Correction (9/25/2002): A page one story in the Sept. 24 edition of The Chronicle incorrectly stated the annual budget for Arts and Sciences. The budget is over $200 million, not $200,000. The same story also incorrectly stated that: faculty searches were cut last year--the cut, from 42 to 32 searches, is taking place this year; that faculty salaries did not increase last year--they increased 2.5 percent; and that most of the Annual Fund's $9.4 million revenue went to Arts and Sciences, while all of it did.
A reduction in faculty searches and higher-than-anticipated summer school revenue helped Arts and Sciences avert a $1 million deficit last year, but administrators warn that the school will face larger deficits, even as several ambitious projects proceed.
Despite last year's balanced budget, Arts and Sciences officials remain wary that economic concerns and anticipated facility expenditures will require deficit spending for the foreseeable future, which has prompted them to consider increasing the size of the undergraduate body.
Last year, William Chafe, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, cut the number of faculty searches from 42 to 32. Those cuts essentially leveled off faculty growth, unlike the past five years in which Arts and Sciences faculty grew. The cuts were made across departments, on the basis of each position's priority.
"There's always difficult choices with respect to faculty," said Thomas Mann, associate dean for finance and administration. "But faculty hires are the thing that is most flexible to us."
Arts and Sciences, with a total budget of $200,000, is a wide-reaching unit that includes Trinity College and many departments in the Graduate School. Each year, departments submit appointment requests to offset retirements or simply to add experts in certain areas. Precision in planning is difficult, said Executive Vice Provost Jim Roberts, because faculty searches sometimes do not yield offers and some candidates do not accept offers. "There are always more requests than there is money to support them," Roberts wrote in an e-mail. "So [Chafe and Provost Peter Lange] prioritize the requests and approve a set of searches they expect will most improve our academic programs consistent with the budget."
Mann added that salaries and research support from the Arts and Sciences budget did not increase, despite pressure from departments.
In addition, unexpectedly high summer session attendance brought Arts and Sciences an extra $1 million revenue. Chafe said he expected the higher attendance trend to continue for the next few years and Arts and Sciences Council chair Ronald Witt said that for the first time, administrators will be able to look to summer school revenue as a large source of income.
The Annual Fund's better-than-expected performance came within $100,000 of its $9.4 million goal, a hefty portion of which goes to Arts and Sciences.
"With the markets in a downward cycle and the economic news more bad than good, we could easily face another year of struggle in achieving our goals," Chafe said in his Sept. 12 "state of the school" address to the Arts and Sciences Council. "But I am proud of how we responded thus far, and grateful to the dedication, skill and commitment of our development staff, and the abiding generosity and loyalty of our donors."
Chafe, in his speech last year, said that faculty and department chairs faced "tough choices" of cutting new faculty positions or faculty pay raises. Witt said, however, Chafe struck a more optimistic tone this year. Chafe nonetheless predicted a $3 million deficit for the coming year and possibly even higher deficits over the next few years, while expressing hope that the impact of those shortfalls might be minimized.
Chafe listed an additional $10 million to $15 million in possible expenses for maintaining and operating new facilities, like the French Science Center, the Center for Human Disease Models, the Nasher Art Museum and the Perkins Library and Sanford Institute of Public Policy additions, all of which have begun construction or are in the planning phases.
In his speech, Chafe also listed increasing socioeconomic diversity as a top goal, which would mean accepting more applicants who qualify for financial aid. He noted that if the University is significantly successful at this goal, it will have to increase the current 20 percent of tuition revenues allocated for financial aid.
"We would look first to growth in restricted support from the [capital] campaign to support this increasing diversity; it will be a gradual rather than a sudden process as the kinds of recruiting initiatives that Dean Chafe described begin to bear fruit," Roberts wrote. "If necessary, we would adjust the amount of unrestricted support... to keep up with our commitment to need-blind admissions and meeting full need."
To meet additional costs, Chafe proposed increasing the size of the undergraduate student body by 50 students per class over the next three to four years. Any increase would have to almost certainly include increasing not just Trinity students, but also Pratt School of Engineering students. The engineering school's budgeting process is separate, however, from Arts and Sciences.
Chafe maintained that Duke would not increase undergraduate class size if doing so would make it less selective. Last year the school accepted 22.5 percent of its applicants, down from 24.5 percent the year before, but is still less selective than peer institutions.
"We're trying to stay on an upward trajectory [for selectivity]," he said.
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