B 5 Pre Offer from School/Department

Dear Professor,

The Department of ____ has recommended your appointment to me and is beginning to prepare your dossier for review by the Provost and his Advisory Committee on Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure. Along with many policies and procedures pertinent to faculty, the procedures concerning appointment, promotion, and tenure are described in Duke’s Faculty Handbook ( 

This is a University wide committee that makes recommendations to the Provost on all tenured appointments after conducting a thorough review of the candidate’s file. The entire process (Department to Dean to Committee to Provost) takes some time to complete, and I cannot make a definite offer until the Provost has approved your appointment. Further, the Duke University Board of Trustees must approve all tenured appointments. The Board will act on the Provost’s recommendation for tenure as soon as possible after you return our final offer with your signature. In addition, please note that this offer is contingent upon a successful outcome to a mandatory background audit required by Duke University. Despite all these contingencies, I am pleased to outline here the terms of our offer.

You will be offered an appointment as ____ Professor with tenure in the Department of QQ, beginning August 1, 2012.

OR, if there is no way to complete all the reviews prior to the desired starting date:

I am pleased to offer you a one-year appointment as Visiting ___ Professor in the Department of QQ, beginning August 1, 2012, and ending July 31, 2013. Once the Provost has approved your tenured appointment, I will offer you an appointment as ___ Professor with tenure in the Department of QQ, beginning at the start of the semester following the Provost’s decision. In addition, please note that this offer is contingent upon a successful outcome to a mandatory background audit required by Duke University.

Your initial salary for the nine-month academic year will be $$$ plus fringe benefits, paid in twelve monthly installments beginning August 25, 2012. Duke University offers a generous package of fringe benefits which can be consulted at the following web sites: An overview of benefits at http://www.hr.duke.edu/benefits/, linking to detailed descriptions of various benefits; the Retirement Planning Guide at http://www.hr.duke.edu/benefits/retirement; and the Faculty Handbook mentioned above. The Faculty Handbook describes the career advantages that Duke offers to faculty at all ranks.

I know that you hold the _____ Distinguished Professorship at ___ and understand that you would wish to hold such a similar appointment at Duke.  Unfortunately, these positions neither exist at the discretion of the Dean nor is there an unlimited number of them.  With this understood and upon your acceptance of our offer, I would commit to placing your name in nomination for a distinguished professorship, which could be awarded by action of the Board of Trustees upon the recommendation of the Provost and his Advisory Committee on Distinguished Professorships, once an appropriate distinguished professorship would become vacant and available.  It would be my expectation that such a development would occur within your first two or three years on the Duke faculty.  

As a new faculty member, you will be provided with a standard computer package for your initial computing needs, plus up to $800 of additional funding (which can be spent on other computing equipment including an upgrade to the standard computer) and that will be provided by our Office of Technology Services (please see http://www.aas.duke.edu/asist/services/purchasing/cppas/ for details). This computer will be replaced on the normal refresh cycle. If the standard model is not sufficient for replacement, then any additional cost must be funded by either your research fund or departmental discretionary funding. Please contact your departmental IT staff for assistance.   

To help establish your research program at Duke and for an initial three-year period, we will allocate an annual fund of $____ to support your research and teaching needs. This fund will be renewable upon written application to the Dean, given continued emphasis on research productivity.  

We will agree to provide from all sources up to $_____ as start-up funds to help you establish your research program. The funds are specifically for equipment, supplies, and research costs in human resources, as you have described your needs to us. Please have your departmental staff contact our Office of Finance and Administration to arrange for access to these funds and work with your department’s IT staff to use the portion of these funds that you will apply toward the acquisition of computing support.  Authorization to expend these funds will expire on June 30, 2015, although you may certainly request an extension in writing from the Dean, if need be. Finally, please note that under no circumstances may you use start-up funds to support your own salary.  

(THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IS SOMETIMES USED, WITH VARIATIONS CONCERNING
LENGTH AND AMOUNT OF SUPPORT, BUT ONLY IN DISCIPLINES WHERE GRANTING
AGENCIES SUPPORT SUMMER SALARIES. IT IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR MANY DISCIPLINES.)

