4/29/2011

Rocks thrown through 3 stained glass windows at Duke Chapel

Please scroll down for additional late news, including how alumni reunion contributions lag.

Duke Police have revealed that early Thursday morning, three of the historic stained glass windows in the Chapel were broken by thrown rocks.

The windows all face the Bryan Center and are thus relatively secluded. They are 30 feet above ground level.

Dean of the Chapel Sam Wells: "The holes in the windows are 5-10" in diameter. The windows are all on the lectern side of the main aisle, representing, respectively, the Wise Men on their way to Bethlehem, Jesus upon a pinnacle, and the Transfiguration."

Wells again: "...the rocks used were perhaps 10" wide, and thus heavy; that they must have been brought some distance, since no materials of the kind are available nearby; and that to make three holes, at the same height, at equally-spaced windows, from a distance of perhaps 40 yards, must have required significant strength and notable accuracy of aim. It does not bear the signs of a spontaneous act of vandalism."

President Brodhead called the vandalism a "sad, stupid act." Duke has said nothing about the value of the windows. Wells indicated a firm that does routine upkeep on the Chapel will be brought in to replace the windows.

4/28/2011

Reunion gifts languish. No wonder the Alumni Department scratched Beer Trucks

✔✔✔ FC here.

When the Alumni Department announced it did not have enough money for Beer Trucks this year -- $65,000 -- a Deputy Fact Checker was immediately assigned.

What compelled this cancellation after 20 successful years of a party for new graduates and their parents?

We discovered reunion donations from holders of bachelors degrees are languishing. Big time. We have only one peak at graduate level reunion gifts, also anemic. These gifts were presented to President Brodhead during Alumni Weekend, April 8-10. The larger Annual Fund will not report until after the close of the fiscal year on June 30.

Before we write more, let us point out that the goals we are going to cite were set by the Alumni Department itself, and are often low-balled to guard against failure. We point out further that the "gifts" are actually pledges -- and we all know what happened to the biggest pledge in Duke history: Peter and Ginny Nicholas stiffed the university.

Moreover, the numbers for reunion gifts and Annual Fund gifts are very malleable. An alum could make a very substantial gift without its ever being counted for reunion or Annual Fund -- and on the other hand there have been unconfirmed reports of arm twisting to give through the structure of the Alumni Department to meet goals.

One big gift can distort the totals raised by an entire graduating class. Thus we place more credibility in the number of donors, than in the amount raised.

We point out too, that the numbers here are not audited. These numbers are posted on a reunion website that says it is updated every week.

✔✔ Consider, please, the Class of 1986, returning for its 25th anniversary. The Alumni department set a goal of 752 graduates making pledges, but only 398 responded. The Class of 2001, celebrating its 10th reunion, had a goal of 450 members making pledges, but only 247 responded.

The complete Fact Checker compilation of undergraduate statistics appears below.

On the graduate level, we can report on the Law School Class of 1966, observing its 45th anniversary. The Class has 90 or more members who are alive, only 16 of whom showed up.

Hoping for pledges from 50 percent of the class, only 35 percent responded.

The actual dollars pledged are virtually impossible to trace. The class website gives numbers totally inconsistent with those contained in the e-mail and we shall spare you both versions.


UNDERGRADUATE CLASSES

Class of 1961
50th reunion
Participation goal - 331 members.
Actual - 278
Pledge goal - $1 million.
Actual - $913,740

Class of 1966
Participation goal - 312 members.
Actual -258
Pledge goal - $800,000
Actual - $635,047

Class of 1971

Participation goal - 389
Actual - 306
Pledge goal - $1.1 million.
Actual - $957,287

Class of 1976

Participation goal - 444
Actual - 314
Pledge goal - $1 million.
Actual - $710,316

Class of 1981

Participation goal - 500.
Actual - 378
Pledge goal - $3 million.
Actual - $4.3 million

Class of 1986 - 25th anniversary

Participation goal - 752
Actual - 398
Pledge goal - $2 million.
Actual - $1.9 million

Class of 1991

Participation goal - 534
Actual - 314
Pledge goal - $1,255,000
Actual - $1.1 million

Class of 1996

Participation goal - 377
Actual - 270
Goal - $1.2 million
Actual - $1.03 million

Class of 2001 - 10th anniversary

Participation goal - 450
Actual - 247
Goal - $750,000
Actual - $632,731

Class of 2006

Participation goal - 500
Actual - 344
Goal - $150,000
Actual - $176,050

We are working on comparisons -- to prior years, and to schools we count as our peers.

Thank you for reading FC.

From lame to inane. With his handlers in control, Brodhead conducts Q and A session for employees.

✔✔✔ FC here. Every three months, the administration puts someone on stage in Reynolds Theatre to answer "questions" from employees. On Wednesday, President Richard Brodhead -- wearing a red tie -- got his turn again.

Duke's official press release says 50 people attended; that counts fellow administrators who flocked out of their Allen Building perches. Mr. Brodhead noted there are more than 37,000 Duke employees.


Assistant vice president Paul Grantham asked the "questions" that consumed the first 15 minutes of the hour-long program. With issues like the faculty revolt over Kunshan looming large, these are the queries to and answers from Mr. Brodhead:

1) What was your first job? Answer, his parents believed he should have to earn his own spending money, so at age 11 he cut lawns for neighbors. Later he went to work in a grocery store for $1.25 an hour. And one summer, he worked in the manholes of Bridgewater, Connecticut in a water department gig. (FC is on good behavior and will not make a wisecrack on that.)

2) What was your worst job?
Answer, his college roommate was from Hawaii and one summer he went there. The only job he could get was in a clothing store that sold garish shirts, typical Hawaiian.

3) What is the best advice someone has given you? We will omit Mr Brodhead's attempt at humor and cut to the real meat: on the first day he was going to teach at Yale, a distinguished professor used the lecture hall immediately before him and as Brodhead entered, the professor tugged at his sleeve and said Dick, Dick, Dick, don't be afraid to say something profound.

Finally the vapid conversation turned to inane, soft-ball questions about Duke itself. In the entire hour, only three employees asked questions, the rest coming from the moderator or an assistant off stage said to be monitoring e-mail from people watching on the internet.

✔ Of particular interest to the audience -- which sat stone silent and never applauded Brodhead until the end -- was an assurance that Duke's employees will see "merit based compensation increases (as) we have done in the past." This puts down talk that the raises effective July 1 will be accompanied by a new system to award them.

Next were soft-balls that let the President wander in thoughtful response:

-- explaining that the building of West Campus involved a railroad line to the stone quarry in Hillsborough, with locomotives right down the middle of the main quad

-- milking the $80 million dollar, multi-year transfer of funds from The Duke Endowment to renovate Page, Baldwin and the Union

-- responding to a request that he explain the good that will come out of the new Comprehensive Cancer Care center at Duke Hospital.

The moderator then returned to the initial theme. Mr. President, what do you really appreciate most about Duke!!! Answer: "How about the fact that I did not have to shovel my driveway a thousand times this winter," as he might have if he had remained at Yale.

Knowing when there is opportunity, Brodhead shot back at the moderator, "what was your first job, Paul?"

✔✔ Brodhead revealed he will take a long, wandering summer-time trip on his university credit card: London, Shanghai, Kunshan, Singapore, Tanzania, Uganda, the latter two locations to visit outposts of Duke Health.

✔✔ Brodhead defended the Kunshan Initiative, but said nothing new even when the most pointed question of the afternoon focused on whether the China campus was robbing money from the Durham campus. "We're not going to go willy nilly to spend the resources of the university on international ventures. This project was studied (emphasis on that word) very very carefully.... Significant care (was made) to minimize our financial exposure in this venture."

"We have taken significant care that we are still able to meet all of our fundamental obligations in Durham before we go spending money elsewhere." Brodhead then mentioned one -- sustaining the level of financial aid for need-blind admissions. He did not mention scalping the budget for Arts and Sciences.

The president said the question of short-changing Durham to build Kunshan "makes it act as if that everything we did abroad subtracts from what we do where, and that it is a zero sum game." He said that was not true.

✔ Brodhead painted a bleak picture for financial support for the humanities. "I'm glad you asked that question," said the president, as he basked in being co-chair of a professional interest group's new commission on the future of the humanities. Still, as the question was being asked, Brodhead showed how impatient he can become, nodding and saying "sure" three times to push the speaker on, changing expressions in his face, tapping the fingers of his right hand on his knee, and then saying "yep" twice more to speed up the question.

And in a hint of significant cutbacks to come, he said the federal government had sustained spending on scientific research as part of a two-year stimulus package. Duke enjoyed the fourth highest dollar amount of any university. With the clock running out on those grants, Brodhead said no one anticipated the political climate, which at best will keep funding at previous levels and more likely result in cutbacks.

Overall on federal research -- much of it directed at medicine -- Duke is within the top ten.

✔ Asked about Dr. Anil Potti, the President ducked, not talking about the cancer quack or his patients, but about "structural issues" involving the use of bio statistics and clinical trials in the emerging world of genome study. "It is my hope that at the end of this episode, Duke will be known as the place that tried to step right up to the problem and figure out the large scale things that we could address that could then be the model for everyone because every school is going to have this problem in the age of research. (pause.) Or at least I should say.. Every school will be liable to have such a problem."

Mr. Brodhead did not mesh how we stepped right up to the problem with actions of two vice deans -- when Potti was under internal investigation -- toin conceal key evidence that had arrived from the renowned M D Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. Nor did he say how letting Potti remain as a paid employee even after it was confirmed that he faked a Rhodes Scholarship was stepping right up to the problem. Much less saying how Potti got hired, unvetted.

