Dear Campus Colleagues,
This morning I held the first, of what I hope to be many, campus meetings. I am committed to being transparent as we move through this transition and beyond. This morning you received an email regarding changes in the Chancellor’s Office and the Provost’s Office. As previously announced, John Stone will serve as interim provost. Today, Kari Heidenreich began her new role as the executive assistant to the chancellor. Liz Woolever will continue to do my scheduling and Hermie Snorek will now handle John Stone’s scheduling.
Today begins the new fiscal year and the state budget has not yet been signed. I understand significant movement was made in the caucuses yesterday.
As you likely know, the Joint Finance Committee reduced the governor’s cut to the UW System from $300 million to $250 million, still an enormous amount. While conversations continue on how those reductions in the cut will be distributed, there is the potential for UW-Whitewater’s cut to be reduced by about $1 million to approximately $6.4 million. The Board of Regents will address the issue at its meeting next week.
Another key issue for campus has been the proposed changes to tenure and shared governance. The Board of Regents has established two task forces to address these issues. The Board also approved a tenure policy that will be in place if and when the proposed language in the Omnibus motion, which removed tenure from the statutes, becomes law. The tenure policy language mirrors the language that was in the statute.
New language was added to the current law related to terminating faculty and academic staff. The new language is permissive and gives the Board the opportunity to write tenure policy. System is leading efforts to change this language in the law and the Board has stated it will define these terms in collaboration with shared governance if the law is not changed.
So what does this mean for our institutional policies? We remain committed to tenure and the principles of academic freedom. We are committed to shared governance. We will continue to follow our policies related to tenure and our rich tradition of shared governance and academic freedom.
I have heard concern over the future of some of our campus colleagues. I can assure you that we have no plans to outsource either the custodian or grounds crew staffs. We also have no plans to offer an incentive for early retirement. Nor do we plan any layoffs. We have removed nearly 40 positions from our GPR budget in anticipation of the budget cuts.
Today marks the beginning of the University Personnel System. Anyone with specific questions regarding UPS should contact Human Resources and Diversity.
As we move forward, I want to have a broad-based campus discussion about our strategic plan to help us determine our future goals.
I am committed to communicating with you all as much as possible. While I won’t be able to hold weekly office hours as I had as provost, I am going to hold a monthly Tea with the Chancellor (I promise there will be coffee too!). The first one is set for 9 a.m. Thursday, July 23, with the location to be determined. Watch your email and UW-Whitewater This Week for additional information.
As I said this morning, I am excited and honored to serve as chancellor. I look forward to working with you all as we navigate these uncertain times. I know UW-Whitewater will continue to be a great place to work and to learn.
Beverly Kopper
Chancellor