UC Chair, Mark Schwartz, sent the following email out today to UWM’s Faculty Senate:

“Following Chancellor Lovell’s surprising announcement, the University Committee (UC) has been fully engaged in discussing and considering potential actions in regard to all the events and their implications. The UC held an emergency meeting last Wednesday, March 26th, and Provost Britz was a guest at our regular weekly UC meeting on Tuesday, April 1st.  You can see a brief synopsis of these meetings here on the UC News webpage.  I have also personally spoken with President Cross four times, conveying our concerns, since Chancellor Lovell’s story broke last Wednesday.  My sense is that President Cross will act to address the situation, as well as quickly appoint an interim Chancellor.

Ultimately, this is a very difficult situation and we want to proceed in ways that will be in the best long-term interest of UW-Milwaukee (UWM).  We need to gracefully and effectively manage the transition from one Milwaukee institution to another so that everybody is clear what the Chancellor’s immediate roles and responsibilities are.  Ideally, we need to present a unified and coherent message to the public and our UWM community, and the UC will do our best to keep you informed during this transition.

The press is hungry for a story, so this could also offer a golden opportunity to take advantage of the spotlight to finally get some of the positive stories we have been pushing written.  Several members of the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board talked with me on Wednesday (following up from last Sunday’s story) and they are preparing an editorial on our situation.  My understanding is that this story will be strongly supportive of UWM and our importance in the future of Milwaukee, SE Wisconsin, and the entire State.

Lastly, just to remind you, we always reserve the first portion of our weekly UC meeting for “persons who wish to be heard” so please feel free to come to our meetings (Tuesdays at 1:00pm each week) or contact me (mds@uwm.edu) or the entire UC (uc@uwm.edu) with your concerns.”