. Since the program does not have any faculty special to it, mandatory funds were required to hire a professor to fill the position. The Curriculum Committee's pressure upon programs to self-generate the two classes internally this year pushed the sexualities program over the edge.
"Trying to standardize these certificate programs is a great idea, and we are not against it," said Allison, who also serves as chair of the cultural anthropology department. "However, if none of us can leave our departments and we are planning on taking this seriously, we need to have enough money to hire a dedicated professor."
Robert Thompson, dean of Trinity College, emphasized that staffing programs like Studies in Sexualities is a pervasive problem for any type of program not under the umbrella of departmental majors and minors.
"This same thing happens in FOCUS programs," he said. "They are wonderful opportunities for the students, but when the faculty are teaching these classes they are not teaching in their department."
Thompson stressed the administration's support for the Study of Sexualities Certificate, a relatively small interdisciplinary effort based primarily in the cultural anthropology, English and women's studies departments. He reiterated, however, that the hiring problem that also befell the now-defunct certificates in Applied Science and in Science, Technology and Human Values is somewhat unavoidable.
"There is a triangle with the students, administration and faculty all believing that [a certificate program] is a good thing and wanting it to happen, but it's just how appointments are made--things are decided first in the department and then in programs such as these," he said.
Current juniors who are involved with the sexualities studies program will graduate with the certificate in 2005, but they will be required to complete an independent study in place of the senior-year capstone course.
"It's not like losing an English program--of course not," Allison said. "But this is a field of study that is really important, and for a school of Duke's stature, not to have a program like this one does not reflect well."
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