A recent handout from the Duke PR office served to remind us that President Brodhead is co-chair (along with the retired boss of a corporation named Exelon, which turns out to be the largest generator of nuclear power in the nation) of a “national commission” on the humanities and social sciences.

Though we try to follow Brodhead closely, we had forgotten about this. Or more accurately, Brodhead had never seized the opportunity presented to him to involve all of us, the stakeholders in Duke University. The more we looked anew at this undertaking, the more we were convinced that he and the dozens of people who added their names to the commisson’s roster were generating very little smoke, from even less fire. We will document that carefully.

The words “national commission” bloat what’s going on:  this is a project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a private self-perpetuating group of 4,000 that says it promotes “multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems.” We feel the term “national commission” may suggest it is an official, governmental body, which would be incorrect.

The next paragraph in the Duke press release caught our eye too: “Congress asked the commission to prepare a report….”  That too adds false focus, as it implies legislation or at least a resolution led to the creation of this body. Wrong: it was four members of Congress striking out on their own that set this in motion.

The commission was announced on February 17, 2011. It held a meeting immediately and only two more in the following 15 months. Even the “recent activity” listed on its website establishes that not much is happening: there have been only two news releases from a commission designed to mobilize the public, and this total includes the original announcement. The second was almost a year ago, on June 23, 2011.

The website also includes articles from “major publications,” the most recent being from Duke Today, the on-line house rag put out for employees (and as of May 3rd, with a student edition too) and from the student newspaper at Stanford. As for heavier publicity, The New York Times covered only the original announcement, listing a who’s who of members — including the Presidents of NYU, the University of Miami, Cornell, Harvard, Penn and Stanford, in that order — before it got around to mentioning in a later paragraph that Duke’s Brodhead was co-chair.

How embarrassing!

We would have thought, that given this pulpit, Brodhead would have made many speeches and appearances across the nation, in the process bringing Duke University into the limelight. Brodhead himself would later state, “The commission is dedicated to making a strong and effective case for the humanities and social sciences.”

We checked the major newspaper archives. Nada. No speeches on the national stage, no op-eds. His only mention in the Los Angeles Times since he arrived at Duke was a quote in the obituary of Reynolds Price. The most important story — save the lacrosse crisis — in the New York Times resulted from a chance encounter: Brodhead was standing at the base of the ladder, next to a Times reporter, while Coach K cut down the net after winning the 2010 NCAA championship.

The President’s webpage at Duke lists only two speeches that might qualify. One was all the way over in Raleigh last October. (pictured at the left) when he gave one of the local Congressmen who suggested formation of the commission an award.

We  did like the definition that Brodhead supplied in that speech:

“The humanities aren’t just the subjects listed in college course catalogs — literature, philosophy, history, music and the other arts — though those are certainly included. The humanities are a name for the process by which all the things humans have made, said, thought and done come back to spark the understandings of other humans across time.”

The other speech on Brodhead’s website, in March, was in Washington at the National Humanities Alliance. Talk about preaching to the already converted! Ironically, in that address, Brodhead did identify what he should have been doing all along:

“To make someone want to invest in the humanities, we first have to remind them what the humanities are and why they matter. This case has to be made boldly, positively — no whining pleas of ‘give me some money or I’ll die before your eyes.’ It has to advance a broad, big-picture concept of the humanities that people can readily see their stake in. We need to remind people, with examples they will feel the force of where abstractions fail, that the humanities are a core competence of being human and a key measure of social strength — something it’s relatively cheap to provide for yet costly to put at risk.”

And more words from Brodhead: “Think of the crowds that flock to museums (the Museum of Modern Art’s Twitter feed has nearly a million followers). Think of the works of serious history and biography that regularly become bestsellers. Think of Oprah’s book club reading Faulkner and Toni Morrison and Anna Karenina. The recent exhibit on Rembrandt at the North Carolina Museum of Art attracted visitors from all 100 counties in North Carolina, all 50 states, and 42 countries.  These indicators tell us that love of humanities is strong where they have been made accessible. In significant measure, the failure is not of the public to care for the humanities but of the lovers of the humanities to make a strong case to the public.”

We could not agree more.

The Commission — having met thrice — is now writing its final report.

In researching this essay, DukeCheck originally was told the Commission had met only twice: since we carefully double-check all numbers, we asked Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for Duke’s PR, to confirm the meetings but we never heard from him. Why he would not prevent an error like that — the commission has met three times — is beyond us.

We also asked Schoenfeld  to provide us with any relevant material, speeches, involvement that Brodhead has had with this subject. We never heard from him on that either. Yes this is the Michael Schoenfeld who says we are unfair. 

Loyal Readers, we continue to pour through the just released Form 990′s filed by Duke for the 2010-2011 academic  year. There are hundreds of pages with numbers and dollar signs — and some of the statistics leaped off the page. 

Next report Sunday evening…….. 

Please note that the Form 990′s are for the academic year, but the salary figures are for the calendar year. Why? Because “they” don’t want us to figure this out!

In addition to the scandalous salaries paid to coaches and the athletic director (scroll down to the story on Coach K), the Form 990′s released by the University on Wednesday show a dramatic increase in the salary of President Brodhead — wage freeze be damned.

The chart on the left shows the uninterrupted march of Brodhead’s salary since he arrived in 2004.  We begin with 2005, as his earnings in 2004 did not reflect a full year of service.

In fairness, and DukeCheck is fair, we should note that Brodhead’s earnings at first were significantly below what comparable private university presidents were earning; in fact at the time, our predecessor, Duke Fact Checker, asked Trustee search committee chair Robert Steel whether we were crimping our search. And we later noted surprise that Brodhead joined Duke for so little.

Brodhead’s earnings in 2010 — the just released figures that show him just shy of $1 million — still lag behind the top private universities. A survey by the New York Times last December showed 36 presidents of major universities above $1 million for 2009, when Brodhead was earning $877,640.

But those numbers are at the very top of the heap.

The average pay of a public university president is $375,442 according to a recent article in Fortune Magazine.

On average, the Times said a private university president earns 3.7 times as much as a full professor. Oh oh. As Loyal Readers know, the average at Duke is $175,300, and three times that is just $526, 000.

Here’s what is most shocking about Brodhead’s increases: at a time of a wage freeze for everyone else, he gave no hint that he was not standing with his fellow employees. Indeed, he was stating that he was. 

On March 1, 2009, in a Sunday night e-mail to employees announcing the freeze, he stated “There will be no salary increase for University employees making more than $50,000 per year.” His own pay was leaping more than $50,000 simultaneously.

Similarly, in a April 21, 2010 report to alumni, boasting of how Duke had come out of the recession, Brodhead put all employees in the same boat: “We know we have further work ahead of us, and the reductions are not without pain. But we can be proud of the maturity, practicality, and spirit of shared sacrifice the Duke community has shown in facing up to our challenge.” Shared sacrifice, pain, and his salary leaped more than $75,000.

And again on April 27, 2011, addressing employees as part of the Primetime program broadcast on the internet (the pic on the right is a screen grab) Brodhead declared to people whose pay had been frozen for two years: “You were fortunate to work at Duke during this period, there are a lot of [universities] where jobs are going away. [The recession] did exact a sacrifice from all of us.”

Yes, Uncle Dick, from all of us.

At midnight Wednesday, DukeCheck sent a request to trustee chair Rick Wagoner, seeking an interview on this outrage.

Mr. President, here is your invitation to sit down with DukeCheck to explain. As Loyal Readers know, we are based in New York and Miami. We pledge to fly on 12 hours notice to the campus or any other location for a substantive interview. We should note that we have not packed our luggage in anticipation.

On Wednesday, the University released a sheaf of documents that federal law puts into the public domain. Good thing, because otherwise the secretive Trustees and Administration would never let us see this stuff.  

