T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
The Chronicle
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012
DKU gets closer to approval
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH YEAR, ISSUE 75
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Former Grad School Dean Wright dies
Greeking out
by Anna Koelsch by Lauren Carroll
THE CHRONICLE
THE CHRONICLE
Jo Rae Wright, former dean of the Graduate School and professor of cell biology, medicine and pediatrics, passed away Wednesday morning after a long fight against breast cancer. Wright’s death is an unspeakably tragic event for the University and for the Graduate School, said interim Graduate School Dean David Bell, adding that her passing at such a young age—she was 56—makes the event esJo Rae Wright pecially sad. Wright stepped down from her position as Graduate School dean and vice provost for graduate education in October 2011 after her battle with breast cancer worsened and her treatments became less predictable. Bell, then senior associate dean of the Graduate School, succeeded Wright. “I don’t feel that I can continue to make commitments to travel as a dean must,” Wright wrote in an Oct. 19 email to The Chronicle. After she stepped down, Wright continued to teach full time as a professor in the
A long-awaited approval for Duke Kunshan University might be in sight. The Educational Bureau for Jiangsu Province, where DKU is located, accepted Duke’s proposal for the campus Dec. 27. The proposal is now under review by the Chinese Ministry of Education, who must approve the campus before Duke can start recruiting students for the new school, scheduled to open Spring 2013. After meeting with various officials in China last week, President Richard Brodhead said he is confident that the MOE approval process will be expedited. During his five-day trip, Brodhead met with Vice Minister of Education Hao Ping, who assured him that the proposal will be approved in a matter of weeks, even though the process typically lasts about six months. This outlook, however, is a deviation from the norm. Experience and research has shown that developments typically take longer than expected in China, Brodhead said. “It happens much more slowly than you think it’s going to,” he said. “It’s not about writing the contract, it’s about building relationships that build the trust.” The proposal to the Jiangsu government, for example, was submitted in June, and the
TYLER SEUC/THE CHRONICLE
Laura Williams and Sabrina Hamilton-Payne discuss Panhellenic recruitment with prospective new members.
SEE WRIGHT ON PAGE 5 PHOTO COURTESY OF DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY
SEE CHINA ON PAGE 6
Research projects face ‘scary’ outlook amid NIH cuts by Ashley Mooney THE CHRONICLE
As potential budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health funding loom, Duke is planning how to bolster its resources and minimize potential losses. In November 2011, the Congressional Joint Select news Committee on Deficit Reanalysis duction, often referred to as the super committee and charged with administering federal budget cuts, failed to take action. This resulted in a $1.2 trillion spending cut to be divided equally across all government programs. Cuts will go into effect in 2013 unless lawmakers pass legislation to undo cuts to specific areas. One of the institutes that will face a roughly 5 percent cut is the NIH, which has seen relatively flat growth since Congress doubled its budget in the early 2000s. The NIH funds scientific research across the country and funds hundreds of millions of dollars to research at Duke.
Bring The Chronicle’s pull-out poster to the basketball game tonight! Duke takes on Virginia at 9 p.m.
The School of Medicine, the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Pratt School of Engineering would be most affected by cuts to the NIH, said Scott Gibson, executive vice dean for administration at the School of Medicine. The School of Medicine, which receives the largest percentage of NIH research funding at Duke, was awarded $331.3 million during fiscal year 2008-2009, according to the NIH website. NIH funding accounts for about 25 percent of the externally funded research throughout Duke’s other schools, Vice Provost for Research James Siedow said, adding that cuts to the NIH budget would greatly reduce the University’s research funding and limit current and future projects. The University has prepared a strategic plan with a variety of financial and administrative programs to protect against possible funding cuts. “The future looks pretty uncertain and very scary right now,” said Siedow, who is also a professor of biology. “Dealing with major cuts in
federal support of research will not be an easy thing to do so we need to be prepared to meet these challenges when and if they appear.” Funding plateaued In the 1990s, Congress made a bipartisan commitment to double the funding of the NIH over five years, said Paul Vick, associate vice president of government relations at Duke Medicine. Funding was then around $13 to $14 billion and now sits around $30 billion dollars. “No other agency has seen itself double over five years,” Vick said. “It was really a remarkable commitment on the part of some really forward-thinking members of Congress.” Since fiscal year 2003-2004, however, funding has been relatively flat. In some years, the NIH budget has barely kept up with inflation, Gibson noted. For all campus schools during fiscal year 2010-2011, 74 percent of new research awards came from federal funding, Siedow said. Of
ONTHERECORD
“We Duke students are among the lucky few fortunate enough to be in contact with the best of the best.” —Roshni Jain in “Lost amid the Duke bounty.” See column page 13
that amount, 24 percent came from the NIH. The National Science Foundation also contributed 24 percent, and the Department of Defense provided 11 percent. Vick noted that the negative effects of the federal budget cuts are all relative. Since the NIH funding flattened, it has become more difficult to secure a grant, compared to the period of doubling the budget when the number of grants and success rate of grant applications increased sharply. Despite the size of the NIH’s roughly $30 billion budget, Vick said he is optimistic that Congress will avoid cutting NIH funding because of the economic, academic and social benefits of the research it supports. “[NIH funding] is not a primary target for Congress,” Vick said. “Part of what’s required to carry out NIH funded research is the construction of laboratory facilities and the training and hiring of appropriate staff, and that’s SEE NIH ON PAGE 4
DSG members plan for Spring, Page 3