Duke University&'s Board of Trustees this weekend approved a major new financial aid program, two construction projects and two new graduate degree programs, and heard reports on a presidential review, the future of athletics and Duke's Central Campus.
The financial aid program, which will make a Duke education more affordable to students from lower- and middle-income families, is described in detail on a special website: http://dukefinancialaid.duke.edu/newsupport.
Among the building projects approved by the trustees is a $9.5 million plan to construct two new housing facilities for the animals at the Duke Lemur Center.
Lemurs, primate cousins of humans that face devastating habitat losses in their native home of Madagascar, are used at Duke in numerous studies of cognition and social behavior. The new facilities will improve the center's ability to let the animals roam free in the woods and scientists' ability to observe them in action, said center director Anne Yoder, professor of biology.
The two buildings, totaling about 20,000 square feet of enclosed space, will effectively triple the number of lemurs that will be allowed to range free year-round at the center, Yoder said. "We can open the doors and they go out to the forest."
The enclosures also will eliminate the costly and energy-inefficient seasonal enclosures that Lemur Center workers have constructed out of heavy plastic sheeting in years past, she said.
Yoder said the new facilities are the first phase of a long-range facility improvement plan, which will be carried out largely through philanthropy.
The board also approved Phase I of a project to renovate Wallace Wade Stadium. This early phase - -- expected to cost about $5 million - -- will add two new restrooms and a concession stand inside the football stadium, and study other possible improvements.
The trustees also approved a joint Ph.D. degree with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to be called "The Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies." Department officials said the new graduate program will allow two small but nationally respected German studies faculties to create a top-ranked program that is both rigorous and interdisciplinary.
In addition, the trustees approved a new doctoral program in nursing (see story at http://news.duke.edu/2007/12/nursing.html).
The board received three reports at its meeting. The reports were:
-- 1. from a presidential review committee on Richard H. Brodhead's first three years as president. Duke regularly conducts such reviews of its officers and deans. President Nannerl O. Keohane went through a similar review in her third year of office.
Trustee vice chair Dan Blue, who chaired the presidential review, told the trustees his committee had interviewed some 120 people and directly solicited comments from members of the university community and others with knowledge of the president's leadership. Overall, the committee heard from more than 500 people, including some with no relationship to Duke.
Blue said the "review committee's report affirmed Brodhead's leadership, after considering his goals and vision for the university, his effectiveness in advancing its interests, the exciting challenges and opportunities facing Duke, and the wide range of comments and opinions we heard." Referring to the Duke lacrosse case, he said, "The committee heard from people who were disappointed with Duke's handling of the case and others who felt strongly that President Brodhead had managed a uniquely difficult situation with maturity. Those who communicated with the committee can be confident the spectrum of views was heard, considered and reported to the trustees and to President Brodhead. The review committee has now completed its work."
-- 2. from Athletics Director Joe Alleva on the athletic strategic plan that is now being formulated, including a report on Duke's search for a new head football coach. Alleva told the trustees that the strategic planning committee expected to present its recommendations and plans to the board in spring 2008.
-- 3. from architect Cesar Pelli who presented a conceptual framework for Duke's new Central Campus. Pelli is leading a team from Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects that is developing an overall vision for the campus and its architecture. Pelli is expected to refine the concepts for another presentation to the trustees in spring 2008.