Academic Council Meeting
May 7, 2026
3:30 – 5:15 PM
0016 Westbrook Building (Divinity School)
 

  1. Welcome / Remarks from the Chair
     
  2. Approval of the April 16, 2026 Meeting Minutes
     
  3. Nomination of Candidates for Earned Degrees
     
  4. VOTE: Report from the Committee that examined Appendix I in the Faculty Handbook
     
  5. CONSENT ITEM: Approval of the Annual Reports from the Chairs of the following committees: Academic Programs, University Priorities, Global Priorities, and the Athletic Council
     
  6. Two Anonymous questions submitted to be addressed by Duke leadership:

    Duke University Press is one of the university’s flagship entities in the Humanities and interpretive Social Sciences internationally. Through its leadership in recognizing and curating new ideas – of established and rising scholars - it continues to play field changing roles in our disciplines well beyond our own university. Despite its relatively small size, it has outpaced its larger peers in terms of its intellectual impact. For a cross-over reading public and for many scholars and graduate students beyond Duke, when they think of Duke University, the first thing that they think of is its Press. In this moment of institutional crisis, in what ways can the leadership of Duke University ensure the future of its Press? Could you please speak to the role you see the Press playing in the ongoing intellectual life and prestige of the university?
     
  7. Duke leadership requested that this question be addressed in EXECUTIVE SESSION:

    Please provide an update on Duke’s data center plans, including the project’s technical specifications, expected resource use, projected electricity and water consumption, anticipated GPU lifetimes, and plans for equipment upgrades, reuse, recycling, and disposal. Could you also detail the specific sustainability targets for the project, including the timelines for meeting them, how progress will be measured and publicly reported, and whether a carbon price or carbon tax value will be used to inform decision-making? Finally, what formal opportunities have been, or will be, provided for faculty, staff, students, and the Durham community to meaningfully shape the project’s design and sustainability commitments?
     
  8. EXECUTIVE SESSION: Annual report for AY2024-25 from the University Ombuds Jessica Kuchta-Miller
     
  9. EXECUTIVE SESSION: A conversation with Provost Alec Gallimore and Professor Melanie Manion, chair of the Advisory Committee on Duke Kunshan University, regarding Duke’s joint venture in China