Administrators' increased efforts to keep faculty happy are continuing to pay off. This year the University lost only nine of the 40 professors who were offered positions at peer institutions, a number comparable to that of the last three years.
"We feel good about the level to which we have been successful [at retaining faculty]," said William Chafe, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences. "We are able to prevent offers by being proactive." Chafe added that increased communication with the faculty about their needs has helped to keep the number of departing faculty low.
Duke's top-notch faculty is largely the product of the University's own efforts to lure professors from peer institutions. The practice, known as "raiding," is a two-way street these days. Columbia, Cornell, Harvard and Yale are just a few of the universities competing with Duke for the nation's finest faculty.
Chafe, however, is not worried. Losing and gaining faculty members is all part of the process of building and maintaining a first-rate academic institution, he said.
"We are at the point now where we're expecting this to be the norm," said Chafe of the nine faculty who were "raided" this year. "It's a compliment to our faculty about how good they have become."
In the past two years, opportunities such as dean's leaves and John Hope Franklin Seminars-which give Duke's faculty the chance to pursue research without teaching responsibilities-have served as effective hooks for keeping notable faculty onboard.
But of course, Duke doesn't win out all the time. This year brought at least one very disappointing departure.
"John Brehm to [the University of] Chicago was a major loss," said Chafe, "But it wasn't because of anything we didn't do."
Brehm, once an associate professor of political science at Duke, now holds the same position at Chicago. He said he left Durham for a variety of reasons-none of which had much to do with shortcomings at Duke. Brehm said he and his wife decided to make the move in large part because of opportunities available to their children which were impossible to find in Durham.
Chicago also had other appealing traits. "I often speak with a psychologist and sociologist who work down the hall," said Brehm, who has been at Chicago for six weeks. "One of the things that attracted me here was the opportunity for interdisciplinary interaction."
Brehm said that he was very quickly integrated into the university. He said he is looking forward to the start of classes today, but that he expects his new undergraduate students to be different from the ones he taught at Duke. "They have somewhat of a nerdy reputation here," he said.
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