These are the form 990′s — a portion of the federal income tax return that is designed to bring some transparency and accountability to non-profit corporations. The new documents cover the academic year 2010-11, and are always filed very late by Duke  as we are ending the 2011-12 year already.

Please note, that while the documents cover an academic year, some of the most important information in them — salaries — covers the calendar year 2010.

There are 17 Form 990′s according to our count, some dozens of pages long. We will have additional reports in the days ahead.

When the Lakers tried to lure Coach K eight years ago, he was reliably reported to have been offered $40 million over five years. Duke’s new president, Richard Brodhead, told Krzyzewski that the University could never approximate that number — but there were other rewards for staying here.

Well not quite. We have just learned that Coach K’s earnings from Duke soared to $7.2 million in the year that he brought home another national championship — 2010. Just shy of the average $8 million that the Lakers position would have brought him.

There is no way of telling from available information if this gives the complete picture. For example, a deal with Nike to provide uniforms for the team involves cash paid to Duke. The coach gets a share — but we do not know if that share was forwarded to Coach K by Duke and included in the $7.2 million — or if Nike provided him directly with a separate check. There are  considerations and nuances like this in a plethora of arrangements — for example broadcast rights to games and interview programs.

Similarly, Coach K runs a basketball camp and gives motivational speeches in a program in the Fuqua Business School. All of our inquiries about his contract have been met with the same response: we don’t discuss contracts.

The $7.2 million means Coach K’s earnings from Duke alone soared 55 percent from the year before. Indeed they have marched upward since the 2004 flirtation with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak.

USA Today says that in the years since it began tracking the earnings of college coaches in all college sports, Coach K’s is the 2nd highest, the record being held by Rick Pitino who got $8.9 million in 2010-11.

The $7.2 million was paid to Coach K during a period of austerity at Duke, with ordinary employees enduring a wage freeze, to give just one example of a shrinking budget.

Moreover, news of this outlandish salary hits the campus just after the Academic Council learned that earnings on the endowment have gone sour and new rounds of budget cuts are necessary. The Strategic Initiative Pool — which allows Duke to jump start programs and projects that are not yet in the regular budget — has gone dry.

The new documents reveal that Coach K — along with President Brodhead and a select few — benefited from a tax gimmick called “grossing up.” This means that Duke — having been told by Coach K how much federal income tax he had to pay — added that amount to his pay.

In addition, Duke made a donation of $203,224 to the Emily Krzyzewski Center, named for the Coach’s mother. The Center says its purpose is to inspire inner city kids to dream big, act with character and determination, and reach their potential as community leaders.  Duke makes numerous donations in the region; this was the largest that we found.

We will have more…. much more on the 990′s in the days ahead.  These are very long, complicated documents and this will take many hours.  There are separate filings from the University, from Duke Health, from Duke’s investment arm and from Duke Corporate Education in the Fuqua Business School, which is supposed to supply much of the subsidy for the Kunshan folly that must be reviewed.

Initial review of one of the 990′s — covering the core educational function of the University — indicates the following:

After Coach K, the top wager earner was Chancellor Victor Dzau at $2.8 million, a significant decrease from the year before. We believe that in the  year involved, he and other top administrators in Duke Health froze their own pay, even though they are employees of a separate corporation that has its own very healthy revenue stream from patients.  We got Dzau’s salary information from the “educational” 990, because Dzau is also an officer of the University. When we get to Duke Medicine’s 990, we will have full information.

We note for this same reason, that is, as a former officer of the University, the 990 lists yet another $1,078,000 — as in years past — paid to Dr. Ralph Synderman. He retired from the Chancellor’s position in 2004.

The highest paid academic (outside the administration) appears to be Dr. Gavin Britz, at $833,489. (The Medical School reports under the University, not under Duke Medicine in the 990′s. We warned you this stuff is crazy)

Britz is a neurosurgeon and the Director, Duke Cerebrovascular Center. We caution that other Form 990′s for other Duke entities may eclipse this. Doctors who practice at Duke also do so under a complicated arrangements. We have never been able to fathom how their salaries are assembled: from medical school teaching, from research grants, from patient fees, from their group practice called the Private Diagnostic Clinics, and from administrative responsibilities.

For the first time, because of changes in the form 990 requirements, we can report on the salary of the athletic director, Kevin White: $906,536.  Far more than the Chief Academic Officer, the Provost, at $543,434.

In the past, the number listed for White’s salary has been distorted because Duke had to pay off Notre Dame to release him when he was recruited to come here — and this was, for reasons unknown, reported as salary to him.

The football coach received $1.7 million.

Form 990 requires any relatives of officers and highly paid officials to be listed, with their salaries. Thus, Cynthia Brodhead continued as hostess in Hart House for $132,500 a year.

We were able to find out the salary of the University Librarian, Deborah Jakubs, because she is the wife of Executive Vice Provost James Roberts. Jakubs: $260,000. Roberts: $334,000.

Tallman Trask earned $589,505. And the black vice president who he sent packing, Kemel Dawkins, vice president for campus services like dining, got a cash going-away payment of $600,000.

In all, 2,082 employees on the education side of Duke got more than $100,000. This is consistent with past years, and there is no further breakdown of the total, like male-female.

In the days ahead, we will also be delving into separate 990′s affecting the Duke Management Corporation, which handles Duke’s endowment, and its hidden subsidiaries like Gothic Corporation. One figure we already have: new contributions to endowment (not earnings, new money flowing in) during the 2010-11 academic year were quite anemic, at $81,684,000.  There are also budget lines for unpaid pledges that we will discuss further.

We caution our Loyal Readers that the format for the various Form 99o’s does not follow Duke’s organizational structure. Thus there are anomalies: while we can find out the salary of a vice president buried in Executive Vice President Tallman Trask’s office, we cannot find out the salary of the high profile Vice President for Public Relations, Michael Schoenfeld.

Another example of how the Form 990 does not follow Duke’s structure: in previous years Duke was obligated to list the five highest outside professional contractors. And we learned that the hot shot Washington lawyer Jamie Gorelick had billed Duke for $2 million in fees (not counting costs, we assume) in one year for her part-time work on the lacrosse litigation.

Now, Duke is only obliged to list its five highest outside contractors — and each year we can learn only of the amount paid for building renovation and construction.

BUDGET WOES AT DUKE? A REALITY CHECK: Readers not versed in Duke’s byzantine approach to budgeting should know this: there is no such thing as a shortage of funds in Arts and Sciences per se. There is only a shortage of political will to allocate appropriate levels of financial support to that sector of the university.

The reasons for this development are numerous:

1) an upper administration desperate to raise Duke’s profile with a flurry of conspicuous new initiatives, centers, and research agendas.

2) a top-down micromanaging approach to academic planning that presumes (often with astonishing arrogance) to predict which way individual disciplines are tending, which research projects will have traction in the future, and what will garner the most “visibility” — a term that in the administration’s imaginary has largely displaced the idea of substantive and sustained learning.

3) the emergence of a narrow, self-promoting cadre of career administrators whose loyalty is principally to building up their cv’s (i.e., to the next, higher post they covet over the one they have), and who therefore only support new initiatives, however ephemeral and ill-conceived, for which they can take credit rather than supporting existing and proven strengths of the university.

4) The budgetary allocation to A&S is being artificially depressed by the Provost’s office, which has long seized control over a disproportionate amount of Duke’s revenue for the sake of defining special programs and controlling extra-departmental faculty appointments with the aim of shaping the future academic and research agenda of the university. Traditional departments are routinely shortchanged, and their faculty and chairs treated with barely concealed contempt, simply because their view of what work matters often does not line up with that of the upper management.

