Photo by Lawson Kurtz/Chronicle File Photo
On Sunday night, Duke President Richard Brodhead sent an e-mail to the Duke community outlining the financial steps the recession has forced the University to take. Earlier in the day, I met with Director of Athletics Kevin White to discuss the changes and some moves the athletic department could make. As an entity of the University, the athletic department will be forced to change just as other departments will, but White's main message was that the department--and in particular, an executive committee to look at the budget, which was formed in the summer--will try to change measures without affecting the student-athlete experience. Because the changes were just approved by the University, the directions for units like the athletic department are still not specific.
Below, an excerpt from our conversation:
Will the athletic department adhere to changes like the rest of the University?
Dr. Brodhead, as you know, has put out a letter to the Duke community wherein I think he clearly articulates that employees that enjoy compensation of $50,000 or less will be subject to a $1,000 increase, and employees above the $50,000 line, their salary will be frozen. And so we'll participate in that just like every other unit and department at this University. At the end of the day, we're part of the academy, and so we've got to participate just like all the other units and departments.
Has there been talk about scheduling games closer to Duke?
That wasn't really from the executive committee, but we're already doing that in sports where we can do that. I think at this point, you'll see us do it. Our schedule is out there years in advance, but you'll see us--as coaches are having to deal with the reality of less resources, Olympic sport coaches and others will schedule contests closer to home. But there will be some other higher-profile sports that I think will adopt the same philosophy as we move forward. The bottom line is that we know the resource base we're working with is shrinking, and so we'll make macro decisions and then we'll make programmatic decisions concurrently to determine how we get to the new number.
What about the way teams travel? Will there be any changes in terms of busing or chartering flights, as some schools have already announced?
I think you could look to see the Blue Devils bus a little bit more as we move to the future, where we think it makes some sense. We're going to work really hard to not have any budget reduction negatively affect the student-athlete experience, and we think at this point in time that we can accommodate that objective. We're going to try to take the hit administratively and keep it, to the best of our ability, away from student-athletes.
The last time we talked in early February, you said philanthropic support was strong despite the recession. Is that still the case?
At this point, it's been very, very strong. People have been terrific. I'm amazed at how generous they've been in what can only be characterized as terribly challenging times. It's been very strong.
Some people in the community have said that allocating resources to the renovation of Wallace Wade Stadium was not the most financially responsible decision in this economic climate. Will there be any changes to that construction project?
We will only endeavor to move forward where we've identified the resources.
So projects that have already begun won't be affected?
They shouldn't be. We've identified all the resources, and we can't expect the University or any segment of the University to cover capital for a facility shortfall in this environment. We would be crazy to think in this environment that we could look for some financial assistance to help build facilities.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.