UC Chair Kris O’Connor reported he met with the Chancellor last week. O’Connor made several faculty appointments to committees. He is also working on the annual report.
Chancellor Mark Mone reported that the Board of Regents proposed and passed performance- and outcomes-based funding for the budget, rather than capacity-building that was proposed by campus. UW System has responded by putting together block grants for capacity-building. All UW System capital projects, such as the Chemistry building for UWM campus, are under careful scrutiny. The chemistry building is the largest capital project ever funded in the UW System. Campus will hire a project manager to oversee all capital projects on campus, including the Chemistry building, Klotsche Center annex, and the Union.
Chancellor Mone also gave a preview of his plenary, to be held on September 19th. The Chancellor will update the campus on strategic directions and the best way to move forward with initiatives.
Following the last Board of Regents meeting, there was a discussion of continued funding for integration of the 2-year campuses.
UC Member Mark Schwartz presented several documents that have been developed, associated with the new faculty organization MORFS (Milwaukee Organization Representing the Faculty Senate). Academic year 2019-20 was approved in May by Faculty Senate as a period during which faculty interest in membership would be explored. Issues discussed include: the need to develop concrete descriptions of how this organization will benefit faculty, the relationship of MORFS to UW-Madison’s PROFS and a potential MOU with PROFS, specific outcomes that could be addressed by MORFS, and the need for a marketing plan. If approved in this form, the UC would serve as a conduit for membership in MORFS.
As this was the last meeting of the 2018-19 year, the UC thanks outgoing UC Chair Kristian O’Connor and UC Member Devendra Misra for their service to the university.