In the world of student affairs, word travels fast. Although Duke's search committee has not yet issued an advertisement announcing the vacancy of one of the school's top positions, administrators around the nation realize that Duke is starting to look for its new vice president for student affairs.
"That's a desirable position-there's no question about that," said Thomas Hill, vice president for student affairs at Iowa State University. "There's a great student body, a lot of student spirit. It's a senior student affairs officer's kind of dream, if you will, because students at the institution really help make the position."
Several student affairs officials-including Hill, whose son Thomas played basketball at Duke before graduating in 1993-said they were not sure whether they would apply for the Duke position, but acknowledged that it would be considered a top job, due to the University's reputation.
The pull of Duke's name and ranking, however, might not prove powerful enough to break some student affairs administrators' perceptions of the University, said Larry Roper, vice provost of student affairs at Oregon State University. "People's perceptions are that it's a student environment that will have a lot of challenges," he said. "[With] a significant number of students who are from privileged backgrounds, there's a level of expectation of what they're getting for their dollar."
He added that the alcohol discussions at Duke are not being considered a tremendous-or unique-challenge, from what he can tell: "The issue of social culture on campus is a struggle everywhere," he said.
Several other major universities-including Ohio State University, Colorado State University and the University of Maryland at College Park-are in the midst of conducting their own searches for similar positions, creating the possibility that the pool of interested candidates might have to be shared by many schools.
But William Thomas, outgoing vice president for student affairs at Maryland, explained that there is not much crossover between applicants for jobs at public institutions and private institutions, making the concurrent searches unlikely to draw candidates away from Duke. However, he added that in the field of student affairs, administrators tend to remain loyal to the institutions they serve, translating to low amounts of turnover between institutions.
"You build community in large measure by stability, and a lot of people are committed to an institution for a long time," said Thomas, who has served as Maryland's vice president for 27 years and who will step down in late January. "There's not as much movement as there might be in other administrative jobs. There's not a whole horde of people eager to change jobs or look for another one."
But both Thomas and Gwen Dungy, executive vice president of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, pointed out that people may try to move out of lower-ranking positions at smaller institutions in favor of a position in Duke's senior administration. "Everyone's in place. There are not many people out and looking," Dungy said. "[But if a job offers] new things, a more prestigious university, they usually go."
Former vice president for student affairs Janet Dickerson, who is starting her first year as an administrator at Princeton University, suggested that the timing of Duke's search might be fortuitous-despite the tendency of student affairs officials to stay at their schools for many years. "I think this is a time when there are several open positions and numerous strong candidates who might be seeking to change," explained Dickerson, who left Duke this summer. "But it is still premature to speculate since the opening hasn't been announced."
People are speculating nonetheless. "I think [Duke] is the kind of institution that would be very likely to hire from the inside-from its faculty," said Penny Rue, dean of students at the University of Virginia and Trinity '75. "It's definitely a place I would love to be at a later point in my career, but I still owe [Virginia] a little more time."
Although two internal candidates-Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Sue Wasiolek and Dean of Student Development Barbara Baker-are expected to dive into the applicant pool, the committee intends to assemble a strong group of external aspirants, as well.
"Based on my experience with previous searches... we're not just going to let advertising determine the pool of applicants," said search committee chair Allison Haltom, who is both vice president and University secretary. "We're going to be looking for people who are recognized as the best in the field."
In fact, search committee vice chair Steve Nowicki indicated that the University might eventually hire a search firm to ensure that the group of candidates is the strongest it can be. He emphasized that the search committee has not yet met to discuss potential strategies. It is scheduled to meet this weekend.
"I expect that we will not first turn to a search firm, that we will first turn to the network of connections through people we have here at Duke," said Nowicki, an associate professor of biology. "We [might] use a search firm late in the game to confirm that the pool of applicants we identify is complete.... I think Duke's name will do a lot of the job for us."
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