Back to stuff that matters. Hardball:

"The single thing I am happiest about about the time I've been president is that we did not dig a big hole in the middle of Central Campus and then have to put up a sign saying 'we'll come back later, God willing.'" He was talking of course about the shelving of "elegant" planning for a massive construction project because of the financial meltdown.

One employee asked about time off to volunteer in Durham. Nice try buddy. And then Brodhead tackled questions of whether he tweets (no) or is on Facebook (no).

The performance drew a light round of applause for Brodhead. And then he plucked the winning ticket out of a bowl for lunch with him. He recognized the winner, did not identify the person and said they had already had lunch in Italy, but would dine soon on West Campus again.

All this takes place on a Hollywood-like set that is quite tacky. Two chairs plopped awkwardly on a cheap oriental rug. A coffee table that was too low was covered in a light blue tablecloth (it's dark blue, you clowns) but at least there were glasses of water, not the usual environmentally ignorant bottles.

✔ Time well spent by Fact Checker!

4/27/2011

Two senior professors openly rally faculty to challenge Kunshan, seeking moratorium and wide-ranging investigation

✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔ Text of the e-mail from the senior professors:

https://sites.google.com/site/dukekunshaneditorial/


Less than three weeks ago, the Chronicle published a letter to the editor by Thomas Pfau, Eads Family professor of English and professor of German. The questions that he raised about Duke's thrust into Kunshan ignited immediate, heightened concern over the folly of this initiative.

Today, after deep consultation with colleagues and other stakeholders who love Duke, Pfau is joined by Herbert Kitschelt, the George V. Allen Professsor of Political Science, in a new effort.

For the first time they are openly rallying faculty in support of a petition to the Board of Trustees with a precise plan:

-- an immediate moratorium on Kunshan.


-- a special faculty committee to investigate all aspects of Duke's global expansion. A committee with staff and a budget to hire consultants. Under the proposal, faculty serving on the committee would be temporarily relieved of some teaching duties.


The e-mail is pointed, in that the special committee must do its own research and have information other than that presented by administrators.

While the hope is that faculty will join in the petition, every stakeholder who loves this University should be impelled to express their concern too, by writing the Trustees whose e-mail addresses appear at the end of this essay, as well as other Duke leaders.

Make no mistake: this is a vote of no confidence in the administration of President Brodhead, Provost Lange and Dean Sheppard of the Fuqua Business School.

The call to action -- in the form of e-mail -- was released at midnight Tuesday, so there is no Allen Building reaction so far. Brodhead has a noon-time appearance before employees -- but questions were required in advance so it is uncertain whether this will come up. In Kunshan, the blogger Virgil Adams says he had breakfast with visiting Duke administrators planning the men's basketball team's summer-time visit. They called the Kunshan problem "a communications issue" which the administration is going to address. Yes just a little more P-R spin and it will all be OK.

If that description be accurate, Brodhead and his minion will, once again, have missed the point. This isn't just about communicating what has been done -- although the Brodhead team bungled that and gets an 'F."

It is a petition about the utter failure to engage the faculty, showing contempt for the appropriate processes of collegiality and consultation. It is about failure to invite faculty to the table -- but equally as important to insure that their ideas are incorporated. How can the President of this University -- properly describing Kunshan as the biggest move since James B. Duke's gift in 1924 transformed Trinity College -- have a straight face when he defends faculty involvement by citing a meeting of almost an hour that he had with the executive committee of the Academic Council? Almost an hour!

And the petition is a head-on substantive challenge going right down to the foundation. What should Duke seek by operating internationally? Is Kunshan the best place for it? What are the finances? How is it going to impact upon cash-strapped Duke in Durham?

Every Dukie is indebted to Professors Pfau and Kitschelt for their bravery, for their time and intellect in marshaling so much together in their e-mail.

The Chronicle too earns high praise. Yesterday's editorial on Mr. Brodhead's leadership and the need for a course correction was right on, although FC could not help recalling two editorials in the last academic year saying the same thing. The issue thus becomes, how many lives does a cat have.

Today the Chronicle faced the challenge of including the professors' call to action on the op-ed page, one normally filled at this time of year with good-byes from columnists and seniors. It is a great service to the University to print the excerpts from the document.

✔✔✔ How to contact the Trustees. Fact Checker exclusive. Available nowhere else!

Note - in addition to the e-mail for each individual Trustee, at the end of the list there is a block of the addresses so you can copy and paste the entire thing in an e-mail form. It is suggested you use the BCC function, as the CC will let everyone see that you wrote to everyone!

As of April 15, 2011. The BOT will reorganize and add new members effective July 1, 2011. Please report updates: Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com

Biographical information can be obtained on the Trustee website, weak as it is.
http://www.trustees.duke.edu/

Chair Dan Blue
DanBlue@Tbsf-law.com,

Vice Chair Rick Wagoner
GRWagonerJr@gmail.com,

Anne (Mrs. Robert T.) Bass (note there are two people named Anne Bass, both married to the wealthy Bass brothers.). Working on e-mail. Phone 817 390 8400

Jack Bovender
Jack.Bovender@HCAHealthCare.com,

Dick Brodhead
The President is a Trustee, #37
Richard.Brodhead@Duke.edu,

Paula P. Burger
PPBurger@JHU.edu,

Paula H. Crown
PCrown@Crown-Chicago.com,

Ralph Eads III
Reads@Jefferies.com,

Frank E. Emory Jr.
FEmory@Hunton.com,

Paul Farmer MD
Paul_Farmer@HMS.Harvard.edu,

Robin A. Ferracone
Robin.Ferracone@RAFCapital.com,

Ziqing Gao
XQG@CHINA-INV.CN,

David Gergen
David_Gergen@KSG.harvard.edu,

Thomas M. Gorrie
tmg@tmgorrie.com,

Janet Hill
HillvJanet@aol.com,

Kenneth W. Hubbard
Ken_Hubbard@Hines.com,

Peter J. Kahn
PKahn@WC.Com,

Sunny Kantha, Young Trustee
SUNNY.KANTHA@DUKE.EDU,

Bruce A. Karsh
BKarsh@Oaktreecap.com,

J. J. Kiser III
JJK3@SC.RR.Com,

Elizabeth Kiss
President@AgnesScott.edu,

Marguerite W. Kondracke
MK@AmericasPromise.org,

John J. Mack
John.Mack@MorganStanley.com,

Michael Marsicano
MMarsicano@FFTC.org,

Bishop J Lawrence McCleskey
JLMcCleskey@bellsouth.net,

James P. McDonald Young Trustee
MCDONALD.JAMESP@GMAIL.COM,

Martha Monserrate
MMonserr@aol.com,

Nancy A. Nasher
Nan@NorthParkCntr.com,

Clarence G. Newsome
CGNEWSOME4@NC.RR.COM,

Ann Pelham
APelham@aim.com,

David M. Rubenstein
David.Rubenstein@Carlyle.com,

Alan D. Schwartz
Alan.Schwartz@Guggenheimpartners.com,

Laurene M. Sperling
LAURENESPERLING@HOTMAIL.COM,

Susan Stalnecker
Susan.M.Stalnecker@USA.dupont.com,

Ryan Todd
Ryan.Todd@duke.edu,

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward
HMW@MISSISSIPPI-UMC.ORG,


✔✔ PASTE THIS BLOCK TO WRITE ALL OF THEM SIMULTANEOUSLY:

DanBlue@Tbsf-law.com, RWagonerJr@gmail.com, Jack.Bovender@HCAHealthCare.com, Richard.Brodhead@Duke.edu, PPBurger@JHU.edu, PCrown@Crown-Chicago.com, Reads@Jefferies.com, FEmory@Hunton.com, Paul_Farmer@HMS.Harvard.edu, Robin.Ferracone@RAFCapital.com, XQG@CHINA-INV.CN, David_Gergen@KSG.harvard.edu, tmg@tmgorrie.com, HillvJanet@aol.com, Ken_Hubbard@Hines.com, PKahn@WC.Com, SUNNY.KANTHA@DUKE.EDU, BKarsh@Oaktreecap.com, JJK3@SC.RR.Com, President@AgnesScott.edu, MK@AmericasPromise.org, John.Mack@MorganStanley.com, MMarsicano@FFTC.org, JLMcCleskey@bellsouth.net, MCDONALD.JAMESP@GMAIL.COM, MMonserr@aol.com, Nan@NorthParkCntr.com, CGNEWSOME4@NC.RR.COM, APelham@aim.com, David.Rubenstein@Carlyle.com, Alan.Schwartz@Guggenheimpartners.com, LAURENESPERLING@HOTMAIL.COM,
Susan.M.Stalnecker@USA.dupont.com, Ryan.Todd@duke.edu, HMW@MISSISSIPPI-UMC.ORG,

4/26/2011

Brodhead's handlers call for questions to ask him during employee forum on Wednesday; Fact Checker cooperates!

Mr Brodhead will appear in Reynolds Auditorium at noon Wednesday for the "Primetime" employee series. A chance to see senior administrators!!! Capacity 600. Employees 33,525. The president's handlers are requiring questions in advance, so here goes:

Power plant engineer -- Mr. Brodhead, you said that merit raises would be given to some employees based upon their job performance. Is this the same system than existed before the wage freeze, or if not, how will your new system work?

Food service worker -- Mr. Brodhead, in the 2008-09 school year, I earned $20,000. In the 2009-2010 school year, my salary stayed the same with the wage freeze but I got a one time payment of $1,000, so my checks totalled $21,000. In the current school year, I have the same salary, and another one time payment of $1,000, so this year I am getting $21,000. Starting July 1, for the 2011-12 school year I hope to get a raise on top of my base. I probably won't get more than 3 percent. So am I correct in stating that my income in the next school year will go down under your plans to $20,600?

