Meeting Minutes

Steering Committee Meeting
08-03-04
9:00-10:30am
Chapman 306

Present: Mark Harris, Bill Kritek, Audrey Begun, Margo Anderson, Tony Ciccone, Claudia Barreto, David Petering, Rita Cheng

Absent: Laura Pedrick

Guest: Chancellor Carlos Santiago

Meeting opened with introductions to Chancellor Santiago.

There was a brief discussion by Rita about the accreditation and how it has been working and its processes.

Santiago questioned - Have previous reviews that were hard to identify been addressed?

Rita responded that she believed they have been. There was a strategic plan that was brought in by the previous chancellor.

Santiago questioned - Where do we see us the most vulnerable?

Response: New criteria measures. Our biggest challenge is General Education. Also, Claudia, Tony and Rita have been working on Gen Ed and Taskforce to develop some components of Gen Ed (Humanities, etc).

Santiago - One new initiative will be graduate rates. Make sure we're proactive in areas we are weakest. Find out why numbers are the way they are. Another area is research of Dean of Graduate Studies. Be open on limitations and try to address them.

Review Team Members

Petering doesn't think the campus focuses on students to be retained. The faculty is small in areas of Science-Engineering, etc.

Also, he is concerned about the Review Team Members coming. Tony stated that these people will be an asset to the report.

It was suggested to find out more about Dr. Anderson before the site visit.

Strengths and Challenges Identified From the Self-Study

Lots of overlap on Assessment. Some departments were hesitant in responding to request for data. We need to go back to the departments and say we need this information for our reports.

Santiago questioned - Do you think they will focus in on more centralization decision making than on decentralization (referring to admissions, advising)?

Response - Rules kept changing that were set by central administration. People were suspicious and leery giving out information.

Incorporation of Chancellor Santiago's arrival and first few months.

How best do we talk about UW System, the history? How do we go forward?

We are an urban research organization. We look at it as a public research university. Then everyone else will also see us as a public research university that does urban work. We have economic state advantage. We are under-resource. Can the State of Wisconsin support us?

We have a lack of structure. We are extremely limited, and we don't envision things. UW Milwaukee isn't concerned about UW Madison fighting back with accreditation.

Team 4 section doesn't use the terminology "urban". Milwaukee's Board of Regents are supportive. We have to be forceful in stating our case. Documents should support perspective.

Two things have held us back -

(1) Business leaders have gone to Madison

(2) There's been a basic inferiority complex toward Milwaukee.

The fact we are under-resourced leads to working with Brad and others and changing our draft. We are a sound institution. Nothing is wrong with telling us what to improve.

The Plenary speech will be included. The message in the speech and the documents will be conclusive. There are plans to include ideas in the Action Plan.

Santiago - Institutions can be marked by their reports. (very important)

We want to make sure the documents reflect the new leadership as well as the old.

How does this review articulate with System & Review Team?

Option for an advancement section - focus to the site visit

Plenary will be done after the launch of the document. Will se drafts of Carlos Santiago's plenary. The launch date is anticipated to be Tuesday, September 14th.

Follow-up

GER meets in a few weeks, we will have document ready. The Director of Assessment and Institutional Research offer is out.

Tony and Claudia are discussing getting Barbara Walvrood back in the fall.

Discussed eliminating the phrase "urban" from mission statement to "public", per the suggestion of Chancellor Santiago.

Discussed the Milwaukee Idea and the Chancellor's plenary. Wait to see what the Chancellor does.

Those team members that volunteered to help write the report for NCA may not volunteer to meet with the review members. It was suggested to change the fall meeting dates to Fridays.

Meeting closed at 10:30