Duke Must Involve Faculty In Any Layoff Decisions

Following is a statement from AAUP President Todd Wolfson:

Two days before spring semester’s last day of classes, Duke University announced to faculty that it would slash its budget by as much as ten percent, or $350 million. Duke Executive Vice President Daniel Ennis acknowledged, via webinar, that much of this budget reduction will be felt through staff cuts, through a voluntary separation program that began May 12. Targeted employees were given forty five days to decide whether to risk walking away with nothing or accept a severance package bound by a nondisclosure agreement. The university plans to reassess the situation in mid-July, after which it will turn to layoffs.

Unlike some of its elite private school peers, Duke University, which is North Carolina’s second-largest private employer and the largest employer in Durham County, has not been targeted specifically by the Trump administration. This fact, combined with Duke’s $11.9 billion endowment, makes the decision to cut employee positions—from librarians to professors to housekeepers—especially mystifying.

When wide-ranging program cuts and terminations of faculty appointment are a possibility, AAUP standards insist that the faculty must be involved in deliberation and decisions at every stage of the process, beginning with a determination that a state of financial exigency exists. The Duke faculty and staff were not consulted but were summarily informed that the institution would lose librarians, researchers, and other staff members, severely damaging research programs and the education of students. Many Duke faculty are concerned that these layoffs will specifically target the university’s renowned programs in the humanities and social sciences. According to our AAUP members, a lack of transparency and new policies limiting free speech have further exacerbated a campus climate of fear.

The good news is that Duke’s AAUP chapter is one of the fastest-growing chapters in the Southeast. Members are heartened by the work of other chapters to resist the Trump administration’s attacks on free speech and academic freedom. Members of the Duke and Durham communities urge Duke’s top-paid administrators and athletic directors—those making between $500,000 and $8.9 million—to consider voluntary, temporary pay cuts to help cover anticipated budget shortfalls instead of shedding staff as a first resort.

The AAUP calls on Duke University and its board of trustees to immediately halt the separation process and layoff plans until faculty and staff representatives can be fully involved in any decision process that would impact Duke’s mission of providing a superior liberal education to its students.