Law alum - Mr President, I want to ask you about the cost of the lacrosse hoax. Can you give me the current picture -- what we are paying attorneys -- and then what Duke has paid out so far in fees and settlements -- and also your estimate of what lies ahead, all inclusive fees, settlements and judgments?

Medical alum
- Let's do the same with Dr Anil Potti, Mr. President. What have you done to assure and comfort the victims of this quack, and what do you anticipate will be Duke's total legal liability, fees and judgments and settlements.

Faculty member -- Mr. President, I earned $100,000 three years ago. With the freeze, it has stayed the same for two years, even though normally I would have advanced to about $106,000. Now if I qualify, I will get a raise based upon my old base. Will we ever catch up -- or will the $6,000 be missing from my paychecks as long as I am at Duke?

Alumnus
- Mr. Brodhead, how come your handlers require written questions in advance for these meetings?

Chinese visitor -- Mr. Brodhead, I am surprised to see such a diverse group of people on the Duke campus. How come everyone you sent to Kunshan was white? All the new trustees, all your officials. And all were male except for the dean of the nursing school who came for one day.

Parent - Mr. Brodhead, I hear in your discussions with the Chinese, you have talked about academic freedom as it might exist within the walls of the campus, behind the seven foot high steel barricade that is being erected. I have two questions: am I to understand you have not locked down yet whether the Chinese will allow us have unfettered internet, including e-mail? And second, do you realize that Duke's tradition of academic freedom can be traced to John Spencer Bassett and a magazine article -- which is to say the professor's thoughts were not confined to the Trinity College campus at all?

Senior faculty member - I know the new budget is not finalized, but can you give us the total appropriations for Arts and Sciences for next year, and compare that please with the past five years?

Senior faculty member, follow up -- Mr. President do you agree that the responsibility of the faculty in approving each and every academic offering in Kunshan and all these other international hot spots includes going over the finances and considering academic freedom too. In other words, do you agree there is an expansive nature to the responsibility of the faculty?

Academic Council officer - Mr. President, I know you have been so gracious and engaging as to give us 23 pages of the Duke Kunshan Planning Guide. Thank you, Sir. Thank you for your kindness in bestowing this on us. What about the other 24 pages that you excised. And the 30 pages of appendix loaded with facts and figures. And the complete reports of the three or four consultants you hired to evaluate Kunshan?

Student - While you are at it, Mr. Brodhead, explain to us precisely how you decide what information we can have and what you withhold.

Deputy Fact Checker - Mr. President, as you may know only half of the people in Kunshan actually life there. The others come from the vast rural areas of China, seeking better conditions but winding up exploited. Many of these people are the construction workers. With Duke's campus now going up, can you tell us what you have done to insure the people laboring there are being treated fairly. Good working and living conditions, honest wage.

Alumni investment banker - Mr. President, for years Duke has budgeted based upon a 8.5 percent annual return on its investments, its endowment. We now know that in the past ten years, the average has only been 6.5 percent. Will the new budget change expectations and anticipate less money to spend each year from the endowment, assuming the principal stays the same.

Smart reporter - Mr. Brodhead, when the fiscal crisis first hit, you said that in three years, Duke's budget would have to be $125 million less than it was at that moment. In other words, down from $1.85 billion (not counting Duke Medicine which gets its revenue from patients) to around $1.7 billion. The first year you were flat, this year the budget leaped. What is going on next year? The year starting in July, that is your test. Are you gong to pass?

Smart reporter follow up - The reporter was advised to sit down please, we do not allow follow ups even though one was sneaked in earlier.

University watchdog
- Ever since the fiscal crisis, we have covered red ink with special withdrawals from the endowment -- above and beyond normal annual distributions. This year, there is about $72 million of this Enron money in the budget. Will there be any next year? I trust you agree this is not sustainable.

Student
- Mr. Brodhead, is it true you start your day reading Fact Checker?

There will be a drawing from a bowl of employee names -- and several people will go out to lunch with Brodhead!!

4/24/2011

Duke puts all-white, male face forward in Kunshan

✔✔ FC here. Be sure to scroll down to the next post for the list of e-mail address for Duke Trustees. Make yourself heard on the folly of Kunshan!!

Assume for a moment you are a city official in Kunshan, China, and have had contact with top representatives of Duke University.

Judging by the faces you have met, you would rightfully conclude that you were dealing with an all-white, all-male school in America.

On top of this, Duke is insisting that it and it alone create the academic side of the new university. You see, white males know more than the Chinese know about what they need to know.


The three new Trustees put in place by the Imperial Brodhead Administration are the latest evidence. White. Male. (Brodhead and Company did not even go through the motions of a nominating process or some consultation with the faculty and other stakeholders first.) The three are Peter the Provost; Jim Roberts, who is identified as executive vice provost which apparently means he is in charge of counting the other ten vice provosts; and Thomas Gorrie. We will discuss Gorrie in a moment.

In addition to three new trustees, we have the top officials of the plantation who have visited Kunshan. White. Male. Brodhead. Global Vice President Jones. Fuqua's Dean Blair Sheppard. We believe Mike Schoenfeld, vp for public relations and obfuscation, also went.

Last summer a delegation went to Kunshan. Bill Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment. Bruce Kuniholm, dean of Sanford. David Levi, dean of law. Dr. Michael Merson, director of the Global Health Institute. Steve Nowicki, supreme dean of undergraduate education.

Ah yes, one female. Catherine Gillis, dean of the school of nursing. Nursing is traditionally a female enclave so this is OK.

Check out the Duke Kunshan Planning Guide, some of which the Imperial Brodhead Administration has released to the faculty. Check the most important officials in Durham coordinating with the Kunshan campus:

Senior management, Lange, Jones and Tallman Trask.
Budget and planning: Jim Roberts, Tim Walsh
HR and payroll: Kyle Cavanaugh
Student housing: Larry Moneta
Research administration: Jim Siedow
Development: Bob Shepard (not to be confused with the Fuqua Dean)

The face of Duke. All white. Male.

✔ Of the three new Duke Trustees to serve on the Duke Kunshan Board, Thomas Gorrie is the most curious, because Fact Checker is unable to ascertain why he is so intensely interested in Duke University at all.

A graduate of Rutgers and Ph.D. from Princeton, and post-doc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Gorrie spent 35 years at Johnson and Johnson in New Jersey, retiring as a vice president. (Some information we have indicates he was vice chair of the board. This is not confirmed.)

Duke's official biography states he has been a volunteer at Duke for 15 years. We checked for other Gorries on the list of alumni. No females, so it is not traceable to his wife. And only one male: there is a Jason Gorrie who is a graduate, but his class year does not coincide at all with the service of Thomas Gorrie. Besides, an internet people search reveals Gorrie had one son, Robert.

Almost all of the information available about him indicates he focused on New Jersey. Recently he was made a trustee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Gorrie became a Duke trustee in 2006, the official biography identifying him as a "strong advocate for Duke University." He is on the all-important Executive Committee.

He not only is a University Trustee, but chair of Duke Health's board of trustees.

We have tried to reach Gorrie. J and J has no contact information. There is a listing in Princeton for Gorrie and Associates; we think that is his personal office, but no one ever answers. A Deputy Fact Checker is assigned.

4/23/2011

Make yourself heard. E-mail addresses for the Trustees

Trustees of Duke University

E-mail addresses


✔✔✔ Fact Checker exclusive. Available nowhere else!

Note - in addition to the e-mail for each individual Trustee, at the end of the list there is a block of the addresses so you can copy and paste the entire thing in an e-mail form. It is suggested you use the BCC function, as the CC will let everyone see that you wrote to everyone!

As of April 15, 2011. The BOT will reorganize and add new members effective July 1, 2011. Please report updates: Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com

Biographical information can be obtained on the Trustee website, weak as it is.
http://www.trustees.duke.edu/


Chair Dan Blue
DanBlue@Tbsf-law.com,


Vice Chair Rick Wagoner

GRWagonerJr@gmail.com,


Anne (Mrs. Robert T.) Bass
(note there are two people named Anne Bass, both married to the wealthy Bass brothers.). Working on e-mail. Phone 817 390 8400

Jack Bovender
Jack.Bovender@HCAHealthCare.com,

Dick Brodhead

The President is a Trustee, #37
Richard.Brodhead@Duke.edu,

Paula P. Burger

PPBurger@JHU.edu,

Paula H. Crown

PCrown@Crown-Chicago.com,

Ralph Eads III

Reads@Jefferies.com,

Frank E. Emory Jr.