5) Finally, the university now does not even honor written agreements between some departments and the deans office. Three-year funding commitments signed, in some cases, as recently as a year ago are being unilaterally suspended by the administration (pleading financial emergencies of the kind covered in by DukeCheck on Monday). Departments who manage their funds poorly are punished; departments who manage their funds well … are also punished, namely, for not spending their endowment funds and building up reserves, no matter how sensible and constructive the use of these funds for their principal educational mission.

6) Meanwhile, Talman Trask’s office graciously offers to ‘loan’ A&S money (at an interest rate higher than what your local bank will charge) for the ‘deficit’ that the administration itself has created.

NEEDED REMEDIES: Duke’s true and truly staggering deficit concerns a dramatic shortage of administrative wisdom. Needed are administrators …

a) … possessed of sufficient integrity to know that they serve a greater good (viz., the faculty and students, present and future) rather than those by whom they were appointed and/or their own career interests.

b) … wise enough to nurture existing strengths and to support strong hires by allowing the departments where field-specific competence resides to determine where those future faculty members are to be found.

c) … smart enough to know how much there is that they don’t know and who, thus, are prepared to draw on the wisdom of their faculty _before_ embarking on various grandiose initiatives aimed at transforming Duke’s academic profile.

d) … of sufficiently capacious mind to grasp that excellence cannot be willed into existence by overbearing and shortsighted micromanagement and by frenzied publicity; and who thus understand and respect that true academic quality is only achieved over long time, that it is an intergenerational good whose cultivation takes time — far more time than the few years a senior administrator stays in a post.

e) … possessed of sufficient character to resist the vanity that has our current cadre of administrators seek to immortalize themselves with trivial and short-lived initiatives and gimmicks (e.g., Humanities Writ Large, Duke Engage) and with strategic gambles like Duke’s current attempt to create a global image by means of old-fashioned brick-and-mortar structures in far-away places.

The latter, as Professors Kitschelt and Pfau had noted some time ago, is hardly the only (and certainly not the smartest) way to achieve global impact. Consider Stanford University’s web-casting of major courses, which has already reached far more students in a couple of years than Duke Kunshan University ever will, assuming it happens at all.

DukeCheck welcomes essays. We will post with or without your name.

WELCOME NEW READERS

This is Meat Loaf, all the ingredients we did not use in our full essays, blended together with some spice just like in the Great Hall and MarketPlace.  You never know what you’ll find!

In the past couple of years, since we’ve been monitoring our readership, there has been a substantial fall off after graduation. Not so this year. Initial readings show readership is up slightly from the average during the past semester.  Thank you, fellow Dukies becoming Loyal Readers!

DEPARTURE 

We’re about to lose a prominent member of the community to Wall Street, a job that pays significantly more than the academic world can afford.  Announcement said to be imminent. We know, won’t say. DukeChecker thus becomes a tease!

There are many interesting repercussions to this move, which we look forward to discussing.

SIX WEEKS IN THE LIFE OF AN INCOMING FRESHMAN

For Hector Morales, Jr. from the tiny town of Basalt, Colorado, the road to Duke has had its ups and downs.

First in April, he got admitted to study engineering (and perhaps play soccer) and learned that the Daniels Fund, a Colorado foundation, would pay the full freight.  To put his emotions mildly, he said “My parents felt very proud.”

Two weeks later, Immigration awoke his family and carted off his mother to jail. She had been ordered deported back to Mexico in 2005 for trying to use a fake driver’s license, a decision that was upheld in 2008.

Mrs. Morales has been in the US for 21 years. Hector and his 12-year-old brother were born here. And her husband has become naturalized. The community of Basalt, 3,332 people by actual count in 2009, was outraged and rallied round them.

We have just learned that Immigration has invoked a little known provision of the law, that allows it to back off for a year. The deportion question remains alive.

Morales: “It is crucial that she be present at my high school graduation as she has greatly contributed to my success, and is my No. 1 fan.  I can’t imagine moving forward without her.

“My whole life, my mother has instructed me to exceed expectations and do everything wholeheartedly. She encourages me to strive to be the best person I can be, and that is why I have accomplished so much up to this point.”

POTTI

A Deputy DukeChecker has learned that two families who had loved ones come to Duke to see Dr. Anil Potti were quite outraged that he had gotten a job working with senior citizens. The families — independently — reached out to the group practice that had hired the cancer quack and provided sheafs of eye-opening information.

Including the first word that the group practice had about 11 malpractice settlements listed on the website of the North Carolina Medical Board. Each of these involved more than $75,000, the only category the Board makes public.

We believe this money was paid by Duke, which covers malpractice for the doctors on its staff.  We further believe that Duke’s insurance policy only kicks in when  very substantial amounts are involved — so this was likely cash right out of the University’s coffers.

Using the words insurance policy is also a bit misleading. We believe that Duke self-insurers through a tax-haven company that it formed on a Caribbean island, currently located in Bermuda called Durham Casualty.

Final point: our last post on Potti danced on whether he had ever “worked” at the group practice or not. Answer: he had shadowed other doctors for two days before he was canned, and had never seen patients on his own.

Every time we post on Potti we hear from people in our Medical Center who think we are hounding him. That is not our intent at all. We note that he has never expressed remorse for his actions at Duke. We note that he told the South Carolina Medical Board that he had never had psychiatric evaluation.

So the demons that drove his career at Duke to ruins still dance in his head. That is our concern as he sees new patients.

POTTI  LITIGATION

Duke PR lost no time trumpeting the meaningless victory its lawyers won in court last week.

Plaintiffs for victims of the cancer fraud at Duke, Dr. Anil Potti, had asked a judge to push Duke along, because, they contended, Duke was balking at its requests in the discovery phase of the lawsuit, when the plaintiffs can reach and plumb the depths of possibility.

The judge disagreed with the plaintiffs, and said Duke was complying with the law.

Mike the Mouthpiece was quick to make statistics available to a reporter who was writing about this development.

Mouthpiece: Duke has already turned over 230,000 pages of documents. The plaintiffs had made 145 separate requests — some of them for huge files. Enough is enough.

Next step: lawyers for Potti’s victims can appeal the judge’s ruling. Or they can move on to another phase of discovery, depositions, which are sworn statements obtained from witnesses in lawyers’ offices.

Unfortunately, DukeChecker cannot write all that we knows about this matter, having gained much confidential information. Suffice it to say that Duke has also made demands for huge amounts of paperwork from the plaintiffs, including some demands that are unconscionable. Demanding, for instance, that people grievously ill with cancer fill out questionnaires that were hundreds of pages long with personal questions about events years after they left Dr. Potti’s “care.”

Some day the truth will come out.

GRADUATION ON THE INTERNET

If you couldn’t make it to graduation, Duke PR offered live coverage on line. We were viewer #243 when we signed on.

The quality of the video was the best we have ever seen on any internet TV broadcast. Someone’s doing something right.

This allowed us to scan very carefully the front row of officials on stage. While cut-a-ways showed diverse crowds of graduates, the front row, if you eliminate the speaker and student speaker, was all white.

Changing times: historically graduation ended with a benediction. This year it ended with a confused looking President hesitant about starting the march out.

Best speakers:

A) Roshan Sadanani, graduating speaker chosen to address the Commencement ceremony.

Awesome.

http://ondemand.duke.edu/video/32578/duke-university-2012-student-c

B) At the administration of the Hippocratic Oath in Duke Chapel to new doctors, the speaker, chosen by the graduates, was once again Dr. Anthony Galanos, associate professor of medicine, who was just great. From the rap song he started with, to his recollection that he can remember neither the speaker nor message at his own graduation, to his charge to the class.

PHI BETA KAPPA

181 graduating Dukies were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa this year. You know, the nation’s oldest academic honor society.

Across the nation, there are about 276 chapters and about 15,000 new inductees a year.

