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Watching the Arts & Sciences Budget

Dean says central administration will look to absorb Arts & Sciences deficit

Arts & Sciences faces a deficit of about 1 percent of its budget, and Dean George McLendon says for now the shortfall will be absorbed by the unit's central administration.

Speaking Thursday to the Arts & Sciences Council, McLendon said he proposed to save $500,000 by temporarily holding open unfilled positions in central administration and another $1 million by postponing some capital projects.

McLendon said he is taking the further step to cut Arts & Sciences building overhead costs and by asking for savings assistance from non-academic units.

The news came as some relief to faculty members on the council at a time where the news is filled with announcements of deeper budget cuts across the nation at both public and private institutions. But McLendon did warn that while Duke's financial position is stronger than most universities, academic departments should be cautious in their spending.

"I'm asking departments to prepare a plan to make cuts of 5 percent," McLendon said. "That's just a plan for where they would make cuts if they have to."

He said he expected Arts & Sciences to make a full number of faculty offers this year, in the range of 20-25 positions. He noted that one problem Arts & Sciences faces is last year the school far exceeded its expectations in attracting new faculty members.

"You people are too good," he said laughing. "We never expect to get 100 percent of our faculty offers, and we don't budget for 100 percent of our offers. But last year not only did we get everyone we wanted, we got some great faculty I didn't even know we were recruiting. Budgets are at best predictions, and nobody predicted we would be so successful."

Again cautiously, he said there were potential opportunities in these difficult financial times for Duke to make faculty gains. Savings made now could help Duke compete against other elite institutions for new faculty.

"If Duke can maintain financial flexibility we'll be in a position to hire some of the best faculty members in the world," McLendon said. "Our new hire numbers this year may be in the 20s rather in the 30s, but we want to hire 20 spectacular faculty members. We want to be the Warren Buffett of academia: When no one else is investing we want to be hiring."