The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to establish a four-year undergraduate liberal arts degree program at Duke Kunshan University during its meeting Saturday.
The proposal will now be voted on by the Duke Kunshan board of trustees, and other regulatory bodies in China, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. University faculty previously voted to approve the undergraduate program in the Academic Council meeting Nov. 17.
President Richard Brodhead noted that in the course of deliberations among the Board, some Trustees were enthusiastic proponents while others were more skeptical, but eventually they all voted to approve the program.
"The thing the Trustees understand is that we're not doing this because of the risks," Brodhead said. "We're doing this because of the opportunities. I think the opportunity was judged to outweigh the risks."
Although the program still has to be voted on by groups in China, Brodhead noted that these were more of a "formality."
"They're more about implementation, not about whether this will be done," Schoenfeld said.
Friday morning the Board voted to elect Vincent Price, the provost of the University of Pennsylvania, as Duke's 10th president.
"I believe [the Trustees] were very pleased and satisfied to have gotten such a fine person to take the helm," Brodhead said.
In other business:
Provost Sally Kornbluth gave the Board updates on the progress of the University's new academic strategic plan, and Valerie Ashby, dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, spoke about the state of the college.
The Board also received updates about plans for future housing on campus from Larry Moneta, vice president for students affairs, and the state of Duke athletics from Kevin White, vice president and director of athletics.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.