The Board of Trustees will vote on two facility-related items and hear updates on various academic programs at its first meeting of the academic year this weekend.
The Trustees will vote to approve two separate segments of the West Union building renovations project—the start of renovations to Baldwin Auditorium and the plan for a new pavilion that will temporarily house dining facilities, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public relations and government affairs. Renovations to the West Union building itself will not begin until Spring 2013, at the earliest. Renovations to Page Auditorium will follow.
The Board will also vote on continued renovations to the West Campus steam plant, Schoenfeld added.
“We have an interesting and diverse agenda,” Board of Trustees Chair Richard Wagoner, former president and CEO of General Motors Corp. and Trinity ’75, said. “There are a couple of projects that are, to a certain extent, symbolic of directions of the University.”
Renovations to Baldwin, for example, are an important statement of the University’s commitment to the arts, and the West Campus steam plant project is in line with the University’s environmental commitments, Wagoner said. He noted that from these perspectives, these projects are particularly vital initiatives.
Baldwin is currently closed, as some minor demolition has started, though the major work will not start for another month or so, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask wrote in an email Thursday.
The new pavilion will accommodate eateries and students displaced by renovations to the West Union, Schoenfeld said. Once West Union is completed, the pavilion will be used to hold events.
“[The Board is] getting an update on West Union planning and being asked to appoint an architect for the ‘box’, which is temporarily food then event space,” Trask said.
The new building will likely be located along Union Service Drive near the forest area, though a specific site has not yet been picked, Trask said.
The Facilities and Environment Committee of the Board of Trustees will hear a broader update and discussion on the plans for the remaining West Union renovations and designs, though Schoenfeld said there is still a lot of work to do on the project.
West Campus steam plant renovations began in May, with the plant burning the last of its coal in April. Renovations will continue to promote sustainability. The full renovations are expected to be completed by October 2012.
The Board will vote on measures such as converting some of the power-producing units and putting in capacity for more natural gas-powered generators, Wagoner said.
In addition, Provost Peter Lange and Global Health Institute Director Dr. Michael Merson, who also serves as the interim vice president and vice provost for the Office of Global Strategy and Programs, will give a presentation on Duke Kunshan University to the Board.
“There has been a lot of work since the Board last met on that topic in a number of areas—they just announced some new leadership,” Wagoner said. “Everybody’s anxious.”
Nora Bynum, associate vice provost for the Office of Global Strategy and Programs and managing director for DKU and China initiatives, will also lead the DKU presentation. A presentation will be given to the academic affairs committee on the state of academic programs being developed for DKU and where those programs are in terms of faculty approval, Bynum said. They will also be discussing the work of the global priorities committee of the Academic Council and the China Faculty Council with the Board.
“We’re talking about those two organizations because [the Trustees] haven’t heard about them in detail before,” Bynum said. “We’ll end by talking about key issues that we’re working on.”
Bynum said the two primary objectives in DKU’s progress at the moment are trying to accelerate the Chinese government’s approval of DKU as much as possible and overseeing construction progress.
“We’re also going to discuss how we’re working to encourage and facilitate faculty engagement,” she added.
Lange said progress on a project of this scale tends to come in many small steps.
“We are making substantial progress on the DKU project, encountering the kinds of glitches and challenges you would expect in a project of this kind, working in a distant and culturally unfamiliar [area], working with new partners on complex issues,” Lange wrote in an email Thursday.
Bruce Kuniholm, dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy, will also give a presentation to the Board on the state of the Sanford School. The presentation is the first one given to the Board since Sanford became a school in 2009, Schoenfeld said. Kuniholm announced in August that he will step down as dean at the end of this academic year.
“The BOT chair has asked me to talk about Sanford, our objectives, the progress we’ve made in meeting them, the challenges and opportunities we see going forward and how the Board can help,” Kuniholm wrote in an email Thursday.
Wagoner said that there is a certain poetic justice in Kuniholm’s presentation this weekend.
“Many of us were here when Sanford became a school,” Wagoner said. “Dean Kuniholm has really overseen it for such a long period of time and has really marked some very impressive milestones in the development of the school.”
Kuniholm will discuss the status of Sanford and its objectives for the future, Wagoner said, including potential strategies for how the Board can support the school and help achieve its goals.
The Trustees will review the University’s financial statements and the endowment’s performance, Schoenfeld said. The Duke University Management Company will give an update and presentation on the University’s performance in fiscal year 2010-2011.
“Given the turmoil in the marketplace, there is a lot of interest in how [DUMAC is] doing and positioning themselves, given the risk in the current financial markets,” Wagoner said.
DUMAC returned 24.5 percent for fiscal year 2010-2011, which ended June 30, Trask said.
“Overall financials for last year were much better than expected, but much of that involved one-time special funds, so we still have work to do,” Trask said.
Six Trustees and three observing members will join the Board for the first time Friday. The new members were named to the Board in July.
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