Layoff @Duke University

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:As an alum who donated and volunteered for decades, agree way too much faculty and staff. News mentions Duke at 48,000 employees is second largest private employer and sure a large part of that base is medical and hospital employees. The growth in development staff, DEI, non-teaching faculty is staggering and has to be cut back and this is not unique to Duke as other elite universities are facing similar fiscal problems. Also when a school like Duke and the Ivies rejects active donating grads’ kids don’t expect checks to continue. Time for these schools to operate more like a business.





48,000 employees for a school with 11,000 students is absolutely insane.

No sympathy.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As an alum who donated and volunteered for decades, agree way too much faculty and staff. News mentions Duke at 48,000 employees is second largest private employer and sure a large part of that base is medical and hospital employees. The growth in development staff, DEI, non-teaching faculty is staggering and has to be cut back and this is not unique to Duke as other elite universities are facing similar fiscal problems. Also when a school like Duke and the Ivies rejects active donating grads’ kids don’t expect checks to continue. Time for these schools to operate more like a business.





48,000 employees for a school with 11,000 students is absolutely insane.

No sympathy.


Did you read the prior post. That includes the hospital, which is a huge percentage? Have you ever seen Duke hospital? It is absolutely gigantic. Or do you just cherry pick stats to support your pre-conceived notion that Duke is evil.

And I do agree with the general notion that Duke's admin is bloated. I just hate people who misconstrue facts and data. Especially ones who include "No sympathy." Thanks. No one cares about your sympathy. Sorry you got rejected. And/or are a Tar Heel.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As an alum who donated and volunteered for decades, agree way too much faculty and staff. News mentions Duke at 48,000 employees is second largest private employer and sure a large part of that base is medical and hospital employees. The growth in development staff, DEI, non-teaching faculty is staggering and has to be cut back and this is not unique to Duke as other elite universities are facing similar fiscal problems. Also when a school like Duke and the Ivies rejects active donating grads’ kids don’t expect checks to continue. Time for these schools to operate more like a business.





48,000 employees for a school with 11,000 students is absolutely insane.

No sympathy.


Most of those are health system employees who have nothing to do with the number of students. It’s insane to me that you don’t understand that.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:The sense I get of Duke, as a professor at a competitor university and a mom to a college-aged kid, is that students love the idea of Duke, but they don't like each other. That probably accounts for the low alumni giving rate.


I'm a Duke alum, Ivy grad degree, spouse has two Ivy degrees. Friends from the Ivies actually always comment on how loyal and passionate Duke alums are compared to their schools. I think the basketball plays a big part in it - huge groups of alums get together for games and it is a great reason to keep in touch. Tons of my friends went to San Antonio for the final four this year, and Duke sells out a game at MSG in NY every year. Reunions get good turnouts. There were lots of big events this year for the 100th anniversary. There are definitely plenty of disenchanted alums, but that happens everywhere and the positive ones far outweigh them.

So I'm not sure where this whole theme of low alumni loyalty and giving comes from. I think it is a few of the usual DCUM jerks who have nothing nice to say so just like to be negative and stir up angst.
Anonymous
6'3, 215 is a BMI of 26.9. Slightly overweight (assuming average body composition) but nowhere near obese.


I mean come on. You have seen the guy, right?

This is like saying Tom Cruise is 6 feet tall.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:The alumni giving rate numbers speak for themselves. Duke used to be in high 30s to low 40 percent 30 years ago. Now it is barely in the low 20s. There are lots of grads from my era who will never write checks for a school with any political balance. There is no tolerance among the liberal lefties for people of opposing political beliefs.



I work in higher ed fundraising. Alumni giving rates are notoriously unreliable and highly manipulable; show me a source for the data you’ve cited, and I’ll show you three other sources that say something different. You’ll have to find another place to grind your political axe.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:The new food court was sort of necessary to compete with other schools. It kind of makes up for the dump that is the Bryan Center.


The food court is amazing and the building itself is a marvel with so much glass and natural light and lots of great places to study and connect with friends. We have visited several top colleges and that Duke food court actually made me want to go back to college again. Much nicer atmosphere and food than the vast majority of colleges.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As an alum who donated and volunteered for decades, agree way too much faculty and staff. News mentions Duke at 48,000 employees is second largest private employer and sure a large part of that base is medical and hospital employees. The growth in development staff, DEI, non-teaching faculty is staggering and has to be cut back and this is not unique to Duke as other elite universities are facing similar fiscal problems. Also when a school like Duke and the Ivies rejects active donating grads’ kids don’t expect checks to continue. Time for these schools to operate more like a business.