Now the kicker, which we think is hilarious: there is a secret handshake.   Following paragraph from Duke PR:

“The Duke Chapter, Beta of North Carolina, was formed in 1920 at Trinity College. The chapter’s four Phi Beta Kappa faculty officers — Steve Nowicki, president; Lee Baker, vice president; Michael Gustafson, secretary; and Lisa Robinson Bailey, treasurer — initiated and welcomed the new members with the society’s secret handshake.”

ELECTION OF TRUSTEES

Sorry, not at Duke. At Penn State.

Now this is the way it is supposed to work.

Penn State alumni — upset over the pedophilia charges against assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky (which he vehemently denies) and many ticked off over the dismissal of eternal coach Joe Paterno — have elected three new Trustees.  Yes a competitive election, with 37,000 voting (vs. 12,000 last year). In all there were 86 candidates this year (compared with 10 in most years.)

One long-time board member was defeated for re-election. Two saw what was coming and decided not to stand for re-election.

The candidate who got the most votes: Paterno supporter and football stadium namesake Adam Taliaferro, pledged to make the board transparent. Another victor — retired Navy Seal Ryan McCombie — ran on a pledge of integrity.

Oh my. Oh my. How wonderful it would be to have Duke run this way!!!!!

GIVING TO DEAR OLD DUKE

They’re called charitable gift annuities. They are a scheme where people can donate to Duke (or other non-profits), get a deduction immediately for some of the gift, and then get checks for the rest of their lives.

The amount of the checks, of course, depends on the size of the contribution to Duke and also the interest rates in effect at the time the contribution is made.

Whoops. This scheme is getting less attractive. For example, someone aged 60 putting money into the deal in May or June will get checks for 4.8 percent of their gift every year for life. But starting July 1, the same person will only get 4.4 percent.

Don’t worry. If you don’t like this deal, Duke’s got another. You can make a donation, have your money invested along side the school’s endowment, and as it grows, your checks will grow. Or as it shrinks, your checks will spink. Duke keeps the principal upon death.

NEWS FROM THE BACKWATER.  KUNSHAN.

There have been many signs that the economy of Kunshan — after 15  years of dynamic growth — is going put-put.

The city gained attention because Taiwanese who had contracts to do a lot of the world’s drudgery – like putting those rubber pads on the bottom side of every computer mouse — found they could hire people in Kunshan for one-tenth the price of Taiwan.

Kunshan was selected for two reasons: because of its stream of people leaving rice paddies and coming into the city seeking a better life (an unfulfilled promise).

And because of its accessibility to the east coast of China and its airports and ship terminals. Kunshan is perfect for a truck to leave in the morning filled with computers, unload at the seaport, and return at night with a load of cardboard boxes from the US that will be used to package even more computers.

Now, with Kunshan’s wages rising to among the highest in China, these same manufacturers are building further inland.

The Xinyuan Real Estate Company, whose stock is traded under the symbol XIN, has just reported its profits are being adversely affected by people walking away from contracts to buy Kunshan apartments it is constructing. And as for prices, they are down 10 percent from last October-December. The company predicts another 10 percent reduction in the immediate future.

As for the overall economy in China, an Associated Press story last week began: “SHANGHAI (AP) — Dismal data from China….”

MUSICAL CHAIRS

Crystal Gail Mangum of lax fame has her old lawyer back. As Loyal Readers know, Ms. Mangum is facing murder charges for slicing through six of her boyfriend’s organs in one deep, vicious stab. Originally the court appointed attorney Woody Vann to represent her.

Court-appointed. That means taxpayers are paying for this.

Mangum didn’t like Woody, so the court let her switch to Chris Shella.  He, in turn, grew a dislike for Mangum and her attempts to run her own defense, and was allowed to resign. So the court turned again to Woody.

Woody says he doesn’t know yet how he’ll defend Mangum.

Meantime,  the crazies — led by Victoria Peterson — on the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong want the “frivolous charges” against Mangum dropped. Or else they are threatening to report the prosecutor to the state attorney general for succombing to “pervasive media-driven justice.”

Whew.

FACULTY PAY

Some statistics about faculty pay from the American Association of University Professors 2012 national survey.  This is average pay, and there are wide variations between professors in different disciplines at the same rank.

The numbers put Duke in the 94th to 96th percentile in each category.

Male $177,500        Female $167,200

Duke average $175,300.

Since the year 2000, the average pay of a full professor at Duke has gone up $67,300. The change at an average doctor-degree granting institution is $36,400.

Male $119.400      Female $104,900

Duke average $114,500

National average $78,565

Male $103,100       Female $82,200

Duke average $96,000

National average  $66,564

Duke did not report data about instructors.

More: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/rep/Z/

We have no idea why these disparities between males and females are tolerated for one minute.

BRODHEAD PAY

Come on, DukeChecker, you’re slipping!   That’s what several Loyal Readers told us after we wrote about President Brodhead’s appointment to a new five-year term — but didn’t mention his pay.

We expect new statistics in the next ten days when Duke finally gets around to releasing IRA Form 990 for the 2010-2011 academic year. In 2010 he received total compensation of $879,000.

We believe Brodhead’s contract extension begins in two years when his current agreement expires. Thus he will remain President until June 30, 2019.

ACCOLADES

The Bass Professorships (created with a $10 million gift from Trustee Anne Bass and her husband, to match other donations) are five-year appointments, honoring up and coming academic stars who focus on the undergraduate experience. Just announced with very little fanfare by the University:

Arts and Sciences:

Vincent Conitzer, the Sally Dalton Robinson Professor of Computer Science. 

Esther Gabara, the E. Blake Byrne Associate Professor of Romance Studies. 

Scott Huettel, the Jerry G. and Patricia Crawford Hubbard Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience. 

Mark Kruse, the Fuchsberg-Levine Family Associate Professor of Physics.

Paul Manos, Jack Neely Professor of Biology.

PRATT SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Brian Mann, Jeffrey N. Vinik Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. 

Daniel Sorin, the W.H. Gardner Jr. Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Stefan Zauscher, Sternberg Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. 

Sanford School of Public Policy

Judith Kelley, the Kevin D. Gorter Associate Professor of Public Policy.

FRESHMAN READING

Forget the book, this year State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett, that all freshmen are supposed to read before they arrive on campus in August.

A group of current students — noting that anyone can now get a personal genome scan for about $100 by mail — is suggesting that instead of reading a book, all freshmen get a common experience and something to focus on at the start of their college years. Namely a genome test.

(Personally we think the book idea is rather unnecessary, as freshmen will have plenty to talk about and will soon have common experiences with material they read for courses.)

UC Berkeley has the genome idea up and running “to give students something to talk about.”  About 700 of 5,500 freshmen participated last year. Warning: your genome scan will reveal markers setting you up for diseases…. merely a statistical probability of possible susceptibility somewhere down the road. Easily misunderstood.

Berkeley is now moving toward revamping its scans — leaving out the disease traits — covering only ancestry and what’s called “fun traits.”

Next step at Duke: a formal write-up of the proposal for consideration by administrators.

REYNOLDS PRICE

When Reynolds Price, James B. Duke Professor of English, passed away in January, 2011, he had completed 208 pages of a planned 350 manuscript for a new book.  He called this project “Midstream,” and it’s spawned lots of talk.

Susan Moldow was/is his long-time editor at Scribner:

“He may have had a vision of where he was going which he never got to realize, but the story does work as a story; the memoir completes itself successfully.”

The publisher was able to complete the work with the aid of Price’s extensive handwritten revisions and notations. and significant work by the writer Wallace Kaufman, a friend of Price’s, and collaborative help from William Price, Reynolds’s brother.

Story: Price turns 30: “This is it. I’m now the person I’m likely to be from here to the end.”

A celebration of the new book. May 15, 7 PM, Gothic Reading Room.

AMENDMENT 1

We are assured that a trio of family law professors at Duke are in communication with others around the state, evaluating the chance to pounce on Amendment 1 with a court challenge. Students at Duke Law — who elected an openly gay student body president for the year just concluding — are expected to play a large role IF this comes to pass.

