President Richard Brodhead melded idealistic vision and current campus affairs at his first Annual Report to the University Faculty meeting Thursday.
President Richard Brodhead melded idealistic vision and current campus affairs at his first Annual Report to the University Faculty meeting Thursday. Brodhead took advantage of the yearly event to assure faculty that he values their input and to comment on last weekend’s Palestine Solidarity Movement conference.
An engaged faculty is essential to the realization of his vision of a university that is unconstrained by disciplinary boundaries and is a center of inspirational teaching and brilliant scholarship, Brodhead said. He affirmed his support of the Christie Rule—the requirement that administrators present important decisions to the Academic Council before they are considered by the full Board of Trustees—which he described as the University’s “Magna Carta.”
“I will continue to consult the faculty on all matters of import,” Brodhead said. “Duke will be what the faculty aspire to make it, for better or for worse.”
Grounding the discussion in recent events, Brodhead praised the faculty response to the PSM conference, which he said exemplified the ideal of strong faculty governance. He offered his gratitude for the Executive Committee of the Academic Council’s statement supporting the decision to let PSM hold the conference at Duke.
Brodhead also explained his response to a controversial column by senior Philip Kurian printed in The Chronicle this week. Calling the column’s publication “inappropriate,” he expressed his empathy for those hurt by Kurian’s words.
“It was particularly dismaying for the many students participating in the Freeman Center for Jewish Life,” Brodhead said, acknowledging their hard work and decision not to protest at the conference.
Even though he is a strong proponent of free speech, Brodhead said, he felt strongly enough to write to The Chronicle in response. He added that if he is to defend the right to free expression, “It might fall to somebody to defend the right of all of us to be free from prejudice.”
During the meeting of the Academic Council that followed, representatives from the School of Nursing presented their proposal to institute a doctoral program in nursing. Professors Elizabeth Clipp and Ruth Anderson, who designed the proposal and would serve as co-directors of the program, set forth their rationale.
By opening its doors to Ph.D. candidates, the School of Nursing aims to prepare nurse scientists for academic careers, Clipp explained, thus helping to address a nationwide shortage of nurses with doctoral degrees among university faculties. She added that the new program would also help with faculty recruitment. “Currently, we are the most highly ranked school of nursing in the country that does not have a doctoral program,” Clipp said.
Faculty at the School of Nursing have the experience and qualifications necessary to make the proposed program a success, Anderson said. Doctoral candidates would receive full support throughout the four to five years of their work toward the degree, based around the theme “Trajectories of Chronic Illness and Care Systems.” Only four to six students would join the program each year, keeping its size small.
Anderson also defended the decision to offer a Ph.D. in nursing rather than a doctorate of nursing science, noting that nine of the country’s top 10 doctoral programs in nursing have chosen to award the Ph.D. After the presentation, faculty members asked few questions.
Catherine Gilliss, who became dean of the School of Nursing at the beginning of this month, gave her first brief address to the Council in support of the initiative.
“It is a very rigorous proposal, one that I fully endorse,” Gilliss said.
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