At their meeting Thursday, Academic Council members approved a one-year Masters in Management Studies degree in the Fuqua School of Business and discussed the Sanford Institute of Public Policy's transition into an independent school.
The degree was approved on a three-year pilot basis, to run from Aug. 24, 2009 to May 13, 2012 before undergoing the degree approval process again to confirm permanent status.
Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard and Bill Boulding, associate dean for the daytime MBA program and professor of business administration, said they did not approve of the idea when it was first introduced in December 2008. They said the degree had been reconsidered, this time with a sense of urgency, with the hope that graduating seniors would be able to participate in the Fall.
"This can serve the undergraduate population without interfering with the undergraduate design," Boulding said.
The degree would add to the "portfolio of options" the University could offer corporate recruiters, Boulding said, thus increasing representation from Duke in firms without creating new competition for undergraduate seniors entering the job market.
Sheppard said it is important that the degree run for a three-year pilot in order to lay its foundations as a world-class degree.
"We ask that you give us the time for us to do this thing right," Sheppard said.
Accompanying the council's debate on the Masters in Management Studies degree, members also discussed approving the transition of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy to the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Sanford Director Bruce Kuniholm presented an outline detailing how Sanford could further the University's strategic goals, which include internationalization, interdisciplinary study and placing knowledge in the service of society. He noted that Sanford fell $10 million short of its $40 million benchmark goal to put toward faculty, but added that funding is not a large concern considering Sanford's large endowment, fiscal prudence and continued fundraising efforts.
President Richard Brodhead and Provost Peter Lange, who attended the meeting, said that although the amount raised for the school is not ideal, they acknowledged the difficult financial climate and said they believe Sanford still will manage to be fiscally sound as an independent school.
Sanford had expected to increase its tenure-track faculty to 36 at the start of the initiative, but actually increased only to 31.5, which will reduce costs, Kuniholm said.
"The critical question is now, 'Why go ahead when the benchmark has not been reached, what are the extenuating circumstances?'" Kuniholm said. "I think the answer is clear-because we can afford to do it and it makes sense."
Brodhead and Lange endorsed making Sanford a school as members debated whether it was fiscally responsible to make the transition in the current economic climate.
"This is a particular strength of the University that will allow us to capitalize on other strengths of the University," Brodhead said, adding that issues of public policy are currently particularly relevant on both domestic and global levels.
Lange said he was confident in Sanford's potential success as a school, citing the market's decline as the primary reason Sanford did not reach its benchmark goal.
"If I felt this was a weak school, I would not be in favor of it. I've dealt with weak schools and it's not fun," he said. "I don't think this is a weak school."
Lange and Executive Vice President Tallman Trask continued the University's ongoing financial discussion, updating the council on efforts at administrative reform. Trask said a group called the Duke Administrative Reform Team has been created to examine spending and work toward increased efficiency within the University. He added that the University benefits from periodically reevaluating where duplicate operations exist or spending is inefficient.
The goal is to gain administrative efficiency and cut costs while doing the least damage to-and even bettering-the University, Lange said.
"We're now in a more stringent time, and we have the advantage that we can make ourselves a fitter, trimmer institution," he said. "We are going to use this as an opportunity for innovation. Innovation doesn't always have to be expensive... necessity breeds a lot of invention."
In other business:
The council heard a presentation from Paolo Mangiafico, director of digital information strategy, on Duke's changing role in online preservation and dissemination of research and scholarship.
Duke has only been publishing some of its scholarly material online-such as online theses-for about a year, Mangiafico said, whereas other universities have been doing so for nearly a decade. Recent technological changes have forced these decisions into greater prominence, he said.
Members also unanimously approved changing the name of the Film/Video/Digital Program to the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.
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