Professors Kathryn Bradley, Kate Bartlett and Carolyn McAllaster in the lead.

They may well wait for the outcome of the high-profile California case, where a state-wide vote overturned a decision of the state Supreme Court that allowed gay marriage. This vote is being challenged — and the people in favor of gay marriage have won twice in federal court, which is to say both at the trial court and then at the Circuit Court of Appeals level, where the vote was 2-1. It’s expected that the losers — people against gay marriage — will ask for a new hearing before all the judges in the Circuit Court or ask to have the US Supreme Court become involved.

RESEARCH

A new study by researchers at Duke University predicts that 42% of American adults will be diagnosed wtih obesity by 2030: that’s up from around a third right now. the study also finds that the number of people with severe obesity, meaning those who are at least 100 pounds overweight, is forecast to rise to 11%.

COACH K

The London Olympics on his mind, Coach K said Monday that this is likely going to be his last at the helm of the American team of NBA stars.

Thank you for reading DukeCheck and joining in love of this great university.

The rumble is getting louder: Duke is in financial trouble again.

And DukeCheck has sent an urgent request to Vice President for PR Michael Schoenfeld asking for a special briefing.  cc: President Brodhead and Executive Vice President Trask, who is the chief financial officer. We want to make sure our stories are pointed, and correct.

A Deputy DukeChecker learned this weekend that on May 1st, Allen Building sent out e-mails instructing all academic divisions to trim their budgets for the 2012-13 year, which begins July 1.

We know so far that the Arts and Sciences got a heavy hit, reliably said to be less than $3 million but significantly more than $2 million.

This development came atop the revelation at the Academic Council that the endowment is underperforming and the Strategic Initiative Pool is dry. SIP, as it is called. This is the line in the budget that holds money for new programs — or unexpected expenditures. It allows Duke, for example, to snag a key professor who suddenly becomes available — even if his or her department does not have funds.

This past weekend the Trustees adopted a new budget that has a historically low increase in spending — almost all of it from higher tuition which is also a historical  turn of events.

Despite significant increases in the cost of attending Duke — including tuition — the total amount of money available for undergraduate scholarships went up only a sliver in the new budget, raising important questions about Duke’s commitment to need-blind admissions.

Developing……..

Dr. Anil Potti — the poster boy for Duke Medicine whose faked cancer research and experiments on human beings called clinical trials led to his leaving Duke in disgrace — has lost the new job he just got.

That job was with a group practice in Durham that makes house calls and serves as the in-house doctor at the new Carillon senior citizens assisted living center. The group is called Doctors Making Housecalls.

On Wednesday, a Deputy DukeChecker obtained a memo — now described as “internal and confidential” — that concludes, “We are excited to be able to provide primary care of the highest caliber to the residents of Carillon and we are confident patients and their families will be delighted with Dr. Potti.”

This was signed by Dr. Shohreh Taavoni, who is the co-founder and chief medical officer of the group.

On Sunday, the other co-founder, her husband, Dr. Alan Kronhaus, said Potti is no longer associated in any way with the group. He conceded that he and Potti had negotiated and signed an employment agreement, but he maintained it was “nullified immediately thereafter.”

Kronhaus: “Based on extensive background information provided by Dr. Potti to Doctors Making Housecalls management, which included abundant evidence of his clinical competence, our practice seriously consider employing Dr. Potti.  We conveyed that information internally and confidentially to our employees and certain facilities we serve.  That announcement proved premature.  After evaluating additional information developed pursuant to our due diligence process, we decided not to employ Dr. Potti.”

While that paragraph seems to step on itself, Kronhaus was clear:  while he did have a signed contract, Potti had not yet shown up for work. “Dr. Potti never worked for us, and has never provided services of any sort or in any capacity under our egis.”

On Friday, getting wind of the dismissal but not able to confirm it, a Deputy, acting anonymously,  called Doctors Making House was told “he is one of our doctors, yes.” The Deputy was then transferred to the appointments secretary.

All this leaves a big question: what information did Potti convey, what did he leave out? And what did a group of doctors headquartered in Durham discover about him after the contract was signed — that they did not know earlier.  The original announcement of Potti’s employment curiously made no reference to his medical degree in India nor to his years at Duke.

This is the second attempt — that we know of — by Potti to gain employment. Earlier, he started at the Coastal Cancer Center in South Carolina — but got bounced from there as a “distraction” after “60 Minutes” featured him as “possibly one of the greatest medical research frauds in history.”

DukeCheck is very reliant on information from its Loyal Readers. Here’s how to reach us:

In addition to reappointing President Brodhead and passing a budget for the 2012-23 academic year, which DukeCheck has covered in separate stories, the Trustees announced they took the following action.  (On the right, Trustee chair Rick Wagoner)

Of course, they could have taken a lot of other action too, and not announced it. Who knows? They meet in secret, and each member of the board and any administrators sitting in must sign pledges of confidentiality.

– construction of a Marine Science and Conservation Genetics Center at Duke’s facility on the Atlantic Ocean in Beaufort, North Carolina

– construction of a new Duke Eye Center, making it a one-stop location for patients who now frequently have to negotiate various places in the hospital complex.

– construction of a glass pavilion in the ravine next to the Bryan Center, temporarily to house dining while the Union is gut renovated, ultimately to house student activities. Apparently there is no donor for this gem, because it is still being called The Pavilion.

– renovations in Perkins Library that will affect the original 1928 building and 1948 edition. Though the news release did not say so, these are the only parts of the giant Perkins complex that can be seen from the main quad — and Perkins’s name is being stripped from the buildings in favor of donor David Rubenstein.  The name Perkins will survive in a wing not visible from anywhere.

– Duke’s p0litical science department is now confirmed for new digs in Paul M. Gross Hall. It’s interesting — and very appropriate — that the name of the giant in Duke history is surviving: it’s currently the unused Gross Chemical Laboratory, and had been destined to become Nicholas Hall, home for the eponymous School for the Environment, until Peter and Ginny Nicholas stiffed Duke on a pledge of $72 million.

– The Trustees also approved the first degree program designed for Duke Kunshan University, if it ever gets going. This is a Masters in Global Health that will involve one year of study by 25 students, rattling on a campus fully built for 700.

Wagoner said all this follows the strategic plan outlined by President Brodhead. That’s news to us, as the only plan we can find is totally outdated, focusing on Central Campus (also known as New Campus), made impossible by the 2008 financial meltdown. Hey Rick, send me a copy.

And now it is time for the DukeCheck feature….. Ask Uncle Dick

Hi Dick. Congratulations on the extension of your contract.

The only mention of Kunshan in the news release about the Trustee meeting deals with the first degree to be offered there, by the Duke Global Health Institute. Wasn’t there any other discussion of Kunshan?

You know, the increasing deficits. The lagging building. And we note, too, that this was the first Trustee meeting since you were aglow with the early January promise by the Deputy Minister of Education in Beijing that approval for the new university was imminent?

Did any of the Trustees ask you questions like this?

The Board of Trustees has extended President Brodhead’s contract for five more years. While the official announcement does not give dates, presumably this means he will remain in office for at least seven more years, until June 30, 2019.

The decision ends much speculation on campus.

Brodhead, who is 65,  had spoken often about reserving time at the end of his career for a return to full-time teaching and research. And on a more philosophical note, he had described administrative work as a detour from the scholarship that is at the heart of the university, a detour that he said he would take but retreat from.

The decision assures continuity for a major multi-year development campaign that was not mentioned in this afternoon’s announcement.

Flashback. Here is what DukeCheck reported three days ago in discussing issues going before the Trustees: “Will President Brodhead, at age 65, commit to remain several years through the campaign? We believe that he has a five-year contract which expires on June 30, 2014. He has mused about wanting to reserve some time for a return to teaching and research.  There has been lively discussion of this issue on campus this week.”

