Committee reviews cost-cutting efforts

Warren Grill, chair of the University Priorities Committee and Addy professor of biomedical engineering, presented an update on the committee’s work to the Academic Council Thursday.

The committee works to define University and academic priorities in order to help administrators allocate funding. 

“Our aspirations in the last year or two certainly have not declined... but the capability to fund all those aspirations has,” Grill said.

In the next few months, administrators will be making decisions for the next fiscal year about compensation and other priorities at the school and University levels, said Craig Henriquez, Academic Council chair and professor of biomedical engineering and computer science.

During the Fall, the committee monitored Duke’s efforts to cut its budget in response to financial difficulties. It has reviewed the Duke Administrative Reform Team’s efforts to cut costs and examined how cuts in the Facilities Management Department have affected the University.

“The grounds will not be kept in the splendor that we are used to,” Grill said, adding that faculty offices will be cleaned less frequently, trash cans will not be emptied daily and litter will not be picked up as quickly across the University. 

Groundskeeping has to be maintained at its current level in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, at the Hospital and in athletic facilities, he noted.

Building temperatures have also been reduced to about 68 degrees to cut spending, Grill said.

“I think that we have largely done the easy things,” he said. “I think the challenges going forward are going to be a little more demanding and we’re going to need to be very prudent.”

The committee will also discuss Duke’s administrative structure and the impacts of the faculty early retirement incentive. 

“It’s prudent to look at our administrative structures and ensure that those are in alignment with our strategic plan,” Grill said. “This will be a big part of what we will try to do in the coming semester.”

The committee should ensure that the faculty retirement incentive does not cause more professors to retire than are hired, he said. He noted that efforts to generate additional revenue, such as the creation of new masters programs, have resulted in more students attending Duke.

Grill displayed several slides listing the committee’s past and future initiatives. Among the issues the committee plans to consider in the Spring are fringe benefit cost containment, “envisioning a smaller Duke” and how auxiliary enterprises such as Dining Services and Residence Life and Housing Services will be budgeted and funded.

In other business:

The council approved a proposal submitted by the Fuqua School of Business for a Master of Management in Clinical Informatics degree. The Board of Trustees will vote on the proposal at its meeting this weekend.

In a closed session that ran for almost an hour, the council continued its discussion of Duke in China, which it also discussed in a closed session at its Nov. 19 meeting. Dr. Sanders Williams, senior adviser for international strategy and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, led the discussion.