Professors who previously received relief from teaching a course can now choose other means of compensation for their extra administrative efforts, among other things.
George McLendon, dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, announced Thursday at the Arts and Sciences Council meeting that he accepted all recommendations from the Council to expand the supplementary compensation options for faculty.
The new policy, which originally was proposed last year in the Goodwin Report on Faculty Resource Allocation, will allow faculty members to choose their preferred means of supplementary compensation from research funding, an increase in base salary or relief from teaching a course, among other options.
McLendon said the move was designed, in part, to increase transparency and provide a standard for departments to follow.
"The only mechanism we had available to us- to provide incentives for faculty service in critical departmental roles was to provide teaching relief. That takes the most central thing we do at the University and marginalizes it," McLendon said. "I expect, in fact, that a number of faculty, given other modes of compensation, will choose them instead of giving up a course they really enjoy teaching."
The plan will begin in the next budget cycle, and faculty can start requesting changes for compensation immediately.
McLendon added that one reason the plan was not done sooner was because it had budgetary implications.
He said the amount of compensation will not be standard across all departments, but rather it will match the effort required by the job.
McLendon noted that the role of the director of undergraduate studies for the economics department has a much larger role than the director of undergraduate studies for the literature department.
"It's a little tricky to do this and still maintain absolute equity," McLendon said. "What it does say is we are going to have alternative menus of compensation, and we will provide them in discussions with [departmental] chairs."
The new policy will not cover professors with interdisciplinary roles. Those cases will still be handled through the dean's office, McLendon said.
Victor Strandberg, a professor in the Department of English, said he was pleased with the increased options.
"Given the choice, I would rather have the professional expense account to help out with things having to do with my job," Strandberg said, noting that he might buy a laptop with the extra funds.
"This might be a historic event," said Lee Baker, chair of the Council and associate professor of cultural anthropology. "Within a year, a dean has responded to one of our requests."
The Council first gave the five recommendations to McLendon Feb. 10, 2005.
"Many of us really respect and admire your ability to be responsive to faculty needs," Baker added.
In other business:
The Council was given the responsibility to allocate funds to faculty from the Dean's office for conferences, workshops or meetings at Duke.
McLendon said the reasons for shifting the responsibility were to increase transparency and to draw on the expertise of the Council to determine which conferences are most worthy of funding.
The Committee on Faculty Research was charged to take up the duty.
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