Durham, NC - President Richard H. Brodhead and Provost Peter Lange sent a message at Thursday's meeting of the Academic Council that progress is being made on the new Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and faculty will be full partners in important decisions this year affecting academic programs and governance at the venture.

"We are making progress by 100 steps, but we have 1,000 to go," Lange said.

"Generally, we have been making steady progress on all fronts, while encountering the kinds of glitches and issues one would expect in a project of this kind working in a distant and culturally unfamiliar setting, working with new partners, on complex issues."

DKU is in a joint venture with the City of Kunshan and Wuhan University to create a Western-model liberal arts institution in China. Lange said the university will serve both as an educational center to offer degree programs and as a base of operations to support Duke research and scholarship throughout the country.

The first phase of DKU is expected to begin with a masters of management studies science program from Fuqua and a masters of science program from the Duke Global Health Institute. Other schools including Law and Nicholas are also interested in developing DKU programs, and a small undergraduate program will eventually follow.

Brodhead and Lange faced questions from faculty members who filled the seats of the Westbrook lecture room, leaving some two dozen faculty members to stand in the back.  At the start of the meeting, new Council Chair Susan Lozier, professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences, expressed concern about a "communications gap" between administrators and faculty on the issue that left a "contingent of the faculty feeling as though a rocket is being assembled before we know whether there is rocket fuel available or whether the rocket fuel is affordable."

Yet Lozier also said she found the administration open to her concerns about academic programs and governance, academic freedom and human rights, as well as about the project's financial viability.  And she said she expects the faculty to be engaged in important discussions about China planned for this year.

"Being brought late to the game does not mean sitting out the game," Lozier said.  "We have a responsibility to engage.  It does not mean we have the obligation to approve programs that do not meet our standards, but it also does not mean that we should withhold approval of programs simply because we thought we should have been at the table earlier."

Against these concerns, Brodhead and Lange told faculty that the DKU project is on track to begin a small number of classes in spring 2013 and that Chinese officials have agreed to Duke's fundamental principles of academic freedom and quality.  They also announced new leadership structures to promote faculty engagement and to aid Duke officials in negotiating with the Chinese bureaucracy.

Lange announced the formation of a China Faculty Council chaired by Law Professor Paul Haagen, a former Academic Council chair and the leader of Duke Law's China initiatives.  This council of about 20 faculty members who specialize in Chinese scholarship will advise the administration on academic programs at DKU and elsewhere in China.

The council will join other faculty governing bodies, such as the new Global Priorities Committee and the Academic Council, in reviewing degree and non-degree academic programs and faculty hiring at DKU.

Brodhead also said William Kirby, a former dean of arts and sciences at Harvard University and a leading scholar of Chinese higher education, will serve as a senior adviser to the project.

"Quite simply, you're not going to find anybody [better than Kirby] who knows both sides of the equation or the possibilities and perils of this project," Brodhead said.  "He will be immensely valuable to us all."

* Lange showed photos of the new buildings rising on the Kunshan campus, noting that weather and quality oversight-related delays will push back completion of the construction to the end of 2012. Manageable construction cost overruns to cover quality oversight have occurred, said Lange, who noted that while the City of Kunshan is paying for most of the construction, "we wanted to ensure the quality of the construction met the standards we have for this campus, so we have invested in quality assurance to give us greater oversight." Lange added the overruns will be paid for from a maintenance fund and will not impact any departmental budgets.

The first phase of the DKU campus will include more than 700,000 square feet of classroom, space, which is twice the size of the Levine Science Research Center on the Durham campus.

Tasks for 2011-12 include getting final approval from the Chinese Ministry of Education, completing plans for the degree programs, setting tuition rates, recruiting students and continuing fund-raising, under the charge of former Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard.  The target is $10 million, with $6 million already pledged, Lange said.

Brodhead referred to the coming year as "The Year of the Beaver," as Duke officials get intensely focused "to define the project and perfect the financial models" so that DKU may open in 2012.  The bottom line, Brodhead said, is that for all of the uncertainty Duke has faced in moving forward on the project, the strongest evidence of its likely success is repeated assurances from Chinese educators that they need and want the kind of education Duke offers.

The financial risk is minimal, requiring a smaller investment than other recent strategic priorities such as global health, and the possibilities are exciting, he said.

"Our only motive is educational," Brodhead said.  "We are trying to find a place to participate in new models of education in China."