Letter to the editor
(03/29/17 11:03pm)
Dear all:
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Dear all:
Since the April 7 Chronicle editorial encouraging the administration to “get faculty on board with Kunshan” (and Professor Pfau’s response to it the next day), countless conversations and email exchanges have demonstrated for us several things:
It ought to be pointed out that the proper procedure would have been to present a coherent and responsibly detailed vision for Kunshan to the faculty before committing to this venture. Once again, however, the Duke administration has chosen to bypass faculty counsel on another major issue of strategic planning, preferring instead to present the Kunshan adventure as a “fait (presque) accomplit.” Even more disturbing is that this particular initiative highlights the administration’s growing confusion as to Duke University’s identity. We are (and hopefully will remain) a dynamic and complex research institution in Durham. What we are not (and should not pretend to be) is some multinational corporation peddling an increasingly amorphous and empty commodity marketed as the “Duke Experience.” Had The Chronicle’s independent Editorial Board done due diligence, they would have inquired about the collateral effects of the Kunshan adventure on our finances here at Duke, which, contrary to the starry-eyed projections of our administration, remain a zero-sum game.