We will support your summer research efforts in the following fashion. In 2013 we will provide you with a salary supplement of 2/9ths your nine-month salary, payable in equal installments on June 25 and July 25. In 2014 we will provide you with a salary supplement of 2/9ths your nine-month salary, payable in equal installments on June 25 and July 25. In 2015, I understand that you will seek research supplements totaling 2/9ths your nine-month salary. The applications must be submitted through Duke’s Office of Research Support, and the backstop provision may be accessed only by filing a copy of the grant proposals with the Senior Associate Dean for Finance and Administration, including appropriate budgetary provisions, and a copy of granting agency’s decision. Were the proposals not funded, Duke would provide you with up to a 2/9ths summer supplement, payable in equal installments on June 25 and July 25. We will backstop only the amount of summer salary that is requested in the grant. Although Duke will provide you with no more than two of these supplements in any given summer, institutional policy limits you to no more than three summer supplements from any source in a given fiscal year and to no more than one supplement in a single month.

At Duke, teaching assignments are determined by department chairs, contingent on departmental needs.  ___, Chair of ___, has asked me to inform you that you will be assigned no courses to teach in your first semester here and that you will be given a one-course reduction in your second year.  Thereafter, your annual teaching load will follow departmental norms. 

In recognition of your accumulated sabbatical credit at your current university, we will grant you ___ years of credit toward your first sabbatical at Duke. Barring any intervening leaves of absence that stop the sabbatical clock, this means that you would be eligible to apply for a sabbatical to be taken as early as the ___ academic year.  

We will propose, subject to approval by the Provost, to help to meet your child’s – children’s educational needs in the following way:  For each semester of his -- her -- their full-time enrollment in college, we would provide you with a taxable stipend equal to the lesser of 1) three quarters of Duke’s one-semester tuition or 2) the semester’s tuition bill for your child.  Of course, being taxable, this stipend would be subject to normal withholding.  This stipend would be payable in the month prior to the beginning of each semester, upon the presentation of the appropriate documentation to our Office of Administration.  This stipend would be available for a maximum of eight semesters per child for a maximum of two children (or the exact needed number of semesters, if known when the request is made).  It would no longer be available once you qualify for Duke’s tuition benefit after five years of continuous service. 

OBTAIN THE PROVOST’S WRITTEN PERMISSION TO MAKE THIS OFFER PRIOR TO MAILING THE LETTER. (Letter 4b4a)

If you leave Duke before the expiration of the special provisions described in this letter (I point out that nine-month salary is not a special provision), they will cease on May 1 of the year you leave. 

Following the standard allowances for Arts & Sciences, we will provide up to $XXXX in moving expenses. You will be personally responsible for expenses in excess of this amount. Duke reimburses relocation expenses in accordance with the IRS's allowable deductions. Please be aware that there may be some reimbursed items that will be treated as taxable income by the IRS. As Duke is required to withhold taxes from these reimbursements, reimbursements for relocation expenses will be included in your paycheck. Please refer to IRS Publication #521 http://www.irs.gov/publications/p521/.  

Given the __________ Department’s enthusiasm for your candidacy, I apologize for the necessarily conditional construction of this letter.  In any event, I will be in touch with you at the conclusion of the review process. Please indicate your intention of accepting this offer, when formally made after the Provost’s final approval, by signing the enclosed copy of this letter or the pdf and returning it to me no later than XX, 2012. 

 	 	 	 	 	 	 	Sincerely,  



 	 	 	 	 	 	 	             , Dean 

Enclosures
(copy of appointment letter)
(copy of employment information memorandum)

cc: Provost Kornbluth
Professor XX, Chair
Business and Administrative Deans
Executive Vice Provost for Finance and Administration

I intend to accept this offer when it is formally made, after the Provost has approved the tenured appointment.

Signed: ______________________________________ Date: _____________________