Well, yes.

The more interesting question is whether the loss of Van Alstyne, Culp, and Byers last year will be offset by the additions of Chemerinsky, Fisk, Saltzman and some junior faculty, such that Duke will improve from its current position of 17th in faculty quality, well below the five schools US News ranks immediately behind it (Cornell, Berkeley, Georgetown, Texas, UCLA). My guess is Duke may see some slight improvement; together with losses at Northwestern and Cornell this past year, I can imagine them cracking the top 15 in a tie with some others. But we’ll see later in the fall…