Layoff @Duke University

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Google harder. There are 9,202 campus employees. The rest are affiliated with the health system in some way.

https://facts.duke.edu/
(Scroll about halfway down.)

[Anonymous]

Duke is probably more apolitical than any school at its level. If people find it too left then I'm not sure what top school will make them happier.

I think a lot of people are looking for reasons to be angry. If you are so narrowminded that this is an issue, don't send your kids to Duke. More room for my kid.

I think this country is irreversibly divided. And it is only going to get worse in the next few years. This is not the world I want my kids to live in. It was not perfect before, but this is not the appropriate response. Let's just split the country up and move on. But this wouldn't be fun for MAGA. Their only joy is sticking it to the libs. Not in making things better.

Anticipating childish, smarta$$ response in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Google harder. There are 9,202 campus employees. The rest are affiliated with the health system in some way.

https://facts.duke.edu/
(Scroll about halfway down.)

Yup. And 17k+ total students. Not 11,000. Not sure why we are even dignifying these morons with a response. But again, they are getting their panties in a bunch over made up "facts." But I'm sure that rather than saying "oops, you're right, my bad" they will make up some other fact or get really defensive or blame Hunter Biden or transsexuals or migrants or whatever else the flavor of the day at Fox News is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Google harder. There are 9,202 campus employees. The rest are affiliated with the health system in some way.

https://facts.duke.edu/
(Scroll about halfway down.)

Yup. And 17k+ total students. Not 11,000. Not sure why we are even dignifying these morons with a response. But again, they are getting their panties in a bunch over made up "facts." But I'm sure that rather than saying "oops, you're right, my bad" they will make up some other fact or get really defensive or blame Hunter Biden or transsexuals or migrants or whatever else the flavor of the day at Fox News is.

I don’t even like Duke, lol. I just can’t stand when people make stuff up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke is probably more apolitical than any school at its level. If people find it too left then I'm not sure what top school will make them happier.

I think a lot of people are looking for reasons to be angry. If you are so narrowminded that this is an issue, don't send your kids to Duke. More room for my kid.

I think this country is irreversibly divided. And it is only going to get worse in the next few years. This is not the world I want my kids to live in. It was not perfect before, but this is not the appropriate response. Let's just split the country up and move on. But this wouldn't be fun for MAGA. Their only joy is sticking it to the libs. Not in making things better.

Anticipating childish, smarta$$ response in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I agree - schools like Duke, Dartmouth, and Bucknell (LOL) are probably as close to the middle ground as you're going to get. If you think Duke is "woke", then your way farther right than then the average adult.

[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.

How does this decline compare to peer universities? My understanding is it is consistent with the larger trend.

[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.

lol. Yes, I loved the idea of Duke as a high school senior. That’s why I applied ED.

And … then the reality of Duke, including my classmates, far surpassed even my highest hopes. I was challenged and supported in equal measure, both in and out of classroom. I met wonderfully talented, interesting, and fun people, and I count my college friends to be among my deepest relationships to this day. Some date back to my freshmen dorm, others from my sorority (!), and so many others I met through activities, my major, or through other friends.

Clearly, my 30+ years of experience as a Duke student and active alum (and donor) is contrary to the “sense [you] get of Duke.” 🤷‍♀️ All good. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke is probably more apolitical than any school at its level. If people find it too left then I'm not sure what top school will make them happier.

I think a lot of people are looking for reasons to be angry. If you are so narrowminded that this is an issue, don't send your kids to Duke. More room for my kid.

I think this country is irreversibly divided. And it is only going to get worse in the next few years. This is not the world I want my kids to live in. It was not perfect before, but this is not the appropriate response. Let's just split the country up and move on. But this wouldn't be fun for MAGA. Their only joy is sticking it to the libs. Not in making things better.

Anticipating childish, smarta$$ response in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I agree - schools like Duke, Dartmouth, and Bucknell (LOL) are probably as close to the middle ground as you're going to get. If you think Duke is "woke", then your way farther right than then the average adult.

I’d add Vandy to this list.

[Anonymous]

Agree that Duke (and Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, and Bucknell) are less political than many schools.

[Anonymous]

Not much to say until Duke posts numbers about size of impact. Obvious less money coming in means less pay or fewer employees. Faculty bring in grant funding if they want to get paid, and grant overhead pays for nonfaculty staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Duke (and Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, and Bucknell) are less political than many schools.

Wake?

[Anonymous]

[code]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

lol. Yes, I loved the idea of Duke as a high school senior. That’s why I applied ED.

And … then the reality of Duke, including my classmates, far surpassed even my highest hopes. I was challenged and supported in equal measure, both in and out of classroom. I met wonderfully talented, interesting, and fun people, and I count my college friends to be among my deepest relationships to this day. Some date back to my freshmen dorm, others from my sorority (!), and so many others I met through activities, my major, or through other friends.

Clearly, my 30+ years of experience as a Duke student and active alum (and donor) is contrary to the “sense [you] get of Duke.” 🤷‍♀️ All good. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything.

1994 grad and I feel the same way about Duke, and give back to financial aid to help support the next generation of students who need aid. We were fewer than1/3 of undergrads back then; now need based aid recipients are around 1/2. Peer schools are at half or more. Only Princeton, Penn, Harvard and Yale give better need based aid than Duke. My 14 fellow alum besties are spread across the country and all of us have had at least one child apply in the past 6 cycles. Only 3 of us have had children get accepted. Legacy boost is minimal compared to Seinfeld level boost but many schools have similar practices

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[code]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

lol. Yes, I loved the idea of Duke as a high school senior. That’s why I applied ED.

And … then the reality of Duke, including my classmates, far surpassed even my highest hopes. I was challenged and supported in equal measure, both in and out of classroom. I met wonderfully talented, interesting, and fun people, and I count my college friends to be among my deepest relationships to this day. Some date back to my freshmen dorm, others from my sorority (!), and so many others I met through activities, my major, or through other friends.

Clearly, my 30+ years of experience as a Duke student and active alum (and donor) is contrary to the “sense [you] get of Duke.” 🤷‍♀️ All good. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything.

1994 grad and I feel the same way about Duke, and give back to financial aid to help support the next generation of students who need aid. We were fewer than1/3 of undergrads back then; now need based aid recipients are around 1/2. Peer schools are at half or more. Only Princeton, Penn, Harvard and Yale give better need based aid than Duke. My 14 fellow alum besties are spread across the country and all of us have had at least one child apply in the past 6 cycles. Only 3 of us have had children get accepted. Legacy boost is minimal compared to Seinfeld level boost but many schools have similar practices

Awww. I bet we would have been friends at Duke! We direct our donations to financial aid, as well. I love Duke’s LIFE program - it’s a community as well as a source of much-needed financial aid.

https://dukelife.duke.edu/

As for legacy admissions, DC loves Duke and will almost certainly apply ED. They have the stats and EDs to be considered, but we all recognize that it’s a super reach school for absolutely everyone.
They/we would be disappointed if they don’t get in, but not the least bit bitter. The process everywhere is a crapshoot, and alumni status does not confer entitlement. And thankfully, we know DC will thrive wherever they wind up!

[Anonymous]

I hope Trump makes the professors at all these schools eat dick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope Trump makes the professors at all these schools eat dick.

Only the women! You’re going to get yourself on a list, man.