Upset over parking at Duke?

Disenchanted with the meatloaf special at the dining hall?

Didn't get your grant funded?

Tell university president Richard Brodhead all about it.

In question form.

Brodhead is now accepting questions via this website for an interview that university publication Working@Duke will run with him in September.

So fire away.

Durham's city council agreed Thursday to take the issue of Duke University students' bad behavior directly to university president Richard Brodhead.

"We need to go directly to where the buck stops," said city councilman Howard Clement.

Clement had raised the issue at Monday night's regular council meeting, "distressed" by public drunkenness, loud parties and resulting litter in Trinity Heights, the neighborhood just north of Duke's East Campus.

"We can't live like this," said Carol Lewis, a Clarendon Street resident.

The council decided to send a letter of complaint to Brodhead and request a meeting, after repeated meetings between city and lower-level Duke administrators have proved fruitless.

Students, said councilman Eugene Brown, "see themselves as cool cats but they're using that neighborhood as their sandbox.
"It definitely needs to go up to Dick Brodhead. We're not going to get any help from [student affairs vice president] Larry Monetta," Brown said.
"Larry Moneta and the Duke student affairs department are part of the problem."

There's a new feature on the home pages of many of our local universities, but there's nothing fun about it.

With the lousy economy prompting budget cuts at universities public and private these days, college leaders are writing directly to constituents in an attempt to soothe frayed nerves and keep folks informed.

Some universities have simple letters from campus leaders; others, like UNC Chapel Hill, offer detailed archives of memos and communications.

Here's at least a sampling of the messages local universities are sending out to their communities.

• At Meredith College in Raleigh, President Maureen Hartford says her campus is still pouring money into financial aid initiatives and is trying to minimize tuition hikes.

• At Peace College, President Laura Bingham makes a pitch for alums to help out with donations.

• At N.C. State, Chancellor James Oblinger warns of layoffs and course eliminations. NCSU also offers up this web site for all things budget-related.

• UNC Chapel Hill has piles of information, including internal documents examining potential cuts on a department-by-department basis, at this link.

• At Duke, President Brodhead wrote at length earlier this week about a $125 million budget reduction expected to next year, as well as the instituting of salary freezes for about 6,000 workers.  (Not: As I write this, Duke has a note on its website saying it is having technical trouble, so that link may or may not work)

Duke University has announced plans to freeze salaries on some employees in anticipation of a budget hit of $125 million next year.

In a long letter to the Duke community, President Richard Brodhead wrote today that employees earning more than $50,000 will not get raises next year. Employees making less than $50,000 will receive a one-time, $,1,000 payment as long as they have received satisfactory work evaluations.

Part of the problem comes from a 20 percent drop in the value of Duke's endowment, which last June stood at $6.1 billion. 

 Brodhead writes in part:

"The disappearance of short-term investment returns has removed a significant source of revenue for strategis initiatives. Philanthropy has declined and may stay depressed for some time. While the number of people giving to Duke is greater than at the same time last year, major new pledges are down and may continue to decline in the years ahead, reflecting national trends."

On the possibility of layoffs, Brodhead had this to say:

Given the scope of the challenge, and given the fact that compensation makes up 60% of the University’s operating budget, we have to assume that the number of people employed by Duke University in the future will be smaller than today.  Making this transition will require us to demonstrate the same thoughtfulness and creativity that guided our decisions in more prosperous times. 

Before any involuntary layoffs are contemplated, we will thoroughly explore and implement steps including curtailing external hiring, eliminating vacant positions, making internal reassignments and exploring a retirement incentive program for University staff."

A fundraising initiative to raise money for financial aid at Duke University has netted $308 million, according to a news release from the university.

The $308 million appears to be the final take from the initiative, which began in 2005 and will establish 478 new scholarships and fellowships.

If this news seems a bit stale, you may be recalling Duke's announcement of just two months ago. That was when the university announced the initiative had topped the $300 million mark.

Apparently, it had just a bit more fundraising to go.

Duke University's endowment, like so many others at universities across the nation, took a massive hit this year. It's down 19 percent since July 1.

Still, some folks there see opportunity and plan to continue recruiting top faculty, even while looking for ways to tighten other forms of spending.

Read more here.

The money troubles plaguing American universities are arriving with a thud at Duke University.

In an email to faculty and staff, Duke President Richard Brodhead reveals that the market value of the university's endowment - which provides 15 percent of the university's annual operating budget - has decreased 19 percent since July 1.

That could lead to cutbacks in a number of ways, including a delay in the development of the central campus plan.

After the jump, the full text of Brodhead's email to employees. 

Duke University's endowment made money in fiscal 2008. That's a good thing given the current financial times and the fact that holdings at many universities aren't doing that good.

So said Duke President Richard Brodhead earlier this week in a letter to the Duke community. In it, he reports that the endowment, with a value of about $6 billion, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, increased 6.2 percent last year. That's a far cry from the usual annual rate of growth, but not bad given the economic slowdown.

"Indeed, though the past few months' results have not been positive, over the past 10 years the Duke University endowment has grown at an average annual rate of 15.6 percent, which places it among the top performers of all university endowments," Brodhead said. 

The endowment's steady growth has allowed the university to invest in financial aid, faculty, programs and facilities, Brodhead added.  

Duke President Richard Brodhead is leading a group of university official this week on a trip to India. Brodhead is speaking there to educators, journalists and business executives and the university is chronicling the trip on this blog.

The blog touches on some of Duke's current ties with India. A snippet:

 * Nearly 300 Indian-born undergraduate and graduate students attend Duke, the most from any country except China.
* The new Fuqua School of Business Cross-Continent program will have a hub in New Delhi.
* Duke’s summer offerings for students include service-learning and study abroad programs in India.
* Duke hosts vibrant Indian cultural programs on its campus, such as the annual Awaaz celebration.
* Duke’s Sanford Institute has for many years worked closely with the Indian Administrative Service on professional education for civil servants.
* Duke’s Talent Identification Program (TIP) conducted its first international program for gifted middle- and high-school students last summer in Ahmedabad and plans to expand in India in the next year.