Academic Staff
Academic Staff Assembly Meeting Notes
Monday, 12 September 2011
Guest speaker: David Ward, Interim Chancellor
Chancellor Ward addressed the assembly, noting that he does not want to be a caretaker; that he wants to move the University forward and begin the healing process. Our current problems as a University are national in scope, that is, other public systems around the country are experiencing the same problems. Our educational model is being emulated by the world and other countries are pumping huge dollars into their educational systems but they, too, at some point will need outside sources of revenue to grow. We need to do a better job of saving our own system.
We are witnessing a collapse of public support of the University and need to determine what we need to do to create a new model. We’ve relied on tuition and GPR for our revenue which has resulted in an increasing gap in basic support. Our federal funds are okay for now and philanthropy is strong but it is going mostly to infrastructure.
Right now there are two mechanisms driving funding: tuition and federal research dollars.
The University needs to:
- Promote moderate but targeted increases in funding to specific purposes.
- Rethink philanthropy – we need to get more donors interested in base support.
- Make sure that endowed chairs are fully funded.
- Attract funds to do innovation (this might be attractive to WARF).
- Consider administrative streamlining – critically examine how we administer ourselves and whether there are duplications of effort. For example, there may be some efficiencies to be made in IT across campus.
- Examine educational innovation – do we have a good fit for the size of our programs to the number of students? Is the distribution of courses adequate?
Our increased autonomy from System and State may give us some leeway so that we can reallocate resources.
We need a salary schedule that makes us competitive but how do we make reallocations to salary structures when the legislature is not amenable to this.
We need to understand that we can’t attract more donors for base support if we don’t implement changes within our organization. We need to move ahead rapidly because we have an opportunity right now. We should examine what other institutions like us have done – have they made data-based innovations that might work for us?
Our mission says we are to be a model public university. To be a model public university we need a significant influx of money to make significant changes, otherwise, we stay the same. We will attract funds IF we are successful in changing what we do to enhance our education mission. This may mean we move our funding to the best strategic priorities by examining our areas of focus. We need to build bridges with other campuses because education strengths exist across all of the campuses. This will help us capitalize on and promote our strengths. These are important public policy issues within the University that need to be examined.
The debates of the spring have put us in a unique position to examine what we do and make some changes.
The next Academic Staff Institute will be on 22 March 2012, with Jon Erpenbach as keynote.
The Academic Staff Executive Council (ASEC) has been working on:
- Distinguished prefix title
- Planning documents for this academic year
- Personnel system: general principles have been drafted but the committee has not yet been convened
- Parking issues: permits, handicapped parking issues, etc.
The Personnel Policies and Procedures Committee (PPPC) expect to be involved in the new personnel system. If anyone wants to participate in this process, your rep can put you in touch with the ASA Nominations committee.
The Professional Development and Recognition Committee (PDRC) just sent out the call for professional development grants (deadline at end of October).