Agree with much of this. Staff is definitely bloated. And the development people I have met have often been very underwhelming. Perhaps they trot out the better people for the bigger hitters but I feel like I have met some of them as well and they have not been great. And several have been flat out rude to friends who wanted to be actively involved but couldn't right big checks.

Duke is better about admitting legacies than many peer schools but could still do more. Price over-reacted to the NYT hit job article about Duke not having enough financial aid kids - Duke was marginally worse based on very statistically suspect metrics then made to look evil. Price should have ignored it. Instead he rolled out a bunch of programs to recruit more FA kids. It is largely a zero sum game so this means fewer legacies and/or full pay kids. I am all for diversity, but Duke is going a bit too far.

Meanwhile, there are a bunch of underqualified rich non-legacies who get in because Duke wants to be seen as "cool." Great to have Seinfeld at Duke in People Magazine. And Springsteen's kid. And so on. I get that they probably donated a lot and this helps pay the bills. But again, there are limited seats.


It's rare to see someone complain that a university doesn't admit enough legacies.


What? This is a common complaint among legacy parents whose kids got rejected. It may be an advantage, but more highly accomplished legacy kids get turned down than accepted.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What are the chances that all three of Jerry Seinfeld's kids were qualified for Duke?

Nepotism at it's finest.


Jon Stewart’s kid goes to Duke, too. On his LinkedIn, his work experience includes an internship at the Daily Show.


I think this is a silly complaint. Most parents teach their kids the skills that they know how to teach their kids.

My kid was on a team with an outstanding lacrosse player whose dad was an outstanding lacrosse player and taught the child how to play well and DC ended up getting recruited to extremely competitive college. Yes that child had a huge advantage with the in-family coach but what are you going to do?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:https://www.wral.com/news/local/duke-prepares-layoffs-employees-call-transparency/

My brother is a professor there and he said that morale is quite low at the moment.


That's terrible! Entrenched higher ed employees and government workers should never have to worry about layoffs! That privilege is reserved strictly for the average American working class slob! Don't they know that?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:https://www.wral.com/news/local/duke-prepares-layoffs-employees-call-transparency/

My brother is a professor there and he said that morale is quite low at the moment.


That's terrible! Entrenched higher ed employees and government workers should never have to worry about layoffs! That privilege is reserved strictly for the average American working class slob! Don't they know that?



Well said
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As an alum who donated and volunteered for decades, agree way too much faculty and staff. News mentions Duke at 48,000 employees is second largest private employer and sure a large part of that base is medical and hospital employees. The growth in development staff, DEI, non-teaching faculty is staggering and has to be cut back and this is not unique to Duke as other elite universities are facing similar fiscal problems. Also when a school like Duke and the Ivies rejects active donating grads’ kids don’t expect checks to continue. Time for these schools to operate more like a business.





48,000 employees for a school with 11,000 students is absolutely insane.

No sympathy.


Most of those are health system employees who have nothing to do with the number of students. It’s insane to me that you don’t understand that.


Nice try. A quick Google search reveals that there are approximately 26,000 employees in the Duke health care system. That leaves 22,000 administrators and factulty for 11,000 students. Still an insane number.
Anonymous
Excluding Duke Health Care, the number of employees is excessive. Have met President Price-great leader and not a dogmatic liberal imo and to his credit a big Blue Devil sports fan. However again imo the deans, faculty and alumni magazine are very left of center. Gave money for several decades but the liberal political agenda was too much. When mentioned this to a senior development official the person said we have received that complaint a lot recently. Another problem is many grads can’t get their kids accepted-nothing unique to Duke but parents stop donating. With a top 10 endowment and perhaps one of the wealthiest alumni network Duke will be fine but cost-cutting is necessary. Let’s Go Duke.



























Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Excluding Duke Health Care, the number of employees is excessive. Have met President Price-great leader and not a dogmatic liberal imo and to his credit a big Blue Devil sports fan. However again imo the deans, faculty and alumni magazine are very left of center. Gave money for several decades but the liberal political agenda was too much. When mentioned this to a senior development official the person said we have received that complaint a lot recently. Another problem is many grads can’t get their kids accepted-nothing unique to Duke but parents stop donating. With a top 10 endowment and perhaps one of the wealthiest alumni network Duke will be fine but cost-cutting is necessary. Let’s Go Duke.


The talk of liberal bias is a smoke screen to destroy science and medicine in the US, so be it.
Anonymous
Not so
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