February 26, 2026-Academic Planning and Budget Committee (APBC)-Minutes

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Location:  Lubar N440

Present:           T. Boyer, M. Boehm, D. Counts, P. Hinow, R. Jens, T. Joosten, P. Klajbor, J. Kibicho, J. Roberts, G. Rodger, D. Roman Dagenhardt, J. Wilcoxen, K. Woodward

Absent:             T. Freiburger, H. Ouali, T. Nation, M. Newman,

Guests:             C. Bilen-Green, D.Clark, A. Daire

  1. Call to order-The meeting was called to order at 9:03 a.m.
  2. Approval of the minutes from January 29, 2026 meeting-The minutes were approved as submitted via auto consent.
  3. Chairs’ Update-Chairs updates were included in other areas.  See below.
  4. Provost’s Update
    • Meetings with Deans of all Schools and Colleges are going well.
    • Clear and Simple messaging across campus about goals and needs continues to be a focus to continue student success.
    • Work on uniform classroom scheduling policy continuesGrade recovery program is seeing success. 
    • Working on ways to expand the program beyond Freshman class.
    • Workload policy being developed to work with Act 15 and System policy.
    • Working with the Graduate School to better support Graduate Students in their path to successful navigation of campus and completion of degrees.
  5. Alignment listening session feedback/discussion-C. Bilen-Green-
    Programs in STEM areas met to discuss ways to work together and discover what possibilities may be available for further collaboration.  Discussions have gone well.
    Areas that need work are:
    • Structural Changes-What changes would need to be made to combine areas or focus?
    • Advising-Would resources be shared between schools? Programs?
    • Class sizes-Some programs have large classes and some small, how to determine best options?
    • Marketing-How would this new area be marketed? 
    • Affordability-How are colleges/schools/programs affording new advisors or marketing to shift focus to a STEM specialty? 
    • Timeline-What would the timeline be?  Report will be finished by end of March with some decisions coming in April.
  6. SAAP 1-16 and Graduate Numbers-D. Clark shared the current information with the committee.
    • SAAP 1-16Current Policy
    • Number of Graduate Info
    • Future Policy Graduate Info
  7. New/Other Business-Administrative costs- The committee discussed if campus may be increasing Budget to offset or defray costs for any changes.  This may come up in future budget discussions with the Campus Budget team.
  8. Adjournment-The meeting was adjourned at 10:29 a.m.