Nancy Allen: The Year in Review at the Academic Council

The following address was presented at the annual meeting of the faculty.

It is with pleasure that I speak with you today to provide an update from the Academic Council to the faculty of Duke University. We have heard President Keohane's thought-provoking and eloquent remarks, and although I promise to be brief and to try to keep you awake, I hope you won't try to make comparisons. Our names start with the same first three letters, and we both have Duke and Wellesley blue blood running through our veins, but in speaking I admit that I am no rival.

I will spend a few minutes looking back, and a few more looking to the future, since we will see many changes in the course of the coming year.

As far as faculty governance at Duke goes, I submit that we are doing well. Over 275 faculty members across all schools serve annually on university, trustee or Academic Council committees. We are fortunate to have dedicated and talented individuals who not only look out for their own interests but broadly for the interests of others in service on the myriad of committees.

I will start with the Executive Committee of the Academic Council (ECAC), which consists of six elected representatives from different areas within the university, the Council chair, each serving a two-year term, and the Faculty Secretary, elected for one year. Currently, Paul Haagen (Law), Michele Longino (French and Francophone Studies), Fritz Mayer (Public Policy), Barry Myers (Biomedical Engineering), Ann Marie Pendergast (Pharmacology and Cancer Biology), and Josh Socolar (Physics) meet weekly along with Don Fluke (Biology emeritus) and myself to ponder the issues needing discussion. We deeply appreciate the expert assistance of Linda Lehman in managing the Academic Council office, and the financial support from the Provost Roman's office, both key in carrying out our responsibilities to the faculty.

ECAC meets regularly (actually monthly as specified in the Christie report) with the President, the Provost, the Executive Vice President, and when needed with other key administrators, chairs of committees and task forces. We form relationships with Trustees in service on BoT committees and in meeting with the Executive Committee of the Board once or twice a year. Many things happen behind the scenes so that we bring substantive issues to the Council in the spirit of the Christie report (adopted by the Academic Council on September 28, 1972). Item number 5 in the summary of recommendations is practically inscribed in my brain: Except in emergencies, all major decisions and plans of the administration that significantly affect academic affairs should be submitted to the Academic Council for an expression of views at some time prior to implementation or submission to the Board of Trustees. The views expressed by the Academic Council should be transmitted along with the Administration's proposals when these plans and decisions are considered by the BoT. We try our best to live by those words. I report that our working relationships with President Keohane, Provost Lange and EVP Trask (or T3 the terminator as he is known) are excellent, most of the time. On occasion, we put our sign on the table did you remember to consult the faculty even if it will open up a can of worms. The more ideas, the better.

ECAC serves as a committee on committees, making recommendations of faculty to serve on university committees, or appointing those who serve on Academic Council committees. What are they and what do they do?

I will start with key Academic Council committees. The Faculty Scholars Committee, chaired by Ben Ward (Philosophy), which now makes an annual report with the announcement of three senior students receiving these awards in time for Founder's Day: Ethan Duff Eade, Sara Kiersten Hudson, David William Marks. The Faculty Compensation Committee, chaired by Michael Lavine (Institute of Statistics and Decision Sciences), examines matters related to all forms of faculty compensation and benefits. Last spring, the FCC provided its biannual report on Salary Equity. The Faculty Committee on Elections, under the competent leadership of Bill Reppy (Law), does not allow hanging chads, but expertly supervises the election of members of the Academic Council. Today the faculty considers a change to the University Bylaws, which will extend eligibility to serve on the Council to regular rank non-tenure track faculty. Thus, this committee's task will be more complicated beginning with next year's election. Emily Klein (Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences) chairs the Faculty Commons Committee, which was instrumental in saving our space last spring and promoting the change in vendors (to Sage and Swift) once this occurred during the summer. The Faculty Hearing Committee is a long-standing and very important committee chaired by Bob Mosteller (Law), with functions defined by Appendices C and M in the Faculty Handbook. This committee keeps a low profile, but we wouldn't want to do without it in times of need. Likewise, we are grateful for the service of the Faculty Ombudsman, Paul Killenberg (Medicine/Gastroenterology). The Trustee Nominating Committee chaired by Dale Purves (Neurobiology) forwards nominations from the faculty to the Trustee Screening (not screaming) Committee, on which former Council chair Peter Burian and I sit, along with President Keohane and several trustees. I urge all of you to take the time to be involved in the University in whatever ways you are comfortable, to encourage your colleagues to do so, and to contact the chairs of committees or ECAC with your ideas and concerns.

