Three guests joined the UC this week: Hope Longwell-Grice, Michael Wilson, and Mark Mone. Longwell-Grice, Associate Dean of the School of Education, asked and was given permission to augment the Executive Committee of the Department of Administrative Leadership.
Michael Wilson, Chair of the Affirmative Action for Faculty Employment Committee, presented the UC with a draft survey that the AAFEC is developing for faculty. The survey is designed to get a sense of current campus climate and how faculty diversity might be impacted by the budget cuts.
Chancellor Mone also joined the UC to discuss campus safety training, undergraduate enrollment, the lump sum adjustment, and his upcoming plenary. The campus will be rolling out 20 safety training sessions open to all and geared to classroom staff, including Faculty, Academic Staff, and Teaching Assistants. The final numbers for fall undergraduate enrollment should be available in the next ten days. Without doubt, enrollment is down. At this point, it is down by over three percent. While applications are up, yield (or the number of admits who come) has decreased. The Chancellor explained that prospective students are applying to many more schools than they have in years past. CEMAT (Chancellor’s Enrollment Management Action Team) is looking at a wide range of issues, and is using DPI (Department of Public Instruction) data about Wisconsin high school students and their matriculation patterns. Enrollments from Illinois are up 38%, which puts that pool of students into the hundreds. The Chancellor gives the fall plenary address Thursday, September 15th at 2:30pm in Zelazo. The UC encourages the campus community to attend. The plenary will also be streamed online if you cannot make it in person.
John Reisel’s report, as UC Chair, summarized his prior discussion with the Provost. He had asked the Provost to articulate the vision for the university in terms of faculty recruitment. Instead of a vision, he was given a list of three priorities: maintaining R1 status, increasing research funding, and improving student success. The Deans are now in charge of coming up with hiring plans for their units.
In the “Where’s Waldo?” section of the meeting, Reisel revealed that the US News and World Report’s 2017 rankings for “Best Colleges” has just been released and that, despite our R1 status, UWM moved significantly down the National Universities rankings to the illustrious position of “rank not published.” Marquette is tied for #86, and UW-Madison is at #44.
Michael Brondino shared a report from the APBC. The Chancellor has asked the Budget Model Working Group to revisit the budget model to see if it supports our R1 status.