The faculty are "at a crossroads," representatives of the Faculty's Joint Committee on Student Affairs and Athletics reported at the Arts and Sciences Council's meeting Thursday afternoon.
Last spring, the Arts and Sciences Council and the Engineering Faculty Council jointly charged the committee with addressing the issue of faculty oversight of admissions, student affairs and athletics.
After meeting regularly last semester, the committee prepared a brief report for presentation to both faculty councils, titled "A Stronger Faculty Voice: Engaged Teachers in Duke's Community of Learning."
Peter Wood, professor of history, and William Reichert, professor of biomedical engineering, co-chairs of the committee, presented the findings and six specific recommendations that appear in the report.
"We're at a kind of crossroads," Wood said.
He explained that faculty can choose either to engage more fully in the extracurricular elements of the University or to restrict their involvement to only academics.
The committee recommended the University increase support for professorial engagement while balancing demands on the faculty's time. They also proposed instituting measures to foster athletes' academic success.
Finally, they suggested creating "external review committees" to assess the Athletic Department and the Office of Student Affairs, focusing each year on a different topic, such as scheduling or housing.
"There would be a kind of mutual respect instead of a kind of gap-silence- different worlds," Wood said of the proposed review committees.
Reichert said the University has achieved excellence in both academics and athletics partly through greater specialization, which has divided those dedicated to winning research grants from those devoted to winning national championships.
"How do we actually put Humpty Dumpty back together?" Reichert asked, noting the difficulty of building connections among the University's many divisions.
Another member of the committee, Suzanne Shanahan, assistant professor of sociology, opened the discussion by saying that the two things the ten committee members agreed upon "zealously" were their pride in working at Duke and their desire to engage in "the whole undergraduate experience."
"As a committee, we didn't agree on much," said Shanahan, who was helping to lead the council's meeting in the absence of Chair Lee Baker, associate professor of cultural anthropology.
Several professors asked where the committee's recommendations would go next. Shanahan assured members that George McLendon, dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, would receive the report, which the council decided to add to its records.
Members of the committee said Kristina Johnson, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering, would also receive a copy, provided that the Engineering Faculty Council also approved the report.
"The report goes to the dean, and the deans are the deciders," said Stephen Nowicki, dean of the natural sciences.
Nowicki said the report's very existence demonstrated the faculty's interest in increased engagement in university governance. He later noted, however, that many faculty members are currently unwilling to serve on University committees, even when asked.
"The faculty have abrogated their responsibility," he said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.