The decision also gives Brodhead time to try to jump start Duke’s stalled entry into China, which he has described as the biggest strategic initiative for the university since James B. Duke created it out of Trinity College in 1924.

President Brodhead today at the Baccalaureate Service

Some of the speculation about Brodhead’s future had been spawned by stakeholders who are not confident in his record. But board chair Richard Wagoner made it clear this sentiment is not shared by any Trustee.

Wagoner — in a news release, which is the only way we can learn these things — said the Trustees were unanimous and enthusiastic. Balanced against this is the fact that 27 of the 36 board members (the board is actually 37, because Brodhead is an ex officio member) were  seated after Brodhead was elected to his first term, selected through a clandestine process that his office presides over.

Wagoner is quoted as saying Brodhead has provided “inspired leadership” since his arrival from Yale in 2004, “successfully navigating through a period of great change and challenge.”

Wagoner talked of “positive momentum” that Brodhead has achieved.

Here’s a paragraph from the news release. Understand please, that typically these things are written by PR people, so Wagoner may or may not have created these words:

“The board is grateful for President Brodhead’s willingness to lead Duke during what will be a period of significant changes in higher education and health care, as well as transitions on campus. The board is committed to sustaining, and indeed advancing, Duke’s position as a preeminent research university that will be a destination for the best students and faculty. We are confident that President Brodhead will help us fulfill that vision.”

The official news release did not mention the contract of any other University official. Peter the Provost and Chancellor Victor Dzau are moving into the finale of their contracts and pushing retirement age too, as is Brodhead.

There was also no mention in this afternoon’s news release of Trustee leadership. Presumably Wagoner will serve another one-year term as chair, until he is bounced by term limits in June, 2013.  We also do not know if the board signaled who it might elect as a successor, or whether it left two vice chairs among the leading contenders. The vice chairs — not the only possible candidates — are Jack Bovender, long-time head of the Hospital Corporation of America, and David Rubenstein, the private equity mogul.

Bovender chaired a committee that conducted a routine review of Brodhead’s tenure. The results of these reviews — designed to help the executive do a better job — are never disclosed.

DEVELOPING. CHECK BACK.

Deep in Saturday afternoon’s unusually long news release featuring the reappointment of President Brodhead, the subject changes to other actions taken by the Trustees, and there’s s disquieting information — presented without a red flag of course — about university finances.

Despite a very modest increase in spending in a new budget that the Trustees approved at their Commencement weekend meeting, the projected amount of red ink is growing and we are tapping reserves — intended to be used as endowment — at a rate that cannot be sustained. Tapping far faster, in fact, than at the height of the financial meltdown that started in mid-2008. 

This echoes a warning given to the Academic Council on Thursday by the head of the University Priorities Committee: “We may not have enough new money to support the kinds of new initiatives that I believe we need to have as a University to grow and evolve.” 

This is ominous stuff. Now the details.

This discussion covers only the “education” side of the University. The entire medical enterprise, with its own revenue stream from patients, is separate and handled by its own Trustees.

Here’s what concerns us:

The 2012-13 budget is going up only 2.5 percent. That compares with the 2011-12 budget which went up 4.2 percent, a typical increase.

Despite the modest increase in spending, the University will be dipping into its reserve funds — which would otherwise be used for endowment — for $116 million to cover red ink. That means Duke’s income is down — we believe principally because the return on its endowment has fallen off.  Called a “drawdown,” the best information we have is that at the height of the financial meltdown, Duke only spent $226 million from reserve funds over three years, an average of $71 million. 

We say this is our best information because these numbers are very difficult to derive — and neither Executive Vice President Tallman Trask nor Mike the Mouthpiece will help calculate them.

Most significantly, the new budget increases undergraduate financial aid by a mere sliver — from $133 million to $137 million. With a 3.9 percent increase in the total cost of attendance — tuition, room and board — it leaves one guessing as to how Duke will maintain its full commitment to need-blind admissions. Up until now, Duke had consistently favored financial aid in its allocation of resources.

The Trustees added three percent to a pool to give employees — including faculty — merit raises. That doesn’t mean the salary pool is three percent larger, because we do not know how many people will qualify for raises. Duke refused our request for information about how many people actually got raises when it broke the two-year pay freeze mandated by the financial meltdown of 2008.   

Most ominously, on Thursday the Academic Council, the faculty’s senate, heard the annual report from the University Priorities Committee. This group is appointed directly by President Brodhead and is not a Council committee.

The chair, John Payne, the Ruvane Professor of Business Administration in the Fuqua school, revealed that return on the University’s endowment had slumped.  We are working to get full details.

He said that as a result, the Strategic Initiative Pool, known as SIP in Allen Building language, was overdrawn, meaning there is no cash for new initiatives and academic programs.

The Brodhead Administration has given stakeholders no hint of this problem. In fact, just the opposite. It has proposed exporting significant SIP (Strategic Investment Pool) money to China to pay for the ever-increasing deficits in the sinkhole of Kunshan.

Had the new bad news been available sooner, when the Academic Council (and Trustees too) were making decisions on the founding of Kunshan, there might have been a different outcome to the full-speed ahead decision to start the first of a chain of research universities circling the globe. Peter the Provost in particular contended that money flowing to Kunshan was not having a significant negative effect on Durham.

Aside from the financial news, there is nothing surprising in the Trustee actions. The Duke Global Health Institute won approval for a master’s degree in Kunshan — the first approval for a degree at Duke Kunshan University.  There has been confusion that an earlier vote for a masters in management studies degree offered by Fuqua was a DKU offering, but that is just plain inaccurate. While held in Kunshan, it is a Duke operation.

This means when the Chinese get around to approving DKU, it will open with perhaps as many as 25 students enrolled in degree programs. 25 on a campus built for 700.

DukeCheck will have further analysis of the financial problems — and other trustee news — in a Monday post.

Trustee David Rubenstein ’70 — who has pledged to give away at least half of his fortune — inched closer to  his goal today by contributing another $15 million to Duke.

The announcement came as the Trustees began their Commencement weekend meeting. It’s not specified if this is endowment or money that can be spent in the next couple of years.

(There are swirls of rumors about other developments at the Trustee meeting. Deputy DukeCheckers are watching carefully.)

Rubenstein’s purpose is to boost the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, which is something we do not quite understand. It got off to a sleepy start in October, 2010.

Uncle Dick issued the following statement: ”Every successful institution began as someone’€™s bright idea, and the creativity and can-do spirit of entrepreneurs are playing an ever more important role in building the economy and solving social challenges. In today’s economic climate, sparking and training the entrepreneurial spirit is a fundamental goal of education. We’re grateful to David Rubenstein for making Duke a leader in this field.”

Also from the press release:

This summer, as part of a pilot program, 10 Duke undergraduates will serve as interns at start-ups in Silicon Valley and three student teams will work closely with Duke alumni on developing their ventures at Dogpatch Labs, the incubator that spawned Instagram. In Durham, three teams of undergraduates and two teams of graduate students from the Nicholas School of the Environment will launch their new ventures through DUhatch, the on-campus incubator.

Unlike most press releases, the announcement this (Friday) afternoon contained no quotes from Rubenstein himself.

Rubenstein made his fortune by starting the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that does substantial business with the bin Laden family (though not Osama, who was an outcast when he was alive), Abu Dubai and China. It has come in for heavy criticism — as in Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 911 — for the way he wields power and privilege.

A leading One Percenter, Rubenstein has become a vociferous champion of the tax breaks that allow private equity’s kingpins to escape federal taxes. Forbes Magazine estimated his net worth at $2.8 billion in January, but as DukeCheck recently reported, the attempt by privately held Carlyle to sell stock to the public went flat, and a recalculation of Rubenstein’s worth based on a revised look at Carlyle left him with only $1.8 billion.

