Provost Peter Lange will discuss the University’s financial situation with Arts and Sciences faculty in a closed special meeting today.
Lange delivered a presentation to the Academic Council March 18 and said he will deliver similar budget presentations to faculty at all schools in the coming weeks.
The presentations will detail what cuts have been made, how much more needs to be cut, how cuts relate to the University’s priorities and how Duke’s decisions compare to peer institutions. Lange said he plans to address questions from faculty, particularly as they relate to pay increases.
In a March e-mail, President Richard Brodhead announced that benefits-eligible employees making $80,000 or less a year will receive a one-time $1,000 bonus. The pay freeze implemented last year is still in effect for all employees, he wrote.
“There’s always this suspicion that people get off better [than others],” Lange said. “It’s very hard not to increase the salary for faculty two years in a row.”
About 80 percent of monthly salaried employees, but only about 36 to 38 percent of faculty members, will receive the $1,000 bonus, Lange noted.
Lange emphasized that his presentations are meant to be an opportunity for frank dialogue and questions.
“They are closed because the fundamental point is to allow for very thorough discussion,” he said. “If the press is there, it constrains me and it constrains them.”
Lange said he plans to use a standard presentation with some school-specific slides at each meeting, adding that the information he provides will be “substantially more elaborate” than other communications about the budget.
He said schools are “in good shape” for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins in June.
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