We began with a discussion on the following MJS article, which revealed a timeline of the behind-the-scenes discussions regarding these recently proposed seismic changes to the System.

Vice Chancellor Tom Luljack visited us and filled us in on UWM efforts. These include the Chancellor’s appearance over the weekend on state wide TV (Here and Now) speaking on our behalf. The Chancellor was also on Mike Gousha and this show will be picked up around the state. The Chancellor will also be going to the state capitol to meet with legislative leaders and members of the Joint Finance Committee – the people who will be holding the vote on the Governor’s budget proposals. We requested a list of the 35 legislators who have been designated as significant in this discussion, and we requested that we receive and disseminate that list. The Chancellor will also be meeting with local editorial boards.

We discussed the timeline for the State’s budgeting process. The state receives the budget proposal, and then it goes to the Fiscal Bureau for deliberation and deep study. This will take a month or so. A “budget brief” should be available quite soon, and will be available for public scrutiny.

We discussed various statements and resolutions about the budget cuts and governance changes, and how to best transmit these statements to the target audience. We also looked at the structure of the UCNews blog site, and then had members’ reports from various committee assignments, resulting in a long discussion about the workings of the APBC. We concluded with a report on the Rules Committee’s investigation of 1) a way for all Faculty Senates around the system to come together and 2) the possibility of a general statement that could be supported by all Faculty Senates. It was suggested that this meeting could coincide with a Board of Regent’s meeting.