All powers of the University shall be vested in a Board of Trustees consisting of thirty-six elected members and the President of the University, ex officio," state the bylaws of Duke University.
There can be no clearer statement as to just what body has the ultimate authority over Duke's affairs. And that entity met this past weekend to decide issues of critical importance to Duke, including the direction that we will take and the priorities that we will embrace over the next several years.
But, like every other meeting of the Board of Trustees in recent memory, that so crucial and influential gathering was held behind closed doors under a veil of secrecy. No public comment was solicited, no explicit agenda was published and those present at the meeting (including a number of administrators and students present for certain portions) were prohibited from publicly disclosing the specifics of what occurred.
Anthony Vitarelli, Trinity '05, the Board's most recently elected Young Trustee, simply scoffed "the meetings are strictly confidential" after being asked if he could discuss anything. Duke Student Government President Jesse Longoria, a senior who spoke to the Board briefly as an undergraduate representative and answered questions, said he was required to sign a confidentiality agreement.
The only information that the Duke community receives about the meetings comes from several short press releases and a single press conference where The Chronicle is only allowed to send one reporter. Press releases are handed out and reporters from multiple news organizations vie to get as much information as possible in a limited amount of time with several Duke officials and the chairman of the Board.
And so, why should we care? Why not simply trust the Board of Trustees (and the administration, for that matter) to appropriately conduct its business behind closed doors and assume it's in the best interests of the University?
Regardless of the fact that the Board does have our best interests at heart, the Duke community deserves to understand the motives and deliberations that go into deciding matters of critical importance to the University. The only way that can happen is if the public is privy to the meetings, even if we're not given the opportunity to actively participate.
And considering all of the notions of academic freedom and the importance of open public discussion in a democratic society often espoused by President Richard Brodhead, it is difficult to grasp any explanation for keeping the meetings confidential. But recent events have also shown that there is a clear need for even the most rudimentary levels of fiscal and institutional transparency at private educational institutions.
The president of American University, Benjamin Ladner, is about to be forced out after an anonymous source tipped off the AU Trustees and the media about his improper use of university funds. According to documents provided to The Washington Post, Ladner and his wife used AU funds for, among other things, a "family engagement party that cost hundreds of dollars per person, 'professional development' trips for the couple's personal chef to Paris, London and Rome, and a lunch of more than $5,000 hosted by [Ladner's wife] for a garden club."
Ladner was able to hide behind AU's confidentiality rules, which appear very similar to those of Duke, for a full three years while he improperly spent an estimated $500,000 on personal expenses. The only reason that anyone knows about his actions is because someone in his office and someone on the AU Board of Trustees was good enough to release information to the press, putting their own positions in peril for the benefit of the public and the school.
Not to suggest that anything even remotely similar is happening at Duke, but AU's current troubles underscore the need for accountability and disclosure. While Duke is not legally obliged to disclose anything beyond what it already does, the effective and far more transparent operations of public universities demonstrate that such levels of confidentiality are not necessary to the operations of a university.
I am one of the tens of thousands of Duke students who have benefited immeasurably from the generosity of past and present donors (many of whom are current or former trustees). But I must now ask for one more thing-the simple right to know what it is that the University's ultimate governing body is considering and why it is considering it.
Elliott Wolf is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every other Tuesday.
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