Although Valerie Ashby has spent most of her adult life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she has not had a problem embracing a darker shade of blue this year—as dean of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.
Ashby, who took over as dean July 1, gave her first address to the Arts and Sciences Council Thursday. She emphasized how excited she was to begin her time at Duke after more than a decade at UNC, most recently as chair of the chemistry department. She laid out three goals to start her five-year term as dean—leadership training and faculty mentoring, future academic excellence across departments and increased diversity.
“Duke is a place where excellence is the expectation and goal,” Ashby said. “It is now my privilege to imagine the possibilities for talented undergraduates, budding graduate students and postdoctoral researchers—and make those possibilities happen.”
Ashby's first few months on the job have been busy, meeting with divisional deans, department chairs, students and directors of centers and institutes to better understand Trinity. She added that the opportunity for that sort of collaboration was a large part of why she took the job.
“It was not, as Coach K jokingly suggested, just because I already lived in Durham,” Ashby said, noting that men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski welcomed her to Duke with a gift of Blue Devils athletic gear.
Ashby replaced Laurie Patton, who announced last Fall that she would depart to become the president of Middlebury College after serving three years as the Trinity dean. The switch comes at a pivotal point for Trinity—just beginning an overhaul of its curriculum and finally back into the green after years of budget cuts and deficits.
To start her time as dean, Ashby will focus on building strong experiences for students and faculty alike.
Especially important is diversity, which in all its various forms is at the core of a liberal arts education, she said.
“We learn the most from the people with whom we have the least in common,” she noted.
In other business:
A bylaw revision was proposed to change representation on the Committee on Global Education for Undergraduates, which is responsible for approving study abroad and domestic study away programs. If successful, the revision would expand membership on the committee to include additional Trinity faculty members and to add representatives from the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Sanford School of Public Policy. Some faculty members questioned the need for expansion and how best to make sure the committee accurately reflects the students who study abroad.
A new certificate in sustainability engagement was proposed. The certificate would require four courses and two "experiences," such as internships or participation in DukeEngage programs.
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