President Richard Brodhead delivered the Annual Report of the University to the Academic Council Thursday, noting the impact of the recent financial crisis and describing plans to expand Duke's brand globally.
Brodhead began the report by addressing the University's financial situation in light of the economic climate. He read a statement, which was later e-mailed to the rest of the University, in which he said Duke has a "strong financial foundation." Brodhead described Duke's situation as "stable and secure."
"Duke has always been a place of outrageous ambition, and we must sustain our forward movement, even in what we hope will be a temporary dislocation in the global economy.... We'll meet the current challenges, and we'll continue to advance Duke toward its highest goals," he said.
Noting that Duke's endowment saw a 6.2 percent increase in market value at the end of the last fiscal year, Brodhead said Duke would continue its commitment to providing need-blind admissions and financial aid that meets 100 percent of students' demonstrated need. He added that Duke is within $2 million of achieving its $300-million fundraising goal for the Financial Aid Initiative, launched in 2005.
Executive Vice President Tallman Trask discussed the factors that have allowed the University to largely weather the crisis. He said Duke primarily holds investments in foreign markets, which were affected but not ruined by the downturn. The University will not have to significantly change its spending patterns in response to the crisis, he added. Trask said economic problems have not had a drastic effect on Duke's financial situation. He said he did not anticipate any changes in Duke's debt or equity, unless another catastrophic event occurs.
Brodhead continued his annual report with a discussion of what Duke's physical location means to the University's global presence, and he described how Duke's "location" is changing. Brodhead said though the Durham campus will always be "Duke's mothership," the University is expanding across the nation and the globe to the benefit of all.
"The Duke of today has the peculiarity that it is both centered in one place and connected seemingly everyplace," Brodhead said. "And this means that to go to Duke nowadays means both to come here and be at home here, and by virtue of your Duke connection, to be initiated into an extraordinarily complicated global network."
Focusing on expansion and connections, Brodhead addressed plans for New Campus as well as Duke's continued movement into Durham. He noted that 1,800 people and jobs will be moved from campus to downtown locations. Brodhead called the University's expansion a positive and necessary process for Duke to remain a top institution.
"A university that once moved its site in order to escape from isolation will not desire to create new, self-enclosed enclaves in foreign countries," he said. "Duke will be more than a sum of its parts if it remembers to connect the parts."
In other business:
Paula McClain, a professor of political science and chair of the Academic Council, ended the faculty meeting with a speech emphasizing the importance of faculty participation in university governance. She reminded council members that their voices are important in making decisions, and said to ensure that they continue to be heard.
"Faculty-shared governance is an established principle at Duke University, and it works well, but it is something we cannot take for granted," she said.
The Academic Council also heard a brief presentation from Dr. Michael Merson, director of the Duke Global Health Institute, about the proposed Master of Science in Global Health program. Merson presented an outline of the program and answered questions from the council. A vote is scheduled for Nov. 20.
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