FEmory@Hunton.com,

Paul Farmer MD

Paul_Farmer@HMS.Harvard.edu,

Robin A. Ferracone

Robin.Ferracone@RAFCapital.com,

Ziqing Gao

XQG@CHINA-INV.CN,

David Gergen

David_Gergen@KSG.harvard.edu,

Thomas M. Gorrie

tmg@tmgorrie.com,

Janet Hill

HillvJanet@aol.com,

Kenneth W. Hubbard

Ken_Hubbard@Hines.com,

Peter J. Kahn

PKahn@WC.Com,

Sunny Kantha, Young Trustee

SUNNY.KANTHA@DUKE.EDU,

Bruce A. Karsh

BKarsh@Oaktreecap.com,

J. J. Kiser III

JJK3@SC.RR.Com,

Elizabeth Kiss

President@AgnesScott.edu,

Marguerite W. Kondracke
MK@AmericasPromise.org,

John J. Mack

John.Mack@MorganStanley.com,

Michael Marsicano

MMarsicano@FFTC.org,

Bishop J Lawrence McCleskey

JLMcCleskey@bellsouth.net,

James P. McDonald Young Trustee

MCDONALD.JAMESP@GMAIL.COM,

Martha Monserrate

MMonserr@aol.com,

Nancy A. Nasher

Nan@NorthParkCntr.com,

Clarence G. Newsome

CGNEWSOME4@NC.RR.COM,

Ann Pelham
APelham@aim.com,

David M. Rubenstein
David.Rubenstein@Carlyle.com,

Alan D. Schwartz

Alan.Schwartz@Guggenheimpartners.com,

Laurene M. Sperling

LAURENESPERLING@HOTMAIL.COM,

Susan Stalnecker

Susan.M.Stalnecker@USA.dupont.com,

Ryan Todd

Ryan.Todd@duke.edu,

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward

HMW@MISSISSIPPI-UMC.ORG,


PASTE THIS BLOCK TO WRITE ALL OF THEM SIMULTANEOUSLY:


DanBlue@Tbsf-law.com, RWagonerJr@gmail.com, Jack.Bovender@HCAHealthCare.com, Richard.Brodhead@Duke.edu, PPBurger@JHU.edu, PCrown@Crown-Chicago.com, Reads@Jefferies.com, FEmory@Hunton.com, Paul_Farmer@HMS.Harvard.edu, Robin.Ferracone@RAFCapital.com, XQG@CHINA-INV.CN, David_Gergen@KSG.harvard.edu, tmg@tmgorrie.com, HillvJanet@aol.com, Ken_Hubbard@Hines.com, PKahn@WC.Com, SUNNY.KANTHA@DUKE.EDU, BKarsh@Oaktreecap.com, JJK3@SC.RR.Com, President@AgnesScott.edu, MK@AmericasPromise.org, John.Mack@MorganStanley.com, MMarsicano@FFTC.org, JLMcCleskey@bellsouth.net, MCDONALD.JAMESP@GMAIL.COM, MMonserr@aol.com, Nan@NorthParkCntr.com, CGNEWSOME4@NC.RR.COM, APelham@aim.com, David.Rubenstein@Carlyle.com, Alan.Schwartz@Guggenheimpartners.com, LAURENESPERLING@HOTMAIL.COM,
Susan.M.Stalnecker@USA.dupont.com, Ryan.Todd@duke.edu, HMW@MISSISSIPPI-UMC.ORG,

FORMER TRUSTEES

VERY INCOMPLETE LIST -
BEING FORMULATED

Ben Abram
BS@abr.am,

Kimberly Jenkins
Kimberly.Jenkins@duke.edu,

Rev Dr Charles Smith
CMSmith@NCCUMB.org,

Xing Zong
Xing.Zong@duke.edu,

4/22/2011

Administrators -- stung by opposition to rapid global growth -- mum on possible deal for Brazil campus

✔✔✔✔ FC here. Good day.

The principal spokesman for the Brodhead Administration, Michael Schoenfeld, has declined to confirm or deny reports that FC has received about a deal to start one -- or possibly two -- new Duke campuses in Brazil.

The reports come from two sectors of the Durham campus and from two sources: one consistently reliable and the other new and very promising. We have been unable to pin down if the location is either Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo -- or both.

Schoenfeld also refused to deal with information that a Deputy Fact Checker collected, indicating the administration is not announcing the deal because the rapid, unbridled expansion into at least nine other international locations all at once is already drawing heavy fire. This obviously would add new fuel.

In addition to the building of a "full research university" in Kunshan, Duke is heading toward two additional locations in China: Shanghai and Nanjing. Then there is London, Dubai, New Delhi, and St. Petersburg. And Seoul, where an executive education program is underway. And Johannesburg, for Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE) elective courses, and Global Consulting Practicums which have flown under the radar.

FC has been able to confirm that immediately after taking office as Duke's first global vice president, Greg Jones, long-time dean of the Divinity School, went to Brazil. We have confirmation that Jones and Dean Blair Sheppard, the driving force behind the grandiose aspirations of Fuqua Business School, held talks in Sao Paulo last July 13, and Rio last July 15.

✔✔✔✔
In another development, a faculty source indicates one avenue of particular concern over Kunshan is the financial estimates -- and how Duke's subsiding the new university planned there to teach Chinese is impacting upon programs in Durham. This analysis is expected to play a big role as the Academic Council decides whether to approve academic programs proposed for the backwater China city.

We have work on several major essays underway: a special report showing how risky and negative aspects of the Kunshan venture -- discussed in a secret Trustee briefing that we obtained -- were diluted in or missing from the version of the Duke Kunshan Planning Guide given the faculty. This is explosive!

We are also going to review the transcripts of all Academic Council meetings since Kunshan was first introduced, to analyze information given to the faculty through this avenue and also the accelerating concerns over the administration's plans.

We are comparing faculty consultation at Yale as that university considered a new undergraduate campus in Singapore with the Duke faculty's involvement in Kunshan.

Another essay evaluates the Yale response to charges of sexual harassment and other discrimination to Duke's.

The academic year may be ending. Our work is not.

✔Thank you for reading and supporting FC.

4/19/2011

Academic Council -- citing University by-laws -- stakes out broad ground in continuing debate over Kunshan

✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔ Good day, fellow Dukies.

Amid the continuing furor over what many feel is the faculty's minimal role in the Kunshan Initiative, the chair of the Academic Council has issued an extraordinary, pointed memorandum affirming no academic program can begin without approval of the faculty in Durham.

Using quotes from the University by-laws and a 2009 Council resolution, chair Craig Henriquez, associate professor of biomedical engineering and computer science, indicated the Council -- the campus-wide elected faculty senate -- will take an expansive view of its responsibilities, considering any limitations on academic freedom that would thwart education efforts and weighing the financial stability of each program.


========

✔✔✔✔ Loyal readers, also on Tuesday, with the Brodhead Administration in damage control mode, Provost Peter Lange tried to bolster the stock of Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard by announcing his re-appointment to a second five-year term.

The announcement to Fuqua stakeholders was most unusual, however, in that it acknowledged faculty frustration with the dean and other stresses in the business school from Sheppard's unbridled drive for global expansion. Lange revealed he had summoned Sheppard for a series of corrective discussions. Lange said these meetings will continue.

A press release issued not by the news bureau but personally by Michael Schoenfeld, principal spokesman for the Brodhead Administration, filtered out any mention of the counseling.

========

The faculty in each individual school involved with a degree -- for example Fuqua and a masters program -- must approve before the Academic Council begins consideration. A month ago Henriquez noted that even this preliminary process was not underway -- a measure of how divorced the faculty is from Kunshan.

Henriquez went out of his way to note that recent approval for a master of management studies program in Fuqua -- along with discussion of a template to allow easy transport of the program to other cities -- is not tantamount to approval which must still be granted city by city.

With the new Duke Kunshan University planning to issue Duke degrees, as if the students had been in Durham, Henriquez said administrators have assured him that the Chinese have been made aware that all agreements reached with administrators are tentative.

Henriquez's memo to all faculty came simultaneously with the release of minutes (actually a transcript) of the Council's March 24th meeting, so members can vote on whether to approve them at the next regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday.

The minutes reveal question after question peppering President Brodhead, and his waffling answers. For example, his strongest statement on academic freedom is that he hopes the Chinese realize it is a necessary ingredient on the campus. As Fact Checker reported on Monday, we have learned that all discussions with the Chinese pertain to activity on the campus itself; the seven foot high steel wall already in place around the 201 acre campus is also the boundary for free thought, and outside professors and students will be as restricted as serfs.

Henriquez himself set the tone for the meeting. According to the minutes, he opened discussion of Kunshan by reminding everyone of the exuberant global news conference in 1999 when President Nan Keohane announced the Fuqua School of Business would have a campus in Frankfurt. Millions of dollars later, the campus went belly up. History "does make us cautious," he said.

Facing Brodhead, Henriquez said the entire drumbeat for Kunshan was coming from administrators and he was unable to find "the faculty champions for this project."

Henriquez also cited the cost of Kunshan -- analyzing it in terms of cost per person involved. "It is clear that the resources spent there may limit or alter programs that might be proposed at Duke (in Durham) that potentially could have greater impact on more faculty and students. It is important that we understand how this venture and what we spend there will lead to a better Duke."

The Brodhead Administration has steadfastly maintained that Kunshan is not at the expense of Durham, but has not demonstrated how this is so.

✔✔ Provost Peter Lange revealed during the meeting that while the faculty has been given 23 pages of the Kunshan Planning document -- after FC obtained a copy from a mole and blogged -- there are the additional 24 pages still kept secret -- and on top of that 30 pages of appendix.

Henriquez started his Tuesday memo with announcement of a website -- created almost two years after Kunshan appeared on the horizon -- to keep professors and other stakeholders informed. See http://academiccouncil.duke.edu/ under hot topics. Yes hot topics. Fact Checker has been demanding this for six months.

Hernandez issued his memo before lunching with senior faculty members who have been raising serious questions about Kunshan. Originally their thrust was to have a petition from the faculty to the Council for appointment of a special committee that would undertake a formal investigation. However, the senior faculty recognized the Academic Council would not have the resources for a probe of the magnitude needed; one idea under current discussion is for an investigation that would have a budget and staff, with faculty members working on the investigation relieved of teaching responsibility. So far news of the luncheon has not percolated to the Fact Checker mole!

In a sign of the current atmosphere, hot topics says it will soon post "faculty questions about Duke in China."

Thank you for reading Fact Checker!
Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com

Crystal Gail Mangum indicted for murder

A grand jury in Durham has indicted Crystal Gail Mangum for the murder of her new boyfriend. She is also charged with larceny for taking his rent money, a money order.

Her bond remains at $300,000, but apparently she has not yet appeared before a judge on the latest charges.

Durham attorney Chris Shella says he is taking over the defense from attorney Woody Van.

