It's been a difficult semester for the political science department.
A shortage of international relations professors and concerns about the curriculum have led to fervent criticisms from undergraduates.
Students have complained that desirable professors are on leave, there are too few new hires and the undergraduate major is not as structured as they would expect.
Michael Munger, chair of the department, acknowledged students' concerns and said plans are in the works to provide solutions, including more faculty hires and a revision of the curriculum.
"They're absolutely right," he said of the criticisms.
He told The Chronicle earlier this year that the number of undergraduate majors in the department has doubled since 1998, but there has been no corresponding increase in faculty.
Of the 34 newly hired faculty in Arts and Sciences this year, three are within the political science department, said Carla St. John, staff assistant to the chair of the department.
St. John said the three hires are "junior tenure track professors," two of whom specialize in international relations.
Department officials identified the departure of star political science professor Robert Keohane and the fact that other key faculty, including professor Peter Feaver, are away this semester as reasons for the additional hires.
Peter Fish, director of undergraduate studies for the department, said the number of students concentrating in international relations is growing. He identified the low number of faculty specializing in the area as problematic.
"We're short in IR," he said. "More regular faculty will come back in the spring."
Fish said there is currently no data available for the precise number of students concentrating in international relations.
Although Munger also confirmed that there is a definite need for senior-level faculty specializing in international relations, the department is currently conducting a search for an Americanist.
Munger said that the department has already offered a position to an international relations professor, who decided to defer the job for a year.
"The IR person came first, but everything in academics takes time," he explained.
Senior Jonathan Ross said some students are being neglected because the number of students concentrating in international relations has increased within the past few years and the number of faculty has not grown.
"A lot of advisers have so many advisees that it's hard to get attention," he said, adding that the problem is exacerbated by the requirement that all seniors participate in an upper-level seminar within their concentration. "I don't think they have enough resources."
The problem in international relations is unique-in addition to the increase in students focusing in the area, several key faculty are on leave this semester. According to the Department of Political Science website, six of the 11 professors specializing in the area-Albert Eldridge, Feaver, Ole Holsti, Judith Kelley, Frederick Mayer and Emerson Niou-are not teaching a course at Duke this fall.
"The visiting professors are not up to the quality that the Duke professors are," said senior Kate Abramson, a political science minor and public policy studies major. She added that she was deterred from majoring in political science partly because of the lack of professors.
Fish recognized many of these complaints. He added that the problem of a "crunch" on faculty is made worse by other University demands.
Due to certain stipulations, several professors are involved in FOCUS programs, first-year seminars and the graduate program, thus taking them away from undergraduate majors, he said.
"Hence the need to rely on part-time faculty," Fish said.
Students also said they did not like the comparatively loose structure of the curriculum, which requires majors to take at least five courses in their concentration plus one in each of the others.
Some undergraduates favored more structured and well-balanced curriculums that require students to take several core classes before allowing them to progress through the major, such as those in economics and public policy studies.
"If you're on top of things you can make it work out, otherwise it's kind of a mess," Ross said of the political science curriculum.
Others said a more varied curriculum would expose majors to a more defined core and a wider breadth of ideas.
"I don't learn anything breathtakingly new," said James Chiang, a senior.
Some students acknowledged that the University has made strides in other departments and said the same must be done for one of the most popular areas of study at Duke.
Recent revisions to the public policy major have included curriculum pathways and core prerequisite courses meant to create a notion of progress through the field for students. Economics department officials also recently announced plans to enhance and retool the major.
Munger said department officials are planning on revising the curriculum, but it is unlikely that any changes will take until next year. Under the proposed revisions, Munger said he hopes to institute prerequisite courses for the major and develop a set of core classes for each concentration.
Some students, however, like senior Justin Browder, said they are generally satisfied with the department.
"You can really get into it if you find a professor that piques your interest," he said, adding that he has had little trouble finding adequate professors within his comparative politics concentration and he likes the flexibility the current curriculum allows.
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