DEVELOPING. Full report in a few days.
President and Mrs. Brodhead will make a grand tour of several of Duke's international locations, including Kunshan, this summer. Departing June 24 and lasting 21 days, it's obvious that Duke's global thrust is robbing the Durham campus of attention and focus.
And robbing financial resources too.
A mole in Allen Building tells FC that Brodhead's business class airfare -- most of his flights do not offer first class -- is $14,315.80. Yes our mole is very very well informed and precise.
His wife -- who prefers to be called Cynthia Brodhead and is paid as "senior adviser for external affairs" -- is running up a tab almost as high, but she's skipping a round trip from Shanghai to Wuhan University, the silent partner in our Kunshan folly.
Remember please, Loyal Readers, that the Arts and Sciences once had an annual budget of $500,000 for faculty research and travel -- and this was cut in stages to $100,000. This hurt the humanities in particular, since funding is hard to come by.
So if your professor didn't get to a scholarly meeting, tell him to be at RDU (Raleigh Durham airport) for the send-off!!
We do not know if any staff member is flying with the Brodhead's. More accurately, we do not know this yet. The above totals do not include hotels and ground transportation.
We have been trying to find out if the Brodhead's will be making a second trip to China and Dubai with the basketball team departing August 14th. (Convocations for new undergraduates and graduate students are August 24th.)
But we've been given the run-around royally by the Athletics Department which traditionally has been very cooperative. Administrators are very very sensitive to any questions. And be assured FC is very delicate in asking them!
Read more in the next FC post... later this week. FC... on duty... all summer. No vacation.