Analysis: Mr. Brodhead goes to war

First of three essays. The next, written in New Haven, will analyze Brodhead's handling of Kunshan, and compare how his great friend and mentor, Yale President Richard Levin handled Singapore.

✔✔✔✔✔ Fact Checker here.

Dick Brodhead's extraordinary e-mail to a member of the faculty who has been critical of his handling of the Kunshan Initiative makes three points.

A) The faculty was consulted.
B) The finances were explained
C) Academic freedom is protected.

Not one of these statements is true
, and we consider each in turn.

FACULTY CONSULTATION


Brodhead says "faculty engagement was extensive," and at the March 24th meeting of the Academic Council, "the issue was discussed for the best part of an hour."

That long? Wow! Let us remember that the president identifies Kunshan as the most important development at Duke since James B. Duke forked over the money.

After the February 25-6 meeting of the Trustees, the Dean of Fuqua Blair Sheppard, himself smarting from criticism that he's left his faculty out cold, wrote the following:

"It is now time to seriously take up the question of our own (Fuqua's) presence in China. The goal of this document is to provide as much information as I can in order to allow us to begin the dialogue necessary to have a thorough consideration of our choices....:"

So who are we to believe. Brodhead that the faculty was involved since November 2009, or Sheppard saying six weeks ago that it is "now" time to "begin the dialogue."


✔✔ FINANCES


Yes Dick, you and your minion have offered financial details all along, but the trouble is, they were misleading numbers, incomplete numbers. Or as the Chronicle put it on February 22, "hazy at best."

Let us put aside the construction costs. We shall look at the numbers that Brodhead and his tribe gave us on the continuing, annual operating losses.

Dean Sheppard - November, 2009 - Kunshan will pay for everything, everything right on down to the electricity. Duke will have a "free ride." Compare please, the Trustee briefing document, February 2011 "We cannot hope to have world class education in Kunshan without (subsidy)... the founding partners (meaning Duke University, Kunshan and Wuhan University) must play a substantial role."

Sheppard - December, 2009 - Kunshan will pay 100 percent of any operating losses.

Vice President Jones - November 2010 - we expect to ask the Trustees for $1 million a year to subsidize operating losses.

President Brodhead - February 2011 - we will ask the Trustees for $1.5 to $2 million a year to subsidize operating losses. Oh by the way, Kunshan is only going to pay 45 percent of the losses.

Executive Vice President Trask - March 2011 - The Trustees gave Mr. Brodhead authority to go 20 percent over budget, in other words spent up to $2.4 million a year to subsidize.

Peter the Provost - later in March 2011 - Well yes, the numbers Mr. Brodhead gave us were not meant to mean that was the only operating loss Duke would cover. That's just the amount coming from the Strategic Initiative fund.

Later in March, 2011 - Fact Checker reports the Strategic Initiative fund is only 25 to 30 percent of the story. There is also hidden, Enron-style subsidy in:

A) The Fuqua budget. Almost as much as from the Strategic Reserve, never before mentioned.

B) Donations raised in Durham, being sent to Kunshan. Brodhead allows this will be $10 million in the first six years.

C) A juggle so that Duke tells Kunshan that money it is spending for administration in Durham is really part of the joint venture's responsibility -- and we want to count this as part of our contribution for operating losses. No word if Kunshan is letting us get away with this gimmick, or is trying one on its own with its own overhead.

D) An annual loan with no interest or repayment schedule. This is Duke money -- more than the appropriation from the Strategic Initiative -- flowing into Kunshan for operating losses. Nice trick!

The totals: Brodhead has estimated the subsidy total at $37 million over six years. Fact Checker says the grand total -- operating subsidies, capital costs and everything -- will easily be $100 million, more likely $150 million over the first ten years.

Back to November, 2009, Board Chair Dan Blue: the risks of Kunshan are "not substantial."

The Chronicle editorial again: "..the constantly shifting statements coming from Duke administrators do little to engender confidence within the greater Duke community as to the project’s economic feasibility."

So far, Fact Checker has discussed only the initial costs. The agreement for Kunshan to share losses lasts only six years. The agreement for free use of the land and rent lasts only ten years. What next?

And what happens when it comes time to fulfill the dream of a "comprehensive research university, including both undergraduate and graduate programs." There is not one word of Kunshan's contribution to this.

Mr. Brodhead, have you briefed the community on the consultant's report that says your financial estimates are a house of cards -- that we cannot possibly charge Chinese (and they are the ones who will be going to school in Kunshan) as much as we are figuring.

Why not release that consultant's report, Dick? Or the three economic models you gave to the Trustees, rather than just the rosiest of the "Monte Carlo" simulations that you provided to the faculty. Oh yes, Dick, how about the full Duke-Kunshan Planning Guide, all 47 pages rather than the 23 given to the Academic Council.

I also do not follow, Mr. President, your assertion that the Arts and Sciences are not hurt financially by money being sent to Kunshan. There is only so much in the pot. If you give it to Kunshan -- through the Fuqua budget, through the Strategic Initiatves appropriation -- there is less left for A and S.

And Fact Checker would like to know if you will grant an interview. And if you will instruct your deputies to answer e-mail questions, or will they continue to circle the wagons to try to protect you.

✔✔ACADEMIC FREEDOM

What John Spencer Bassett began in 1903, Dick Brodhead is ending in 2011.

As Dukies are taught, Bassett was a professor of history in our forerunner, Trinity College. In October, 1903, he published an article in the South Atlantic Quarterly (notice that this circulated off campus, and was not confined to a classroom). He dared to identify a black, Booker T. Washington, as the second greatest Southerner, save Robert E. Lee, in a century.

From those words, so benign sounding today, the Trustees established a tradition of academic freedom. When the Trinity College bell was rung to celebrate a Trustee vote endorsing Bassett's right to speak his mind, it was not only heard on campus, but in the community outside the campus. In other words, no geographic restrictions on what or where our professors or students could say or explore.

And so, Loyal Readers may ask, how is this relevant to Duke's campus in Kunshan. In discussions of relations with the Chinese regime -- no friend of unfettered inquiry -- Brodhead reports he is "fairly certain" there will be full internet access. He is equally wobbly in discussing subject matter that professors can address in their classes.

What he has not said is that the seven foot high steel wall that already looms around the 201-acre Kunshan campus -- separating it from the rest of a huge new industrial park -- is not only meant to keep outsiders out, but faculty and students inside. There is no, repeat no academic freedom, none, beyond the walls. Duke professors, Duke students will be no better off than Chinese serfs.

This is not the definition of a university, much less a great one.

And here's a well kept secret: the Trustees have considered "risks to Duke's reputation" that include "if we become embroiled in wide-ranging public controversy." In other words, something akin to the current Duke concern for sweatshops or the historical involvement with the city of Durham in its desegregation attempts.

✔✔ SILENCE

Mr. Brodhead is silent on many aspects of great concern. Whether the city of Kunshan is the best that Duke could do. Whether Dean Sheppard has told officials in Kunshan that he is silently negotiating for a campus in Shanghai that would undercut Kunshan, because key Fuqua programs "won't work" in the backwater. Whether Wuhan University is the best we can do, for his own global vice president apparently was pointing to Wuhan when he identified one potential partner as "weak."

In his letter to Professor Pfau, Brodhead has another failure at time of crisis. Rather than calm the waters engulfing him personally and his administration, Brodhead has only provided velocity and volume for the torrent.

Part two of this analysis in a day or two. Thank you for reading Fact Checker.

4/18/2011

Brodhead comes out swinging at faculty critic

Updated at 5 PM Monday

✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔ President Brodhead -- just back from several days in China and confronted by an unprecedented torrent of criticism of his handling of the Kunshan Initiative, including a call from a Chronicle columnist for the Trustees to fire him -- has sent a lengthy e-mail to the faculty member who has taken the lead in raising questions.

The e-mail is notable for its detail and is in sharp contrast to the kiss-off that Professor of German and Eads Family Professor of English Thomas Pfau received after furnishing Brodhead with a copy of his recent letter to the editor of the Chronicle.

Brodhead claims there has been significant consultation with faculty. He minimizes the financial risk, and insists that the subsidies Duke must make to the Kunshan project will not come out of the Arts and Sciences budget.

✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔ (In a related development, senior faculty who have been formulating a petition asking the Academic Council to launch a full, formal investigation of Kunshan, seem to be ready to abandon that effort. (( CLARIFICATION: my use of the word abandon is being misunderstood. They are thinking about turning from their original effort to another, but still realize the necessity of a thorough investigation. )) They realize this is beyond the capacity of the Academic Council; there is a proposal being discussed to ask the administration for a budget and staff, and to form a committee with faculty who would be relieved of teaching duties temporarily. FC will have more on this later.)

In the e-mail to Professor Pfau, Brodhead says the subsidies for Kunshan will come from money in Fuqua's budget and the Strategic Priorities fund. He does not get into whether the A and S budget could be larger if so much were not devoted to (and hidden in) Fuqua and Strategic Priorities.

There are several other developments. FC will have more later. The text of Brodhead's letter follows.

From: Richard Brodhead, Ph.D.
To: Thomas Pfau, Ph.D.

Dear Thomas,

Duke’s Kunshan project represents a major step for Duke and deserves the fullest consideration. Having been a faculty member all my life, I understand the important role of faculty in that consideration, and I also recognize that people will legitimately hold different positions. Debate on important issues is a sign of health in an academic community, and I welcome your contributions to this debate. I do, however, want to correct some misunderstandings in your recent letter, and to answer some questions you raise. You are welcome to share this communication with anyone interested.

Faculty consultation. Faculty engagement in Kunshan has been extensive, both formally and informally. Provost Lange, Vice President Jones and I have each addressed the full meeting of the Academic Council several times, beginning in December 2009 as the opportunity in Kunshan moved from speculation to reality. At the March 24 Academic Council meeting, the issue was discussed for the best part of an hour.