The $15 million contribution brings Rubenstein’s major gifts to $40 million and counting. These include $13.6 million for the library system last August, which promptly renamed its most important building after Rubenstein and relegated the name of an earlier benefactor, William R. Perkins, to an addition constructed in the 1960′s that is not even visible from the main quad.  Earlier he made large donations that resulted in Rubenstein Hall, one of the principal buildings in the Sanford School of Public Policy.

It’s not revealed in the news release if anything new will get the Rubenstein name.

Rubenstein has stated he has a choice: either give his loot away, or be buried with it like the Pharaohs.

Thanks to a Loyal Reader for tipping us to this story.

The cancer quack Dr. Anil Potti has gotten a new job with a group of doctors who serve the Carillon chain of assisted living centers for senior citizens. And  Potti also makes house calls for other patients in private homes.

Dr. Shohreh Taavoni, pictured on left, who is the co-founder and chief medical officer of the group, called Doctors Making Housecalls, made the announcement in a letter addressed to “Patients, families and staff.”

The announcement makes no mention of Potti’s medical school in India, nor of his ruinous career at Duke.

It says he was at the University of North Dakota as a resident and assistant professor, and also practiced at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Fargo, ND. The announcement says Potti has won numerous awards, listing only one specific: the Leonard P. Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. A foundation sponsors these annual awards at more than 85 medical schools around the country.

The announcement says that Potti — an MD — will replace a recent graduate of Duke’s physician’s assistant program who is going to pursue other opportunities.

Doctors Making Housecalls says it has 23 medical professionals who make 40,000 home visits a year, a total that apparently includes visits in assisted living centers. The website indicates it also serves individuals in their homes, including younger patients, and while it offers 24-hour urgent care, it is not equipped for emergencies.

“We come to  you when and where you need us, so you’ll never have to wait in a doctor’s office again,” says the website.  The home office is apparently on Apex Highway in Durham.

The senior citizen chain operates throughout North Carolina. Its website says it will or has opened a new home on Garrett Road in Durham in 2012. Potti starts there during the second week of June.

Potti recently renewed his license to practice in North Carolina. This is a routine annual event.

After resigning from Duke in disgrace, Potti found work at the Coastal Cancer Center in South Carolina — but was ushered out after a “60 Minutes” expose of his misconduct at Duke forced the Center to rethink his employment.

The announcement of his new job concludes: “We are excited to be able to provide primary care of the highest caliber to the residents of Carillon and we are confident patients and their families will be delighted with Dr. Potti.”

SOUTH CAROLINA

Separately, the South Carolina Medical Board has made no announcement of any disciplinary action against any physician following its meeting on Monday and Tuesday. There were numerous cases — all identified only by code number.

The board maintains a searchable computer database that does not reflect any discipline of Potti. The database, however, often takes two weeks to update.

We became interested in the status of Potti’s license in South Carolina when the board’s website announced it had been yanked — only to see the board backtrack in hours and say there was a “clerical error.”

President Brodhead and Peter the Provost have sent an extraordinary e-mail to the faculty, staff and Board of Visitors of the Sanford School of Public Policy, saying the search for a new dean that began last August did not yield “the candidate who can fulfill the aspirations of the school’s faculty and our own,” so it’s back to square one.

Well not quite. DukeCheck has learned that an offer was extended to one candidate who stalled Lange upon receiving it, and then rejected Duke in favor of appointment as Provost of Georgetown University. The University’s mouthpiece, following a rule established by former vice president for PR John Burness, will never confirm nor deny any exclusive information that DukeCheck obtains.

That’s not all. We have learned — and will soon report in a major essay — that standard procedures were not followed with all candidates, and that the candidate who ultimately said “no thanks” to Duke was ushered through the process in an extraordinary way. This has some faculty questioning whether the entire search was a charade — a charade that got Brodhead and Lange burned in the process.

Ah faculty politics!

As predicted by DukeCheck on May 6, Lange announced he is asking the current Dean to stay on. Bruce Kuniholm, turning 70, had announced his desire to return to teaching and research full-time.

In the e-mail, which was signed by PTP, the chair of the search committee, Professor Sunny Ladd, shown at left, was eased out. Lange attributed this to the feeling that Uncle Dick and he hold that “we do not think it proper to ask anyone, no matter how generous  with their time, to do double duty as Chair of the committee.”

Lange said Ladd agreed with that conclusion.

Lange said Professor Elizabeth Frankenberg would be the new chair. And that members would be named shortly. He said the goal is to have someone in place by next January 1.

The text of PTP’s letter follows, as provided by a faculty source.

The President and I write to update you on the search for the Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy. The search committee, as you are aware, did an outstanding job and brought us three very fine candidates. After much deliberation, however, we do not think we have yet found the candidate who can fulfill the aspirations of the school’s faculty and our own.

As a result, we have decided to extend the search, asking the committee to resume its efforts and to bring us a new list of three candidates, unranked, as soon as feasible and hopefully by the end of the fall semester.

We know that not all of the search committee members may be willing to continue to serve, although we hope that will not be the case. We will, therefore, be reporting the full membership of the continuing search committee in the coming days. We have already spoken with Sunny Ladd to indicate to her that we do not think it proper to ask anyone, no matter how generous with their time, to do double duty as Chair of the committee. She has agreed this is a wise course.

We have asked Elizabeth Frankenberg to serve as chair as the search continues, and she has graciously agreed to do so.

You may also be curious to know who will serve as Dean until the new one is selected and arrives. We have asked Bruce Kuniholm to continue and he has, with his usual noteworthy willingness to do what is needed to strengthen Sanford, even at a cost to him personally, agreed to continue to serve as Dean until the new Dean is in place during the coming year or at its conclusion. We are deeply grateful to Bruce for his willingness to continue and his generosity of time and spirit.

We are thankful to the search committee for its excellent and intense efforts and to all of you for your patience. The selection of the Dean is one of the greatest responsibilities that falls to the President and Provost, for it has the consequence of shaping the future of our schools. This task is not always easily completed, for we seek the best for these positions and they are difficult to find and attract. We are confident that with the extension of the search Sanford will find the leadership that fully meets its needs and aspirations.

Most members of the Board of Trustees will arrive on campus tonight (Thursday) for their usual social hour, dinner and special presentation by a speaker. That’s in advance of a full day of closed-door meetings on Friday and another round on Saturday morning. 

The Allen Building Mole suggested two topics will dominate the meetings:

First, China. Final approval for a small, three-year trial of a Masters Degree in Global Health is expected to sail through. But the occasion could open discussion of nasty Kunshan issues.

The last time the Trustees held a plenary meeting, February 24 and 25, President Brodhead was still gushing over a promise from the Deputy Minister of Education that China’s approval  of the new university — required under their law — was imminent. (on the left, Brodhead receives the promise)

Perhaps he will tell the Trustees what he refuses to tell us: what happened?

Second, the coming fund-raising drive. This is likely to lead to a more dynamic, if not volatile discussion. Key points:

Will President Brodhead, at age 65, commit to remain several years through the campaign? We believe that he has a five-year contract which expires on June 30, 2014. He has mused about wanting to reserve some time for a return to teaching and research.  There has been lively discussion of this issue on campus this week.

DukeCheck has had several posts warning that Brodhead, Chancellor Victor Dzau, Peter the Provost, Tallman Trask and Board Chair Wagoner will all see their terms expire in a one-year period.

See http://dukecheck.com/?p=810

When will the “quiet phase” of the campaign, which is presumably underway, end? When will it go public, and most importantly, how many years will it last and how much money will it seek.

