PUBLISHED

Comments Sought in Regular Review of Trinity Dean Valerie Ashby

By Duke Today Staff

Valerie Ashby Regular reviews of school deans are conducted in the fourth year of their five-year term by a committee formed by the Executive Committee of the Academic Council, in consultation with Provost Sally Kornbluth. Such a committee has been appointed to review Valerie Ashby, dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, who has served in her post since 2015.  The committee solicits your confidential feedback in this process.

Georg Vanberg, professor and chair of political science, is chairing the committee whose members include: Ed Balleisen (Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies), Krishnendu Chakrabarty (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Stefani Engelstein (Germanic Languages and Literature), Mohamed Noor (Biology), Richard Powell (Art, Art History, and Visual Studies), Sumathi Ramaswamy (History), and Cynthia Rudin (Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering).

The charge to the committee poses several questions for the review, including 

  • strategic leadership of the school, including faculty recruitment, retention, and promotion as well as the overall vision of the school;
  • commitment to diversity and to interdisciplinary research and education;
  • communication with faculty, staff, and students;
  • administrative competencies including budgetary development and oversight;
  • relationships with other schools and offices of the university; and
  • fund-raising, and more general development activities including donor and alumni relations.

The committee invites members of the Duke community to share your thoughts on these matters, or on any others that are pertinent to the review. The committee will keep all comments confidential, and no comments will be attributed to individuals in the final report prepared for the Provost.

Communication should include the nature of your interactions with Dean Ashby so that the committee can understand the context of the comments as fully as possible.  The committee will discuss responses, and an anonymized summary will be included in the written report to the Provost. 

Please submit comments to the following email address: admin-review-input@duke.edu. The committee would appreciate receiving comments by Oct. 15.