Last spring, the Academic Council passed a resolution to improve two existing committees and to give them new names: the University Priorities Committee (old PACOR), and the Academic Programs Committee (still APC but was the Academic Priorities Committee). I wish to thank John Simon (Chemistry) and his ad hoc committee for their hard work in assessing the situation and moving us toward better structure in light of function of the two committees. Jim Cox (Law) chairs UPC and Tim Strauman (Psychology: Social and Health Sciences) chairs APC, and both have begun their work for this academic year. The Academic Council looks forward to their first annual reports next spring. These committees should serve the faculty and the university well.

The decade-long Black Faculty Strategic Initiative comes to a close this fall, and we will hear the final report from Provost Lange at AC in November. In preparation for this, the Provost launched two task forces last year, one on Faculty Diversity, chaired by Rex Adams (Fuqua) and the other, in conjunction with the President, on Women's Faculty Development, chaired by Susan Roth (Psychology: Social and Health Sciences), and which grew out issues raised by the work of the President's Initiative. The Academic Council heard both reports in May, the Provost responded in September with a Diversity Implementation Plan, and the Council will discuss this further at our meeting today, considering a resolution on this topic.

Athletics: this is not a topic I anticipated when I became chair of the Academic Council in the summer of 2002. My colleagues and I have learned a great deal. From the ACC expansion issues, which raised a number of questions pertaining to faculty governance, to the power of football television contracts and the like, to the formation of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, ECAC and the full Council have heard deliberations on these issues. We realize that we are much more fortunate than many of our faculty colleagues across the country in terms of our current administration and faculty leaders, their vision and our policy statements on intercollegiate athletics. ECAC has had discussions with Kathleen Smith (Biology), who chairs the Athletic Council, with President Keohane, and with the Trustees. Paul Haagen, our Council Vice Chair, attended the COIA/AAUP/NCAA meeting last weekend and reports on this soon.

During the last academic year the Council considered and passed a new Parental Leave and Tenure Clock Relief Policy and this policy now rests in the new e-version of the Faculty Handbook just released. Shepherding this policy through the channels was not an easy task and took substantial time and work on the part of many individuals and committees in the University. As a result of efforts by the Provost and the Dean of the School of Medicine, we have a unified policy and showed that it can be done; that is, bridging the campus and the medical center. Speaking of this, we heard APT reports from the Provost and from the chair of the clinical sciences APT committee (Michael Frank, Pediatrics) last year. Angela O'Rand (Sociology) presented a report from the Retirement Committee, and Provost Lange responded with a Policy for Emeritus Faculty, endorsed by the Academic Council in early 2003.

And now for the future'

We are in a sea of change, with higher swells than in most academic years. Search committees are working as we speak on finding the best and brightest candidates for Dean of Arts and Sciences, the Chancellor for Health Affairs/CEO of the Duke Health System, and the ninth President of Duke University. I am serving on the latter two committees and wish to assure you that both of these are working extremely well and with great enthusiasm. The search committee for the new Dean of Nursing will be established in the next month or so.

In recognizing the need to find a ninth President, I cannot let the opportunity pass to thank President Keohane for her superb leadership in all areas of the University, whether it be her excellent administrative team, the wild success of the Campaign for Duke, all freshmen on East, the Women's Initiative, the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, the growth of departments, programs and centers, creating the Duke Health System Board, or just plain dealing with the faculty. We deeply appreciate your leadership, Nan.

Now, as a special presentation, since this is the last time you preside over the Annual Faculty meeting, I would like for you to come forward. You will be moving on next year to a sabbatical at Stanford. With the time you will have to think, we wanted you to know of an opportunity to study in the area of ultra-modern political philosophy.

We won't say hasta la vista, Nan; we'll just say, you'll be back."

Speech given by Dr. Nancy B. Allen, Chair of the Academic Council.