Postdoctoral fellows will have greater support from the University following the creation of the Office of Postdoctoral Services and a new Postdoctoral Fellow Task Force, which Provost Peter Lange announced at the Duke University Postdoctoral Association's annual Research Day Friday.
Although the University boasts as many as 350 postdoctoral fellows, until this point there has been very little structure in the postdoctoral program, said Rob Waterland, president of DUPA. The Office of Postdoctoral Services will now take over many of the functions the volunteer-based Postdoctoral Association and the task force will concentrate on formulating specific policies that apply to postdoctoral fellows.
"Postdocs are almost non-entities at Duke," said Vice Provost for Research James Siedow, who will serve ex-officio on the task force.
"There aren't any policies that relate to [them]."
Postdoctoral fellows are generally defined as members of the faculty of research institutions that have completed their doctorate degrees but that are not tenure-track faculty; however, no formal definition exists at Duke. Postdocs are usually involved with research to receive additional training.
The new postdoc guidelines will relate to issues such as salary, leave and grievances, Lange said. The task force's findings will need to pass by his office and the deans of the relevant schools before becoming official University policy, but eventually they will become the framework for the new Office of Postdoctoral Services.
In addition to enforcing those policies, the office will compile data on postdocs; organize orientation; train postdocs about responsible conduct of research; put together a handbook of services; maintain an online job listing; establish a website, listserv and electronic newsletter; and coordinate postdoc events and career counseling services, Lange said. He added that the position of director has not yet been filled, but that person will eventually serve as an advocate for postdoctoral fellows with the administration.
"Postdocs are a very important element of the research culture and the research success of the University, and to some extent in the past, our postdoctoral fellows who are spread among labs across the University have slipped between the stools," Lange said. "We haven't paid enough attention to them as a group within the community." Until now, all postdoctoral organization has come out of DUPA, which operates entirely on volunteer efforts. One significant obstacle to DUPA's mission is the lack of an official definition of postdoctoral fellow.
"The University does not even have an official count of the number of postdocs that are here, between the University and the Medical Center," Waterland said. "The first goal is to figure that out--who is here--and [then] how should they best be served."
The postdoctoral fellows who came to Research Day Friday were generally impressed with Lange's announcement, although many were not surprised, as DUPA had been discussing the possibility of the University forming such infrastructure for some time.
"I'm pretty excited about it. It'll be a good opportunity for postdocs for all aspects of our training at Duke, from professional development to issues like our benefits," said Melissa Pasquinelli, a postdoctoral fellow and chair of DUPA's advocacy committee.
For Waterland, the formation of the office and the task force are important steps toward improving the situation for postdoctoral fellows at the University.
"There's a lot postdocs can contribute to the University, but at the same time Duke needs to start to treat postdocs as real members of the community," he said.
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