Typically a campaign has one-third of its goal pledged before it is announced. This was the formula for Brodhead’s Financial Aid Initiative, where a special $75 million gift from The Duke Endowment and $25 million pledged by four heavy hitters served as a challenge to other donors .  That totals $100 million out of the $307 million goal.

A similar one-third formula prevailed in the “quiet phase” at the University of Pennsylvania, which we will return to in a moment, where its president brought in well over $1 billion in pledges before launching a $3.5 billion drive.

What’s curious about Duke is the parade of announcements since last August about big donations: $50 million from the Karshes, $26 million from the Bovenders, $13 million from David Rubenstein and earlier this week, $10 million from the Vinik’s.  The Duke Endowment also made a big splash by announcing $80 million to renovate the West Union, Page and Baldwin — but that was highly deceptive. Unlike the $25 million grant for financial aid, which was a special “additive” to all routine gifts, the $80 million is a PR stunt, a totaling up of gifts in the next few years that James B. Duke specified must come to the University. Hardly an infusion of new capital.

So why make all these announcements if we want to include those sums in the “quiet” phase?

The size and length of the campaign will also be crucial. Obviously $4 billion raised over five years — $800 million a year — is dramatically different than $4 billion raised over seven years — $570 million a year.  Nan Keohane sneaked in an eight-year campaign, ultimately snagging $2.4 billion.  That eight year timetable helped.

So how much to shoot for and what to count?

When President Nan Keohane started her “Campaign for Duke” she announced a goal of $1.5 billion — and everyone at a gala dinner in the Indoor Stadium gasped. After all, Stanford was then heading for shattering the record for university fund-raising with a $911 million yield. By the end, Keohane had $2.4 billion — but only the 5th biggest jackpot among all American universities. The landscape had changed.

But forget those numbers. At the moment it’s Stanford again and Columbia pushing past $4 billion. Other top tier universities like Cornell, Yale, Penn and U Va have raised almost as much. Harvard has probably raised more overall — but not in a one-stop unified university-wide campaign.

To stay in the league it wants to, Duke must challenge those numbers. A real challenge too, unless it is watered down by a longer time to raise the loot.

Remember please, in the Financial Aid Initiative, Executive Vice President Trask told the Chronicle there was a need for as much as $450 million for undergraduate need-based financial aid alone. He was told to shut up. And Brodhead announced an attempt to raise just half of that — a goal that was only meant because the campaign was extended a few months.

What to count? At Princeton, the “Aspire” campaign seeking a modest $1.75 billion (remember Princeton supports no med school, no law school, no business school to begin the list) is counting on $250 million from its annual fund. But that’s what the annual fund was going to raise anyway — campaign or not — so this is hardly a boost that would propel the school to new, unanticipated heights.

Duke uses the crutch of its Annual Giving too. But beyond, it relies too much on The Duke Endowment to distort its fund-raising figures. In Keohane’s Campaign for Duke, 17 percent of the money came from The Duke Endowment. In Brodhead’s Financial Aid Initiative, 25 percent.

Not one cent of that is new and unanticipated, that would propel the school. All of it comes from money that James B. Duke set aside by Indenture in 1924 and his will in 1925. He chose a separate entity — The Duke Endowment — to hold the principal, and thus we get away with counting the yearly checks as “fund-raising.”

If James B. Duke had given the principal to be held by the University directly, there would be no big splashy press releases. Rather, just higher earnings on endowment.

We believe that money that Duke University receives from The Duke Endowment is a mere transfer of ownership, from left pocket to right, not a new gift.

Although much hoopla will surround the campaign’s reach to secure 150,000 or more donors, it’s the big boys who will make or break it. In the past, development officers may have expected 80 percent of a campaign’s revenue would come from 20 percent of the donors. No more. Aggressive campaigns are raising closer to 97 percent of donations, coming from just 1 or 2 percent of donors.

This signals trouble at Duke. We’ve never hit the $200 million gift that is now common — and necessary.

$200 million. For example Sandy Weill’s check to Cornell and David Geffen’s to UCLA. Even the sun-drenched University of Southern California has hit that mark, from a guy named  David Dornsife and his wife, Dana. Down in Waco, Baylor University claimed as much, anonymously.

The granddaddy is media mogul John Kluge, who had enough left over after paying off his wives to write a check for $400 million to Columbia for need-based financial aid. (L-R in pic, Columbia President Bollinger, Kluge)

That’s a check. Remember, the biggest pledge in Duke’s history — $72 million from Peter Nicholas and his wife Ginny Lilly (yes, the drug fortune) Nicholas, who co-chaired the Campaign for Duke — was never paid.

We know, too, that a recent major gift to the University — we have details, we shall spare the donor embarrassment — turned out to be only 40 percent of what was under discussion.

Finally, there is the issue of how campaign results will be reported to stakeholders.

DukeCheck will insist that we have “new” money — new strength beyond the expected — identified. And like Notre Dame, we should report money that is designed for immediate expenditure, for capital needs like buildings that might last 30 or 40 years, and for permanent endowment.

It is permanent endowment — expressed as dollars per student — that is at the core of our strength.  And we will insist on seeing a total of donations, not just growth of endowment that is also attributable to investment results.

We will also guard against abuses. Like the sale of admissions. Like Terry Sanford, who flagged 200 students a year for “special admissions” and even had a special envoy, Croom Beatty, scour the most prestigious schools and zip codes. Or like Nan Keohane, who at one point, according to a confidential Trustee report, had “one in five (freshmen who) would not have been admitted without connections to the Office of Development or Athletic Department.”

To return to Brodhead.

Duke and the University of Pennsylvania share a common date: both got new presidents at the start of the 2004-05 academic year.

At Duke, it was Richard Brodhead, who was Dean of Yale College, which means he was in charge of everything on the undergraduate level. The position that Steve Nowicki now occupies at Duke is broadly analogous, but this is a new concept here, without the tradition and acquired power that Brodhead and his predecessors had at Yale.

At Penn, the selection was Amy Gutmann. She had been Provost at Princeton — and was rumored to be under consideration for the Duke job since search chair Robert King Steel was  determined to lure someone from the “Upper Ivies” — Harvard, Yale, Princeton.

Penn got there first.

Three years after her inauguration, Gutmann began “Making History: the Campaign for Penn.” While the title was not original — McGill University in Montreal claims it — her goal was impressive. $3.5 billion in five years.

And she’s going to surpass it. The Daily Pennsylvanian has just predicted that by the end of the campaign in December, Gutmann will have raised more than $4 billion.

Money like that makes a difference. Columbia — which once was at the bottom of the Top Ten ranked by U.S. News and World Report — leapfrogged to #4. Meanwhile, Duke was tumbling down the list of the top ten, barely holding on.

Here at Duke, there has been no such undertaking, no such vision under Richard Brodhead.

Rather, we got a place-holder. The Financial Aid Initiative. It was “successful” — to employ the word that Duke PR constantly attaches to any mention of the Initiative — only because the goal posts were moved.

At the end of the campaign, Duke had raised more than anticipated for athletic scholarships — and that disguised the hard truth that Brodhead had fallen short in his #1 goal: to raise money for need-based undergraduate scholarships.

He was close — and we wondered at the time why none of the deep pocket boys on the Board of Trustees did not reach down for a few million to save face and kick him over the goal. That’s precisely what David Rubenstein had done when the effort to turn the Sanford Institute into a full scale School of Public Policy fell short.

But alas, the Trustees let Brodhead dangle in the wind. “Success” came only after we extended the campaign.

The verdict is inescapable; Duke finds itself gearing up for the campaign that Brodhead should have started five years ago.

We regret that President Brodhead and Vice President for PR Michael Schoenfeld did not respond at all to our request for interviews and background material for our series of reports on the coming fund-raising campaign. Trustee chair Wagoner has turned us down on all subjects. It is hard to see how their silence is in the best interests of Duke University.

Thank you again for reading DukeCheck and joining in love for this great university.