Durham, NC - In March 2009, Provost Peter Lange charged the deans with reviewing their strategic plans.

 "Now, facing financial challenges and constraints in the face of a global recession," Lange said, "we need to think again how best to advance our strategic ambitions."

These financial challenges look different within Duke's schools and institutes, where revenue streams and expenses vary. Some schools, such as the Nicholas School of the Environment, rely more heavily on endowments and research funding, while other schools like Duke Law depend more on tuition as a primary revenue source.

Working@Duke recently asked William L. Chameides, dean for the Nicholas School of the Environment, and David F. Levi, dean for Duke Law, how their schools are weathering the economic downturn, while advancing strategic priorities.

William L. Chameides, Nicholas School of the Environment

What is your school doing to balance its budget in this economic climate?

The Nicholas School is looking at the economic downturn as an opportunity to become more strategic; in terms of efficiency as well as building new revenue streams.

Research: The world faces complex environmental problems. Despite the economic downturn, we can anticipate increased public and private funding to study these problems and their remedies. While our faculty already is highly productive in research, we have developed a new strategic plan to be even more productive in the coming years.

Undergraduate Education: The Marine Lab in Beaufort offers Duke undergraduates a unique opportunity to spend a semester at a world-class research facility on the Atlantic coast in a small class, experiential learning environment for studies in the natural and social sciences. We are committed to making the Marine Lab available to as many students as possible and toward that end, we have ramped up our campaign to let students know about the lab.

New Programs: We are exploring how we can attract a more diverse population of American and international students through an expansion of existing programs and development of new academic programs.

Outreach: Through an invigorated outreach program (e.g., the Duke LEAF award given to Robert Redford last year), we are raising the Nicholas School's visibility and increasing our pool of friends and supporters. We are most grateful to those who have given us a great start to this year's Annual Fund campaign.

How is your school advancing its strategic goals during these tough financial times?

Our aspiration to create knowledge and leaders of consequence for a sustainable future is fundamental to all that we do, and we have developed a new strategic plan to meet this goal despite the economic times. We will place greater emphasis on society's most serious environmental problems; e.g., energy and climate, provisioning ecosystems and ocean resources, and environmental health, and to do so by stressing our strength -- a multidisciplinary paradigm based on understanding the connections between the natural world and social and human institutions.

How will the financial crisis affect the environment field in the years to come?

Despite the financial crisis, environmental programs will continue to thrive. Given current environmental problems, funding for environmental research and the need for environmental professionals and scientists should not wane. Indeed last year saw a significant uptick in applicants, and through proactive recruiting, we translated that applicant base into one of our best classes ever.

A far greater concern is our resolve to steward the environment. Some believe that economic well-being and environmental stewardship are mutually exclusive and so, in times of economic stress, the environmental must be sacrificed. One of our jobs at the Nicholas School is to foster a better understanding of the role that the environment plays in supporting our economic and physical well-being.

David F. Levi, Duke Law

What is your school doing to balance its budget in this economic climate?

We are, to the maximum extent possible, reducing administrative costs. We saved half a million dollars through cuts to less critical administrative services. We have been very careful about filling new positions on the administrative side. We asked everyone to be careful about travel and entertainment expenses, and people have responded to that request. As everyone knows, we have had a salary freeze -- a sacrifice on the part of all our faculty and staff -- and that generated a significant savings. As a result, we have not been forced to lay anyone off.

On the revenue side, we have looked to our alumni to maintain or expand giving, despite the economic uncertainty. Giving is down, but thanks to the efforts of our annual fund team, we had a strong annual fund year last year and are off to a solid start this year as well. We also admitted a few more students to our LLM program, which generated some additional tuition income. Our JD class is also large, but that is mostly due to a surge in matriculations rather than a deliberate effort to raise tuition dollars; in fact, because overall scholarship awards are at a record high, the actual average cost of attending Duke Law went down this year.

How is your school advancing its strategic goals during these tough financial times?

We are focused on the two critical areas that make a law school great -- faculty and students. We had a tremendous hiring year for faculty, and because some of our peer institutions are more financially pressed than we are, we think this is a time for Duke to make great hires. As to students, because of the commitment of our alumni to help later generations of students and because of the successful completion of the financial aid initiative, we have been in a position to provide more in scholarship aid than ever before. This helps us continue to attract some of the best students in the country to Duke.

How will the financial crisis affect the field of law in the years to come?

The legal economy has been disrupted over the past year and will continue to be uncertain over the next year or two. This has had a significant impact on career planning for our students and alumni. It is unclear whether that disruption will accelerate existing trends or lead to something very different. As I look at things now, it is my best judgment that we will see relatively few long-term changes, and that what we may in fact be seeing is a return to a more normal legal economy, such as that which existed before the super-heated legal environment of the past five years or so. If that is the case, we can live with that and do well.

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