At its meeting Saturday, the Board of Trustees approved Duke's first athletics strategic plan as well as a $2 billion budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year to amplify both athletic and academic opportunities.
A strategic plan for the athletics department had been on deck for more than a year, and outgoing Director of Athletics Joe Alleva first gave an overview of such a vision to the Trustees last May. Alongside culture changes for football and improvements to facilities, the plan pitches changes to finances and admissions.
"We've been operating on what is an increasingly antiquated funding model," President Richard Brodhead said in an interview. "Our program has grown and evolved for years. But the initial funding model underwriting it has stayed frozen over time, so this is just an acknowledgment of the fact that athletics in fact requires a different level of investment."
That funding model has relied on support for athletics from Duke's two undergraduate schools, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and the Pratt School of Engineering. The new plan proposes re-imagining financing to come from a variety of resources, including Duke's graduate and professional schools.
"To some extent going forward we want to recognize athletics for the common good that it is," Brodhead said. "As far as charging it to certain schools, it would still be understood as a primarily undergraduate activity, but students in every school participate in athletics."
While working out strategies to improve the department, the University is searching for a new leader for athletics, one who will likely carry the plan to fruition. Brodhead said Saturday that there was no specific timeline for installing a new director.
Alleva presented the first draft of the plan, "Unrivaled Ambition," to the Academic Council Feb. 20, at which time he fielded questions regarding proposed modifications to the athletics "reach and stretch" policy, which the report notes has been in place for more than 15 years.
The current policy permits coaches to sign athletes who fall slightly below University admissions standards pending approval from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, but penalizes the team by cutting some scholarship spots.
Some faculty members questioned whether making the policy more flexible would dilute admissions standards, but Alleva said the athletics department was committed to academic excellence.
"There was never anything in the plan that suggested lowering admissions standards for athletics," Brodhead said after the Board meeting. "That was never in the draft, and it was never requested."
The council passed a resolution supporting the strategic plan at its meeting Thursday, urging the school and the department to periodically assess the plan in the context of the University's educational mission.
"We charge the Duke University administration to play a leadership role... in setting standards for collegiate athletics that include strict controls on time and travel demands made upon students athletes, on admission exceptions, and on athletic spending," an Academic Council statement reads.
The strategic plan also suggests increasing the admissions staff to interview "marginal" candidates and handle Olympic sport athletes, carrying admissions spots to other teams when coaches do not use them in a given year and re-evaluating the timing of offers.
Brodhead said few substantive changes were made to the first draft, save "tinkering" with finances and expanding the section on health, physical education and recreation facilities. Officials also noted that implementation of the plan will depend on University funds, fundraising and athletics-generated revenue.
The University's $2 billion budget, which will take effect July 1, accounts for continuing progress on goals laid out in the school's overall strategic plan, "Making a Difference."
"The budget does a great job of supporting the University's values and priorities," Provost Peter Lange said in a statement. "It provides the support needed to continue strengthening our faculty, using innovative hiring processes to attract and retain the finest faculty in areas of strategic priority."
It projects expense increases by about 8.9-percent for salary and benefits from the current fiscal year, with an expected 9.1-percent increase in revenue, similar to increases to last year's approved budget of $1.8 billion.
The budget increase accounts for revenue from income from tuition and fees from Duke's eight schools and Trinity College, grants and contracts, gifts, investment income and other sources.
The majority of the expense increase will come from increased salary and benefits, which include new hires, a University statement said.
The new budget also includes a 4.8-percent increase to tuition, which was approved in March, bringing the total annual cost of a Duke education to $47,985.
It also accounted for a previously announced 18.8-percent increase in undergraduate financial aid, which officials estimated would benefit around 2,500 undergraduates from lower- and middle-income families, according to the statement.
The Trustees also gave the go-ahead Saturday for a $20 million restoration of the steam plant on Campus Drive, phase two of a $14 million expansion of a data center for storage for the Office of Information Technology and Duke Health Technology Solutions, a $5.8-million renovation of the Clinical and Research Labs building and several departmental name changes.
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