April 10, 2001

MEMORANDUM 

TO:          Deans and Division Heads

FROM:      John Wanat, Provost and Vice Chancellor

RE:          Next Steps in Planning

We began in earnest developing plans for implementing Investing in UWM’s Future this past fall.  Faculty and staff across all academic and administrative units submitted over 250 proposals for implementing both the campus financial plan and UWM’s budget request submitted by the Regents to the State of Wisconsin.   The academic deans, the Academic Planning and Budget Committee, and the division heads all participated in reviewing and consolidating these proposals into targeted areas consonant with the Educational, Environmental and Health, and Economic goals of the budget request.  The action teams appointed late in 2000 have provided allocation recommendations for implementing their suggested action plans.

These action plans identify for us and for our communities those areas of focus for UWM’s growth in resources, programs, scholarship, enrollments and stature.  All are strategies for implementing our investment plan, and all are collaborative approaches engaging multiple UWM units.  The action plans do not encompass everything UWM will do, nor are the new state revenues anticipated to under-gird these plans the only resource UWM’s investment plan commits us to grow.  Investing in UWM’s Future projects tuition revenues from expanding enrollments, increases in extramural resources and private funds, and redirection of our own funds in addition to new state revenues.  In fact, the investment plan estimates that these other sources of resources growth will provide $2 for every $1 in new state revenues.

We have every reason to be most optimistic that UWM will gain new state revenues in the 2001-03 biennium, but the exact amount will not be known until the budget is finalized.  In the meantime, we need to continue our financial and strategic planning focusing on the other resources streams of our financial plan. We will do this in a two-step process:  

• This spring, we will focus on our financial capacity at the campus and unit levels.  I will meet with each dean and division head in May, along with their administrative teams, to:

1) Review and discuss planning data and projections.
2) Establish enrollment and extramural goals for schools and colleges.
3) Review each unit’s budget and expenditures, including carry forward from last year and anticipated for next year, and projected uses of the unit’s continuing resources.
4) Review the action plans and their importance to unit and campus objectives.
5) Identify immediate commitments for selected biennial investments.

You will be contacted soon to schedule the May planning meeting.  A detailed agenda will be distributed after the meeting is scheduled.  Planning data and information are posted at the following url:

http://www.bfs.uwm.edu/DEPTS/BIRSM/Interest/PlanProc/PlanProc.htm

These data include:  

I.    UWM Action Plans
• Provost’s Action Plan Summary
• Allocations by Plan
• Allocations by Unit
• Action Plans Prepared by Action Teams

II.    Planning Projections
 
• Projected Enrollment Changes
• Projected New Tuition Revenues
• Extramural Data
• Expenditure Efficiency Data
• Modeled Unit Financial Plan

• Also this spring, we will collect data from schools/colleges over the next few months to prepare a campus status report on Investing in UWM’s Future, including:

1) Faculty scholarly productivity reports for 1999-00 and 2000-01 (forms will be distributed)
2) Number of accredited programs – and any anticipated changes
3) Program rankings, as appropriate
4) Licensure and other certifying examination pass rates
5) Graduate placement rates
 
• Next fall, deans and division heads will work with their departments and planning committees to develop fully their unit’s plan for implementing Investing in UWM’s Future utilizing all sources of additional revenues available to that unit.

I look forward to productive discussions at our planning meetings.

C:    Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor
       Mike Rupp, Business and Financial Services
       Swarnjit Arora, Academic Planning and Budget Committee
       Leslie Schulz, Assistant Vice Chancellor
       Ruth Williams, Assistant Vice Chancellor