Trustees to discuss finances, health care

The Board of Trustees will review the University’s financial situation, consider replacements for two trustees and discuss the potential effects of health care reform on Duke and the health system. 

As the University continues to try to cut about $70 million from its budget this year, the Trustees will hear an update on Duke’s financial state at its meeting this weekend. Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said he and Provost Peter Lange are on target to meet their budget goals so far. 

Trask added that with monthly retirement incentive decisions due Dec. 8, the Duke Administrative Reform Team has completed its major personnel projects and has begun to examine program budgets, including those for the units of Information Technology and Communications.

Lange said that as units begin to see reductions in personnel from retirement initiatives, vacancy management and reductions in overtime, he will look to update the Board on how those units are beginning to adjust to smaller staffs. 

Chair and Democratic state Sen. Dan Blue, Law ’73, said he is confident Duke is on track to meet its budgetary goals. 

He added that the Trustees will continue to stay informed about cost-cutting methods, including decentralized layoffs. 

“The Business and Finance Committee will probe that, I’m sure... and the entire Board will be interested in that,” Blue said. “As you know, there is no policy to have a reduction in force using [large-scale] tactics. Duke is a decentralized campus in many ways... we discussed that again and thought at one point as this recession got deeper and deeper that we had all kinds of options available to us and [mass layoffs] is not the one that we chose.”

Blue also said the Board will review the project definition for K4, the proposed fourth wing of Keohane Quadrangle. The basic inside design has been completed, Trask said.

The Board is considering two candidates to fill the unexpired terms of Rev. Charles Smith, Trinity ’62 and Divinity ’65, and Dr. Lewis “Rusty” Williams, Ph.D. ’77  and Medicine ’78. The approved candidates will take their positions in July 2010, Blue said. Smith will have reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 years old and Williams chose to retire before the expiration of his term to pursue other things, Blue added.

To fill an unexpired term, the Board may vote to approve candidates and bypass the traditional Trustee approval process, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. 

The Board will also discuss how national health care reform could affect the University and the Duke University Health System, Blue said. 

In addition to discussing the future of the University health plan for employees, Trask said the Trustees will engage in discussions already taking place in DUHS about potential health care reform scenarios. 

“Duke is not a minor player in this, [Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and chief executive officer of DUHS,] is very involved at the national level of what health care ought to look like,” Blue said. “We are a major player in the region and nation, so how this regulation impacts Duke will be very representative of how this will impact a lot of other institutions as well.”