The University Committee met on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 in Molinaro Hall room D135.

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 10:05 a.m. by the Chair, Dennis Rome.  Also attending were committee members Herb Colston, Chris Evans, Peggy James, Farida Khan and Greg Mayer.  Gary Wood was present as Secretary of the Faculty.  Ann Zanzig, strategic planning consultant, was present as an invited guest.

Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the meeting of May 15 were approved as distributed.

  

Old Business

The committee discussed the strategic planning process with Ann Zanzig.  The major issues raised were as follows.

The faculty opinion that faculty are underrepresented on the leadership team and that their concerns have not been addressed.

 

The difficulty of getting input on the “six strategic intents or directions” from various stakeholder groups during the summer.

The fact that no solicitation for input has appeared on the web.

The fact that faculty in general have not been contacted for input.

The possibility that the new Chancellor may want to have some input into the planning process.

The perceived lack of leadership in the process.

The problematic timeline that contains no mention of review by University Governance groups.

The mission statement with no mention of research, scholarship or creative activity.

The relatively poor communication between the leadership team and the rest of the campus.

The fact that budget has not been part of the discussion.

Various responses and remedies to these concerns were then discussed.  There was general agreement that more faculty should be added to the leadership team and that these additional members should come from the University Committee.  The meeting scheduled for June 2nd to discuss input from the campus community should be cancelled.  Although subgroups of the leadership team have been assigned to collect input for each of the six initiatives, there seems to have been little attempt to collect input, especially from faculty.  The enlarged group should reconvene in August to determine how best to solicit input from stakeholder groups, including faculty.  Herb added that adding faculty to the group is not enough.  Multiple iterations of the plan need to be sent out for review and comment.  When a document finally arrives at the Faculty Senate for approval, it needs to have been thoroughly reviewed, discussed, and modified based on the discussions.  The communication process needs to be improved with more frequent updates and more information posted on the web in a more accessible manner.

Ann noted that the mission statement is considered a “working” mission statement at this point and that Lori Allen and Laura Gellott are working on a revised version that will address research, scholarship and creative activity.  She also clarified the “implementation” and said that it includes review and approval by University Governance groups.

New Business

Dennis presented a letter from the UW-Oshkosh faculty leadership to UW-System President Reilly indicating their disappointment with his lack of support for maintaining faculty salaries.  Dennis will edit the letter and create a version that can be sent from the UW-Parkside University Committee. 

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 11:35 a.m.

Submitted by,

Gary M. Wood,

Secretary of the Faculty