The recent decision to conduct only 20 faculty searches this year instead of the standard 30-40 will save Arts and Sciences $1 million, but will not allow many departments to grow at the rate they might have preferred. Since faculty searches only eventually extend offers 75 percent of the time, and the average number of departing faculty is 28-30, this means the size of the faculty will assuredly decrease as well.
A decrease in faculty is never a good sign for a university. In order for Duke to continue to increase its reputation as a research university--especially important for recruiting graduate students--it should grow, but the reality is that the school is not in a place to do that right now.
For several years, Arts and Sciences has been trying to control its budget, and this decision has been foreshadowed by announcements last year about a spike in financial aid spending, a modest cut in searches and the impending Arts and Sciences deficit. The A & S Council already raised tuition and capped faculty salary increases at a rate lower than inflation, essentially cutting salaries.
Even as the school tries to face long-standing funding questions, Arts and Sciences faces a budget deficit even more daunting than expected. New federal aid policies mean the University will not recoup as many of their financial aid expenses as anticipated. The plethora of new construction sites on campus has also forced Arts and Sciences, which pays 60 percent of operating and maintenance costs on buildings, to incur significantly higher receipts.
This also comes at a time when Arts and Sciences is trying to recruit a new dean of the faculty to replace William Chafe, who will step down at the end of the academic year. Contracting searches now will begin to stabilize the budget, making the job more desirable to potential candidates.
This move will hurt some departments in the short run. Political Science, for example, had three searches last year that yielded no new hires; this year they will have none. If this trend continues, it will be hard for departments to retain their formidability and faculty recruiting may become difficult.
To avoid a chronic problem, the University needs to reevaluate the scope of Arts and Sciences' expenses, beginning with its financial obligation to facilities. In some cases 60 percent of operating costs is unreasonable as Arts and Sciences does not use 60 percent of the space. Although Arts and Sciences is the largest area of the University, it should not have to support other sections, such as engineering and medicine, that are relatively flush with resources.
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