September 20, 2016

Today’s UC meeting, guest-chaired by Michael Brondino, included a discussion with Provost Britz, and another round of revisions on the Post Tenure Review document. The Provost reported that Rodney Swain will be stepping down as Dean of the College of Letters and Science on June 30, 2017, and asked the UC for names for the search committee. He intends to begin the external search for a new Dean as soon as possible, so that an interim will not be necessary. Members of the UC asked that the structure of L&S be examined. The Provost also remarked that final enrollment numbers will be in next week, currently we are down 3.7%. He believes that we need to move to a stabilized enrollment of 25-26k students. While our current budget cannot sustain our current payroll, he did not say how many faculty and staff we can support. Accreditation requirements have driven hiring, but he hopes that once we have dealt with the current budget cut, schools and colleges will be able to hire in strategic areas. After the Provost left, the UC spent time revising the Post Tenure Review document in light of comments from last Thursday’s Senate meeting. The UC will continue discussion of the PTR document next week.