We have also briefed the Executive Committee of the Academic Council (ECAC) on an almost monthly basis over the past year, and have had regular contact with the Chair of the Academic Council and individual faculty members as requested. The same level of formal consultation has taken place with the University Priorities Committee and the Academic Programs Committee. Last year, with my strong support, the Academic Council created a new Global Priorities Committee to ensure faculty engagement in all our international activities.

At the programmatic level, the number and diversity of faculty who have been involved in planning for Kunshan is considerable. Fuqua, Sanford, Nicholas, Law, Medicine and the Global Health Institute are either developing or actively contemplating academic programs at the new Kunshan campus, and a number of departments within Arts and Science have expressed interest in participating at some point in the future. I encourage you to visit the new website that the Academic Council created to catalog both the planning documents for Kunshan and the extent of faculty consultation.

Financial commitments and budget implications. Launching a new program on the scale of Kunshan is a complex enterprise involving numerous issues and decisions on everything from admissions and curriculum to furniture and IT. University staff, faculty, members of the Board of Trustees, and outside advisers have been involved in the planning process. Their Planning Guide was provided to the Academic Council several weeks ago and was covered in The Chronicle and on Duke Today. The financial modeling on this project has been as extensive as any that Duke has done in recent memory and has been reviewed by faculty committees and the Board of Trustees in great detail.

To be sure, every investment that Duke makes represents a choice among possible priorities. People will differ on the best way to strike the balance between existing and innovative programs, but there is an important educational case to be made for Duke’s new involvements in China--I did my best to lay it out in my address to the faculty on February 17. On the other hand, significant care has been taken to minimize the financial commitment in Kunshan. (Please let me correct your misperception that Duke is buying the land or building the buildings: those expenses are being borne by the Municipality of Kunshan.) Further, the Duke funds to be used for Kunshan come either from existing Fuqua budget lines or Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) funds, and have not been drawn from the Arts and Sciences budget.

Access to information: I spoke to the differences in intellectual culture between the U.S. and China very frankly in my February address. I won’t repeat that detailed consideration here, but I do hope you will consult it. In sum, while Duke cannot expect the identical systems of free expression in China that we know at home, free access to information and the free expression of ideas are the foundation of our academic values. Duke will actively advocate for these values in our Kunshan project, and we will be prepared to shut down the venture should the climate become untenable.

I expect for Kunshan to remain a matter of interest for some time, and I look forward to continuing dialogue with the University community on this important subject.

Best wishes,

Dick

Academic Council leadership says it does not have resources for a Kunshan investigation

✔✔✔✔✔ Update 12:37 PM

Two sources have told Fact Checker that the leadership of the Academic Council -- sympathetic to demands for an investigation of President Brodhead's handling of the Kunshan Initiative -- believes the Council does not have the resources to undertake such a mission.

The call for an investigation is being organized by senior faculty in the form of a petition.

The Council's leadership is said to have presented a compelling case that the investigation would have to be massive in scope -- embracing what is the creation of an entirely new university.

And there's also timing -- with new members of the Council due to be seated at its meeting on Thursday according to the on-line council calendar, no one wanted to hit them with great controversy immediately.

While work on the petition was moving along rapidly, there were also difficulties in language because, increasingly, the proposed document was being seen as a vote of no confidence in Brodhead.

Deputies are at work. Check back later.

Chronicle columnist calls on Trustees to fire Brodhead

✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔
✔✔✔✔✔ As the faculty of Arts and Sciences considers a petition for a special investigation into Brodhead's signature initiative -- Kunshan -- a Chronicle columnist has called upon the Trustees to fire him.

FC gives you the text, for your convenience.

By Antonio Segelini.

In an email to alumni a year ago, President Richard Brodhead proclaimed that, despite budget cuts that came as a result of the recession, “care was taken to preserve our core commitment to financial aid, to sustain the quality of the student experience and to continue the hiring of outstanding faculty.” In the year since that message, Duke has seen its economic situation improve substantially, leading to the University resuming “merit-based pay increases this year,” according to a March 28 email sent to employees. Sizeable deductions and reviving financial markets “put the University’s budget back on a sustainable footing.”

Yet, recent events have shown that Brodhead himself has led Duke away from its “core commitment” to this campus. A year after celebrating the groundbreaking for Duke Kunshan University, an event he equated to the vision and creation of the Sanford School of Public Policy, Brodhead has seen the project in China suffer multiple setbacks. Professor of German and Eads Family Professor of English Thomas Pfau spoke up about the issue in a letter to the editor April 8, claiming that Duke administrators had once again circumvented faculty counsel. Pfau argues that “much of the growing resistance to the Kunshan adventure... stems from the faculty’s pervasive alienation from, and distrust of, a University administration that consistently fails to consult its faculty’s collective expertise.”

An entire week has passed, and no faculty member has openly refuted his statement.

Brodhead’s lack of communication is not just a product of this initiative. It has become the standard for his presidency at Duke. On April 4, Judge James Beaty allowed a claim by 38 members of the 2006 men’s lacrosse team against President Brodhead and members of the administration to proceed. As The Chronicle reported, the claim states that Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek, “who holds a law degree, told them not to hire a lawyer or discuss the case with their families,” creating a “‘relationship of trust’” with the players by promising confidentiality and then sharing the information about the incident with Durham police.

This incident was followed by Justin Robinette, former chair of the Duke College Republicans, filing three new complaints “alleging that Duke failed to adequately prevent harassment and discrimination.” Robinette had already filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, claiming that Duke discriminated based on sex and race.

In these three instances, Duke’s community needed answers. Students have the right to be updated, which can be done without jeopardizing current litigation.

In a year during which multiple things have gone wrong, from Tailgate reaching a new level of debauchery to Karen Owen’s PowerPoint, Duke’s campus needs stability and a strong hand to guide it. President Brodhead has disciplined relatively well, responding to students’ wrongdoing by sending an email to us, saying if “features of student culture... strike you as less than ideal, I urge you to face up to them, speak openly about them, and have the courage to visualize a change.” However, when the administration is being unclear or there is uncertainty among students, the strong hand seems to weaken.

Brodhead’s inability to start a discussion about a controversial topic was evident in his January email to “Duke alumni, parents, and friends” (seriously, Brodhead? My dad had to forward it to me), in which he talked about the surging financial status of the University, increases in applications for the Class of 2015, all of the personal awards Duke students have won this year, Winter Forum and the passing of Professor Reynolds Price.

Although we need to celebrate student and University accomplishments, not once in these communications did Brodhead mention that Duke is building another campus in China. He also neglected to say that administrators estimate $37 million over the next six years will be spent on this campus’s initial operating costs. Passing on this information would seem crucial, given that the lease is only for 10 years (can they kick us out if it’s going well?), and administrators can’t guarantee Web freedom for the campus.

In asking for Richard Brodhead’s resignation, I consider what he does say to be so much more important than everything he leaves out. He shouldn’t portray University problems, like the potential for limited Internet access at DKU, as opportunities that will “help our students to learn.” Nor should he be only “fairly certain” that the DKU campus will have unrestricted Internet. The president of a university should never be “fairly certain” about anything that big.

Hopefully it won’t take Brodhead 171 days to apologize and admit his mistakes this time. And maybe he will be kind enough to submit his letter of resignation as well. Duke needs a leader, not simply someone who exhibits all the bad qualities of one.

Antonio Segalini is a Trinity sophomore. This is his final column of the semester.

====================
✔✔✔✔✔ Fact Checker here.

Thank you Antonio, for opening discussion on this most vital of topics. Your column is incisive, insightful and courageous. And unfortunately right.

Rather than reviewing the past seven tortured years, FC would like start by looking forward.

Duke is overdue for a major fund drive, the likely dimensions of which stagger the imagination. 36 other universities are seeking $1 billion or more right now, and two of the schools we consider our peers, Stanford and Columbia, are both seeking $4 billion or more.

Such a drive must have continuity of leadership; Dick Brodhead was 64 on Sunday.

If we add a year or two for the "quiet phase" of a drive, then at least five years for active fund-raising (and probably more since that will allow us to make our goal look bigger) we find a man in his 70's engaged in one of the most rigorous tasks of his life right at the end of his working years.

I am not so certain that he -- having mused about returning to teaching -- wants that.

Remember, please, that Nan Keohane was only 61 when she announced her retirement and return to scholarship.

For the reason of his age (his birthday was Sunday) and the need for continuity, without further review of his tortured presidency, Fact Checker joins in calling upon the Trustees to begin a search for a new President.

4/15/2011

Brodhead in China ||| Duke's lax lawyers pile it on with 732 more pages of paperwork ||| Peter the Provost zips up on faculty retirement incentives

✔ Fact Checker here. Welcome Fellow Dukies, to the blog that is read every morning -- first thing -- on the 2nd floor of Allen Building.

✔✔ A group of three senior professors in the Arts and Sciences is putting final touches on a petition demanding a formal faculty investigation into the Kunshan Initiative. The timeline is to get faculty to sign on, and present the petition at the next meeting of the faculty senate -- Academic Council -- on April 21.

The first paragraph in the current draft sets the tone quite well, quoting from the minutes of the December, 2009 Council meeting:

“... the Academic Council is not prepared to endorse future plans... until the faculty have had more time to understand fully what it means in terms of cost and other commitments to establish high-quality educational programs in China..."

The petition organizers say the Brodhead Administration has just steam-rollered over faculty and other stakeholders with no strategic plan or participation.

