January 27, 2009

University Planning Council

Minutes for January 27, 2009

Present: Melissa Acker, Amanda Alvarez, Gwen Ashburn, Becky Doyle, Jane Fernandes, Bill Haas, Archer Gravely, Bill Haggard, Jeff Konz, Nick Ladd, Amy Lanou, Keya Maitra, Linda Nelms, Adrienne Oliver, Dan Pierce, John Pierce, Anne Ponder, Christine Riley, Betsy Wilson

Absent: Buffy Bagwell, Jim Kuhlman, Bill Massey, Barbara Svenson

UPC met from 3:30 to 5:20 in Highsmith Union 222

1. In a budget update, Chancellor Ponder reported that we are managing a current-year budget cut of 6%, and we are holding back an additional 1% so that the state budget will balance on June 30. The state budget will reset on July 1. We will know before then how much of the cuts are one-time or permanent. Dr. Pierce suggested that we need more guidance on handling departmental budgets. Chancellor Ponder responded that we should act as if we have no funding. She also reported that we are saving $250K by managing our travel expenditures. When asked about the status of faculty hiring, Dr. Ponder stated that we will continue the current searches but we will not fill staff positions, except in rare exceptions

2. Chancellor Ponder reported that President Bowles has changed the UNC tuition and fee strategy in response to the failing economy. In his revised proposal to the Board of Governors, all tuition increase requests have been reduced by a third and no new tuition dollars can be used for faculty salary increases. Instead,, 40% of the tuition increase must be used for student financial aid. UNC Asheville’s total tuition and fee request is a 3.9 percent increase which is under the General Administration 4.5% maximum increase limit. The Board of Governor’s is expected to act on the tuition and fee requests in their February 13 meeting.

3. In an update on strategic planning, Ms. Riley reported that the workgroup leaders have found the large number of workgroups to be inefficient. She presented a proposal to restructure the 27 workgroups under 9 leaders/co-leaders. UPC supported this organizational change. Additionally Ms. Riley led a detailed discussion of the strategic planning benchmark measures. UPC will receive a revised draft in a couple of weeks.

4. Chancellor Ponder reported consulting with IDC and developing a pilot process for assessing administrative offices. This semester, four offices (Institutional Research, Purchasing, Advising, and Career Development) will complete an assessment report using the Institutional Effectiveness Report template prepared by the Institutional Effectiveness Committee in preparation for our last self-study (http://www.unca.edu/ir/ie/index.html). Over the summer and fall semesters, we will refine our guidelines for reviewing administrative units based on the results of this pilot project.

5. Dr. Ashburn’s appointment as Dean of Humanities creates a need to appoint a faculty member to fill her UPC faculty position.

In response to the Faculty Senate’s resolution on our enrollment target, Chancellor Ponder reported that there has been no change in enrollment plans. The UNC Asheville Enrollment Growth Task Force was convened before her arrival and she ratified the recommendations with two small changes: (1) the 3,500 FTE cap was modified to 3,500 full-time headcount; and (2) provided administrative flexibility to manage the enrollment targets within a range of plus or minus 10%. Chancellor Ponder will provide UPC with the Enrollment Growth Task Force documents in preparation for a future discussion of how to respond to the Faculty Senate’s resolution and how to better communicate with the campus about important decisions that we have made together.