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DUKE APPRECIATION The annual celebration and recognition of faculty and staff comes with a few new twists in May, as Duke faces budget challenges.
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NEWS YOU CAN USE
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FREE MOVIES Duke staff and faculty can check out movies for three days from Lilly Library’s video collection, which includes 25,000 titles.
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SUSTAINABLE DUKE Duke is reducing food waste through campaigns that include composting, tracking uneaten food and eliminating food trays.
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May 2009
A Smaller Duke
Job Openings Plummet by 44 Percent
DUKE IS CUTTING COSTS BY RE-EVALUATING HIRING NEW EMPLOYEES, AMONG OTHER MEASURES s North Carolina’s unemployment hovers at nearly 11 percent, the number of people looking for work at Duke has hit an all-time high: 10,367 people applied this January – a 52 percent increase over the same month last year. But applicants face increasingly long odds of landing a job at Duke. “We’re still conducting strategic hiring, but clearly not as much as before,” said Kyle Cavanaugh, vice president for Duke Human Resources. “Realistically, since labor costs account for more than half of our budget, we are looking at having to become a smaller Duke in order to position ourselves for the future.” The drop in the value of Duke’s endowment, declines in philanthropic giving and uncertainty over federal funding has left a $125 million shortfall in the operating budget. As a result, the University is cutting costs and slimming down by re-evaluating hiring new employees, restricting pay increases, offering an early retirement incentive and creating a team of faculty and staff to aggressively look for ways to become more efficient. The team, known as the Duke Administrative Reform Team, or DART, is identifying opportunities to redesign major processes and services that span the institution in an effort to become more efficient, without weakening Duke’s academic mission. At the department and unit level, Duke is asking faculty and staff to be ever more frugal, find ways to consolidate jobs, eliminate expenses and creatively work through these tough times. “We believe taking these steps now will help close the deficit in the operating budget, while protecting the jobs of as many people at Duke as is possible,” Cavanaugh said.
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Fe w e r P o s i t i o n s Filling jobs at Duke is now tougher – and requires more oversight. University departments and units have been asked to cull through their vacant staff positions and determine which ones they can eliminate. Under a new vacancy management policy, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask III, Provost Peter Lange, or one of their designees, must sign off before any University unit or department can recruit for a new staff position. Faculty hiring will continue, although at a slower rate. The result is a dramatic drop in the number of jobs for which Duke is hiring. Open and posted positions across the University plummeted 44 percent, from 1,394 in February 2008 to 786 this February. 2008 Gold Medal, Internal Periodical Staff Writing 2007 Bronze Medal, Print Internal Audience Tabloids/Newsletters
JOB OPENINGS AT DUKE DECLINE 1,600 1,400 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0
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University departments are culling vacant staff positions and deciding which ones to eliminate. The result is a dramatic drop in the number of jobs for which Duke is hiring. Open and posted positions across the University dropped 44 percent, from 1,394 in February 2008 to 786 this February. Source: Duke Human Resources
“As departments continue to re-evaluate their labor costs, this number could get smaller,” said Denise Motley Johnston, director of recruitment. While other universities such as Princeton, Stanford and Johns Hopkins are in hiring freezes, Duke is not. Positions that remain open include clinical care jobs, positions financed by research grants or other external funding, including the federal economic stimulus package, and jobs considered critical to ongoing operations. Donna Crenshaw filled one of those positions in February. When her position as a pharmacogenetics consultant at GlaxoSmithKline was cut in December 2008, she immediately applied for a research scientist position at Duke’s recently established Deane Drug Discovery Institute. “I knew there was this exciting new venture at Duke and wanted to be involved,” she said. She was excited about applying her skills and knowledge to help faculty move potential therapeutics along the drug discovery pipeline. “It is a small operation, so I was very happy to be hired.” >> See A SMALLER DUKE, PAGE 5
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