The Board of Trustees had a full plate at Friday's meeting, approving the expansion of Duke University Hospital's emergency department, the fiscal year 2004-05 budget and a professorship and athletic scholarship named for outgoing President Nan Keohane.
The $29.8 million emergency department renovation, which could begin as early as January 2005, will include updated facilities and improve traffic flow within the department. Built in 1981, the facility no longer meets spatial or technological needs, said Peter Nicholas, chair of the Board of Trustees.
"[The situation involved] a tension between trying to respond earlier with expansion, versus being sure that we were able to move in with the most recent understanding of how the center was going to work, how the flow of patients and emergency crew is going to change over the years [and] all of the other elements so that we can put something in place now that will anticipate the next 10 to 20 years," he said.
The emergency department sees more than 59,000 patients annually, and recent Duke University Health System estimates indicate that the number will rise to 90,000 by 2015 as patient demand and regional growth continue their upward trend.
In addition to the Duke Hospital project, the Trustees also approved the University's balanced operating budget for FY 2004-05. For the coming fiscal year, the University will operate with a budget of $1.426 billion, a 6.8 percent increase over the current year. The increase includes the income from a 4.5 percent raise in tuition and mandatory fees for undergraduates that was approved at the Board's last meeting in February.
"There are a number of expenses that exceed the increase in tuition, one being financial aid," said Hof Milam, vice president of financial services, noting that undergraduate aid was up 20 percent and graduate student aid was up 18 percent. "Financial aid is growing faster than tuition is. We have the dual policies at Duke of need-blind admissions and the policy of meeting full financial need, and given the downturn in the economy, there's greater financial need among the students that are admitted."
An increase in grant revenue will offset the increased expenditures for financial aid, Nicholas said.
Milam added that several new buildings are coming online sometime during the next year, leading to an increase in operating expenses. The buildings set to open soon include the Nasher Museum of Art, the Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences and the Divinity School addition.
Before they adjourned for the afternoon, the Trustees approved one last measure, naming a University professorship and a women's athletic scholarship for Keohane.
The Nannerl O. Keohane University professorship is one of 10 such endowed professorships intended for "scholars distinguished by their ability to transcend academic disciplines." By definition, they have joint appointments among departments or schools at the University.
"Because of her great love of faculty and teaching, and because of her genuine partnership with faculty that we've said so many times is the basis for so much of the progress we've made here, this seemed like a natural thing for us to do," Nicholas said, noting that every trustee participated in funding the professorship. "It's an extraordinary gesture for an extraordinary leader."
IN OTHER BUSINESS:
The Board approved the transfer of the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy from the School of Medicine to Arts and Sciences and changed the name of the "University Program in Genetics" to the "University Program in Genetics and Genomics."
The leadership of the Board will remain unchanged for the coming year. Nicholas was re-elected to serve as chair, Robert Steele as vice chair and Allison Haltom as secretary.
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