There is particular fear that Kunshan -- and other international initiatives -- are eating into the Arts and Sciences budget on the Durham campus. The generalized statements by interim A and S Dean Alvin Crumbliss on Thursday about a balanced budget did not address these concerns at all.

The petition will pose again a question that has been kicked around since the word Kunshan became part of our vocabulary: is this the best that we can do? Why?

There apparently is a second, similar petition in Fuqua, addressed to Dean Blair Sheppard, and we are urgently trying to pin down information. We are indebted to our Loyal Readers for their continued confidence in giving us so much vital information. Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com

✔✔✔ A Duke news release -- personally from the Brodhead Administration's mouthpiece, Michael Schoenfeld, and not
from the news bureau which is the usual formula -- reveals Brodhead is in China for two days of the annual Boao Forum.

Huh? That's what we said, until we used that research tool which Dean Sheppard introduced us to, Wikipedia, to check out Boao. Sometimes Bo'ao. This Forum, apparently put together by bankers and others seeking to do business though-out Asia, likes to identify itself (in the second sentence of the Duke news release) with Davos, the annual Swiss gathering that draws economic heavyweights. This is akin to talking about the Super Bowl and an intramural football game in the same breath.

We checked this news release very carefully, recalling that in 2008 Schoenfeld touted Brodhead's "address" to a "plenary session" of a New York "summit" of leaders concerned with volunteerism. Turns out, this was a Time Magazine publicity stunt, and Brodhead was one of seven speakers plus a five member panel crammed into lunch hour. He spoke for two minutes, 23 seconds. Back in Durham, the Dean of the Arts and Sciences breathlessly told the A and S Council that at that very moment, Brodhead was briefing candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, together, about DukeEngage. No briefing. No together. By about 2,000 miles.

From the Duke PR handout on Boao: Brodhead was invited as a panelist for a Friday session entitled “Rethinking Education: University Presidents vs. Corporate CEOS,” featuring "leaders from business and educational organizations in a discussion of the challenges of educating the next generation of the world’s workforce."

Well, that's what it's about in Schoenfeld-speak. Here's what the official program says: "millions of university graduates cannot find jobs each year." And the panel will explore "should the education system be changed" to address this.

More context: this is one of four conflicting events at the same time, including a reception for the forum heavyweight, former Goldman Sachs honcho and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, rabbi for Duke's own erstwhile board chair Robert King Steel. See, all these people reinforce each other and invite each other around.

The conference is on an island in the South China Sea, southwest of Hong Kong, east of Hanoi, nowhere near Kunshan and we do not know if Brodhead will swoop on by his pet project.

✔✔✔ As it does every year, Duke is milking the loopholes in federal income tax law that allow it to file its returns late. (Yes, non-profits have to file even if they pay no tax.) We are talking about returns for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010, and we want to see Form 990. That's the portion that must be made public.

Fellow Dukies, make sure you understand this. The numbers we are waiting for are almost a year old. Duke's auditors (KPMG) signed off on them last October 6th. Executive Vice President Trask used them later that month in his annual report, which leaves out all the good stuff.

We cannot help but believe Duke delays the Form 990's hoping they will go un-noticed. Or perhaps that they will be "stale news" that no one will cover.

Loyal Readers, you must be chuckling by now. You know me too well!!

While limited in scope, Form 990 does yield additional, useful information. It was the source of discovery that Duke paid one lacrosse defense lawyer -- Jamie Gorelik -- $2 million in one year! It also was the source of our expose last year that some administrators were getting h-u-g-e bonuses even though the rest of the campus was experiencing cutbacks and layoffs.

The Academic Council grilled President Brodhead on this, and in a convoluted explanation, he claimed the payments are not bonuses at all. Rather, he said they were "at risk," to be awarded for good performance and withheld if goals are not achieved. If that's not a bonus, then I'm not Fact Checker.

Oh yes, the Form 990's themselves use the word "bonus."

Fellow Dukies, FC has you covered.

✔✔ Buried on Duke PR's website, a hint that Duke may yet cut its gold-plated fringe benefits -- although they are safe in the year ahead. There's only so much money in the pot, explained Kyle Cavanaugh, vp for human resources, and the need to increase salaries may require trimming fringes in the future. "We are pleased that this year, we can once again offer the option for performance-based merit increases, but this is a balancing act that we will continue to face in future years."

Our question is how administrators determined to put the beans in fringe benefits rather than base salary. Was this based on input from employees? Were there surveys? Were there focus groups? Or was there just the Imperial Administration?

A student working in Perkins Library has wondered how the end of the two year wage freeze will affect work-study. Answer: good question. The starting wage in the library system has been $8.25 per hour at the circulation desk, $8.75 in the stacks. There is no word on whether this will change.

President Brodhead -- in the preliminary announcement of the end of the freeze, effective July 1 -- stated "It is appropriate that the whole Duke community should benefit from our improving financial circumstances."

No no no. Not the whole community at all. It will be interesting to see how many people do get raises, as it is based upon evaluation of job performance.

Brodhead will appear for one hour before 200 of Duke's 35,000 employees who manage to get a seat in Reynolds Theatre. Noon on April 27. The royal staff is collecting questions in advance so they can be very carefully screened. FC working on a list of questions to be submitted, even though we are not Duke employees.

Hey Dick, is the new system for awarding pay hikes any different from the one in place three years ago?

You are reading Fact Checker Too. Shorter articles in addition to our traditional in-depth essays. Duke.Fact.Checker@gmail.com


✔✔ The Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award flies under the radar for the most part. It was started generations ago by a New York lawyer (founder of the esteemed Sullivan and Crowell) throughout the south with the original intent of honoring people who work toward racial harmony. Over the years this has broadened to a new definition: "when one goes outside the narrow circle of self-interest and begins to spend oneself for the interests of humankind."

This year's winners at Duke: Sarah Woodard from the office of the chief human rights officer at Duke Medicine, and Barbara Lau, director of the Pauli Murray Project in the office of the Duke Human Rights Center. Both are involved in much more.

✔✔ In the last edition of Fact Checker Too, we told you about eight-month-old Seth Petreikis, coming to Duke from Indiana for life and death thymus transplant surgery. Duke... because it's the only place in the country where this is attempted.

Seth was not able to travel on Monday because of a fever. Doctors are not sure what's causing this because there are not the usual signs of infection. He has no immune system, and the transplant is designed to correct this.

This is big news in the Midwest. We have you covered here too.

✔ The Wall Street Journal headline was "Doctors May Heal Themselves Differently." A report on a study by professors at Duke and the University of Michigan. OK here goes.

The first hypothetical involves colon cancer. 100 people. One treatment option cures 80, 16 are not helped and will die in two years, and four percent will go through hell with a chronic diarrhea and other unpleasantries.

The other option cures 80 people without any complications, but 20 percent will die in two years.

A second hypothetical involves avian flu, with similar choices: a lower risk of death, a higher risk of complications.

The study shows that doctors pick the option of the higher death risk for themselves, but recommend just the opposite treatment for patients. Duke's Peter Ubel: "When you put on the doctor hat," it changes how you decide.

✔ The latest version of the federal budget -- which will guide us through six months until the next fiscal year -- shows substantial cuts in areas that would seem to impact Duke.

We stress this is only one version -- the $40 billion or so compromise -- likely to get worked over a bit more by that wonderful institution we call democracy.

National Institutes of Health, cut $260 million.

National Science Foundation, cut $53 million.

Americorp (Teach for America) cut $23 million, narrowly escaping extinction.

Pell Grants saved at $5,550 max, but students who have managed to double-dip are out of luck.

✔ We've heard plenty about the federal debt, something like $14.26 trillion and growing since you started to read this sentence. Well the New York Times reports that for the first time, student debt for college loans has hit $1 trillion. In the article, a husband and wife who both borrowed, and their monthly payments exceed their mortgage.

Here's the problem, not necessarily at Duke: the more loans that are available and the higher Pell grants go, colleges and universities feel they can continue to suck up all the new cash with tuition increases far in excess of inflation. It amounts to a giant transfer of wealth -- from poor students to middle class and upper middle class faculty.

✔✔✔ From a Deputy Fact Checker: We had high hopes for Peter the Provost when we first heard him pledge "transparency" during the fiscal crisis. In fact Duke's TV cameras captured his words, transmitted them via the internet, and they are on file in the FC database.

Couple, please, this pledge with the incentive program for senior faculty to retire, to make possible hiring of new blood that would not otherwise occur with tight budgets.

The Chronicle tried several times (as did FC) to get details. Each time Peter ducked, saying the full program was not yet in place.

This seemed odd, since professors were getting offers simultaneously with the Provost's assertion he did not know the dimensions of the program.

Move forward. This semester Fact Checker again has asked Peter for details. We have one report -- we are not able to confirm -- that some professors walked off with $1 million and more.

Peter the Provost has zipped up, becoming Peter the Silent. Members of the Brodhead Administration ignore e-mails that they think will result in essays that are not favorable to them. Notice I said to them, not to Duke.

We do not think Peter, the PR department, the Dean of Fuqua and the others should try to censor people who speak with differing conclusions, by refusing to provide information.

Peter, we had expected better from you. Shame.

✔✔✔ Defense lawyers representing Duke in the continuing lax litigation apparently didn't hear the judge two weeks ago when he said keep it simple from now on.

On Thursday, Duke's lawyers filed 732 more pages of legalese in two of the lacrosse lawsuits. Hell, when I'm being paid by the hour, I write long stories too.

For the first time, Duke is contending that its leadership did not know a Duke police sergeant gave Durham cops key-card data showing team members movements around campus after the party with stripper Crystal Gail Mangum.

Just so happens, disgusting disgraced dishonest disbarred D-A Michael Nifong issued subpoenas for the same information months later. The lawyers for the players say Duke cooked up this strategy (conspired is the word) with Nifong to hide the original disclosure.

