February 26, 2008

University Planning Council

Minutes for February 26, 2008

Present: Melissa Acker, Gwen Ashburn, Elizabeth Bagwell, Lothar Dohse, Archer Gravely, Bill Haggard, Herman Holt, Jim Kuhlman, Bruce Larson, Judi Leffe, Adrienne Oliver, Dan Pierce, Anne Ponder, Christine Riley, Barbara Svenson, Kathy Whatley, Betsy Wilson, John Wood

Absent: Amanda Alvarez, Bill Haas, Bill Massey

UPC met in Highsmith 224 from 12:15-1:45

1. Chancellor Ponder reported the following items to UPC:

(a) We will need to schedule additional meetings this semester

(b) We have finally received a report template for responding to UNC Tomorrow

(c) General Administration will submit a short session budget to the NC General Assembly in March. Budget proposals include funding requests for; (1) campus safety; (2) faculty and staff salary increases; (3) special allocations for campuses specializing in arts and sciences; and (4) our top capital priority will be to replace rather than renovate Carmichael Hall. This capital project will be discussed in more detail in a future meeting.

2. UPC will schedule a second leadership retreat to focus more concretely on implementation and outcomes. Chancellor Ponder distributed an initial draft list of action items as part of the developing implementation plan. As part of this process, we need to re-align the benchmarks so we can determine if we are on track. Chancellor Ponder reported that the UNC Asheville Board of Trustees admires our planning work so far but noted that we don’t have a specific, actionable document. UPC members were assigned homework with two tasks: (1) identify the “yoke” work group for each planning theme and name colleagues who have a special interest in the area; and (2) identify additional action steps and sense of priority.

3. Dr. Wood led a discussion of UNC Tomorrow and noted that the spirit of the plan is increased public engagement which is similar to UNC Asheville’s strategic plan. Questions were raised about what changes UNC Asheville needs to make to fit into UNC Tomorrow. Chancellor Ponder stated that we will have the chance to link UNCA’s strategic plan with UNC Tomorrow at the March 25 UPC meeting. UPC is also scheduled to discuss our strategic plan and UNC Tomorrow with the Board of Trustees on March 27-28. Additionally, these planning topics will be discussed at the next all campus meeting before we respond to UNC-General Administration. Dr. Larson suggested that we modify our current planning documents to align the two plans.