Duke told the judge it wanted a court order before releasing medical records of Miss Mangum (now resident of the Durham jail, floor four, awaiting murder charges). These are relevant to the conduct of Rape Nurse Trainee Tara Levicy. She concocted her own medical scenario to support Mangum's false claim of rape.

732 pages. We told you Duke's tactic is to wiggle, delay, obfuscate and try to wear out the plaintiffs. It is spending H U G E sums of money on these lawsuits.

Bottom line: we want Brodhead and former Trustee chair Bob Steel under oath, under subpoena, bringing records, testifying in depositions about their roles.

✔ Promotion from within. Tim Walsh has been named Vice President for Finance, replacing Hof Milam who departed for a senior position at his alma mater, Wake Forest. Walsh has been an assistant VP and university controller for six years. Graduate of Notre Dame, MBA Virginia. Staff: 375 people.

✔✔ There's no end to the turbulence abroad. In Cairo -- which Duke says is OK for students and teachers again -- extreme violence rocked the main Tahir Square. That's very close to the Egyptian Museum with its King Tut treasures and the best tourist hotels along the Nile.

In China, the repression grows, though we all know Kunshan will be an island of illumination. The latest: violent arrests of hundreds of people who tried to pray in public after their unauthorized Christian church was seized.

4/13/2011

Durham Police Chief says Crystal Gail Mangum likely to face murder charges

The man who Crystal Gail Mangum is accused of stabbing died last night at Duke Hospital.

There have been several identities and names given for the man. He apparently was 46 year old Reginald Daye, who let Mangum and her three kids move into his apartment after a brief sex fling. The two allegedly argued over rent money.

Daye has been on life support at Duke Hospital since the April 3rd stabbing. His family arranged for the plug to be pulled.

Mangum is the nut case with a long, long rap sheet who falsely charged three Duke lacrosse players with raping her in 2006. The three were declared "innocent" by the North Carolina Attorney General, and prosecutor Michael Nifong, who had believed Mangum, was disgraced, disbarred and sent symbolically to jail for one day.

She escaped charges in that case -- filing false police reports for example -- because the attorney general considered her a nut job.

Since the stabbing she's been in a Durham jail cell on $300,000 bail. Last night Durham's police chief said he expected charges against Mangum to be upgraded to murder.

4/12/2011

Angry faculty draft petition demanding investigation of Kunshan Initiative. Rebuke of leadership of Brodhead, Lange.

Several senior members of the faculty -- including at least three with endowed chairs -- have begun to draft a petition demanding a full investigation of the Kunshan Initiative. On Tuesday night, there was a flurry of e-mails being circulated in a direct challenge to the leadership of President Brodhead, if not tacitly a vote of no confidence. One source told a Deputy Fact Checker the petition could also be seen as a rebuke of Provost Peter Lange.

The senior professors say that they anticipate that in the next few days, hundreds of additional faculty will sign on. Their desire is to get the Academic Council or perhaps the Arts and Sciences Council to undertake the mission. One e-mail included this line: "Let me emphasize: the faculty could establish such a committee, regardless of whether the senior administration welcomes it or not. We are not their puppets."

Fact Checker could not reach the chair nor chair-elect of the Academic Council Tuesday evening. Deputies assigned for Wednesday.

The professors have multiple concerns, including a drain of resources and focus away from the mother campus in Durham while Duke pursues international adventures in Kunshan as well as nine other world cities. They note there is a crimp on the Arts and Sciences budget already, and it is likely to get worse when the Trustees vote in May on the budget starting July 1.

The administration has been most vague in stating whether Kunshan is consuming Durham resources. One of the most definitive denials came in a press release ten days ago reporting on statements by President Brodhead -- but within hours the assurance that Duke-Durham's budget was secure was dropped and the news release re-posted.

The professors are also angered by the failure of the Brodhead Administration to involve the faculty with planning, as required by courtesy and established principles of governance.

One of the e-mails circulated Tuesday night was a copy of correspondence with President Brodhead, who dismissed concerns of one key faculty member by saying he was entitled to his views, but "I don't share them."

"Are faculty to understand, then, that you "don't share" the view that they ought to be involved in a decision-making process of such magnitude as the Kunshan initiative? If so, considerations of honesty and clarity would dictate that you tell them expressly that they are no longer enfranchised in conceiving, deliberating, and deciding on matter of strategic planning in a timely fashion."

Fact Checker has an incomplete list of the professors involved; we have permission to use only one name so far, and Deputy Fact Checkers are following up on a dozen more. We did not want to use the one name, lest undue focus be put on this one professor.

Significantly, the senior faculty involved are not within the Fuqua School of Business, where for weeks, there has been rumbling over the grandiose sweep of ambition by Dean Blair Sheppard. One source in Fuqua -- given a copy of a key document late Tuesday evening-- responded "wow." A source on the other said of campus said the same thing. "Wow."

Mr. Brodhead was in New York last night at a routine alumni gathering. His remarks were brief, and there was no opportunity for questions before the Alumni Department shifted the focus to a "conversation" between the President and a behavioral scientist. The Department has used this format for more than a year to isolate Brodhead.

Fact Checker does not yet have a complete report on last week's Alumni Reunions; but it appears Brodhead skipped the traditional, annual "State of the University" address for the first time. Certainly the routine press release was not issued.

Check back for updates.

Report of hate crime at UNC is false. "Victim" facing charges

Text of statement from UNC Chancellor:

Message from the Chancellor: Police Determine False Report in Aggravated Assault Case

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:

The Department of Public Safety has determined that the alleged aggravated assault reported to campus last night did not occur. That report, filed with campus police on April 5, was false. The University will not report it as a hate crime.

It is important to recognize that incidents of harassment do occur. When they do, we take them seriously. We strive to foster a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment at Carolina.

We recognize that this has been a difficult time for campus. Members of the community who feel they need to discuss what has happened are encouraged to contact the Dean of Students Office at 919-966-4042; Counseling and Wellness Services at 919-966-3658 or 919-966-2281 after hours; LGBTQ Center at 919-843-5376; Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at 919-962-6962; or Human Resources’ Employee Assistance Program at 919-929-2362

Sincerely,

Holden Thorp

Faculty in open revolt on Kunshan. Senior professors demanding special investigative commission. Fear for A and S budget on home campus

There are even more developments on Kunshan in the past few hours. We have documents, confirmed. However, FC and the Deputies have a lot to do before we can post. Probably late Wednesday.

Rift between Brodhead and faculty over Kunshan deepens, as senior professors and department heads join in.

Professor slams President for his response to recent Letter to the Editor of the Chronicle.

DEVELOPING. We have texts. May not be able to post until Thursday, however. Check back.

Hate crime shocks UNC campus. University under fire for week-long delay in notifying students

Following ripped off from the Daily Tar Heel website

Quinn Matney was having trouble sleeping.

As the freshman took a walk on South Campus at about 3 a.m. on April 4, he said he ran into an acquaintance on the Craige Residence Hall footbridge. As the two spoke, a man sitting at a nearby picnic table stood up and grabbed him by the wrist, he said.

“Here’s a taste of hell you f—-ing fag,” Matney remembered the man saying.

The man branded Matney, who is gay, on the left wrist with an unidentified object, causing third- and fourth-degree burns that damaged three nerves and a tendon, leaving the freshman with no feeling in his thumb and limited mobility in his index finger, he said.

Matney said he tried to pull away — but the man didn’t let go until he received a hard punch to the face.

Matney said he then walked away quickly, trying to distance himself from the man and his two friends, who both appeared drunk.

“I’ve seen him two or three times before this, always out on that same bridge,” Matney said of the man, whose identity is unknown.

Jeff DeLuca, co-chairman of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance, said he is alarmed by the administration’s silence on the attack.

University officials did not officially comment until a post on Alert Carolina on Monday evening, a week after the incident.

“A very blatant hate crime against a GLBT individual occurred on this campus, and we only heard about it by word of mouth,” DeLuca said.

The man is being sought on charges of aggravated assault, said Jeff McCracken, chief and director of the Department of Public Safety.

“We don’t have any suspect information that we could comment on at this point in time,” he said.

UNC plans to report the incident as a hate crime to the federal government, Chancellor Holden Thorp said in an informational e-mail to students.

Matney said he thinks the man who attacked may have overheard conversations with friends in the past that might have revealed his sexual orientation.

After going to the emergency room and leaving after hours of waiting the night of April 4, Matney said he received treatment at Campus Health Services the next day. Only then did he file a police report.

The man appeared to be a white 19-year-old, standing 5 feet 10 inches, with a large build and short brown hair, he said.

Matney is also trying to find the acquaintance he saw at the footbridge to corroborate his report. The witness, he said, was a male student he recognized but does not know by name.

DeLuca said GLBTSA is holding a public forum to discuss the incident during its regular Thursday meeting, and has invited school administrators to attend.

“The community has a right to feel kind of shocked and scared by what happened, but we’re here to try to allay those fears and let people know about the resources available and also to address the issue of how the student body was notified,” he said.

“At GLBTSA our main concern, though, is making sure that we rally up around Quinn and do everything we can to support him in this time where he needs our community’s support the most.”

Winston Crisp, vice chancellor for student affairs, said current notification methods warn students when there is an immediate danger.

Crisp, who will attend the group’s Thursday meeting, said these policies are being reviewed, especially following last week’s armed robbery.

“We have learned from feedback from the campus on recent events there may be a need for another level of information that we push out to the campus,” he said.

Matney said doctors told him he will need to visit the burn unit and go through two weeks of occupational therapy for his injury, and that he might need surgery.

“Despite the horridity of the event, it has let me see how much my community loves me,” he said.