Joint Strategic Planning Committee

Thursday, November 29, 2007

9:00am - 10:15am

President's Conference Room, Green Hall

Attendance: Robert Carothers, M. Beverly Swan, Peter Alfonso, Tom Dougan, Bob Weygand, Jim Miller, Celest Martin, Laura Beauvais, Dana Kovarsky, Neil Leston, Abu Bakr, Ann Morrissey.

Minutes: The Minutes from the October 4, 2007 and the November 2, 2007 Meetings were approved.

Follow-up questions to Capital Campaign/Branding Report: President Carothers announced that Vice President Beagle was absent because he had a meeting with a major donor at that time. It was agreed to postpone this item until a meeting when Vice President Beagle would be able to respond to any questions.

Follow-up issues: The Committee discussed the charges to two of the subcommittees:

Excellence and Access: Members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee expressed concern that when considering issues related to access, the role of the University as the flagship public institution might be minimized or overlooked. Discussion ensued with regard to the definition of access and the Board of Governors' mission of access.

After discussion, the subcommittee was renamed Access to Excellence to clarify the importance of academic excellence while keeping access to the University a priority for the subcommittee's attention.

Performance-Based Management: The role of deans, department chairs and faculty in budgeting decisions and possible efforts to get beyond incremental budgeting was discussed. It was noted that the committee did comprise deans and faculty as well as members of the administration. The agreed membership comprised the following: Assistant Provost Cliff Katz, Vice Provost John McCray, Dean Mark Higgins, Professors Art Mead, Henry Schwarzbach and Steve Swallow, Budget Director Linda Barrett and Ms. Ann Morrissey.

Critical announcements/updates: President Carothers announced that Dr. Donald DeHayes of the University of Vermont had agreed to accept the position as Provost. The President said that Dr. DeHayes would be on campus for two days a week beginning in January and would assume the position full-time in April. President Carothers expressed his appreciation to Provost Swan for agreeing to remain in the position during the interim.

Material from the National Center for Educational Statistics IPEDS Data Feedback Report for the University of Rhode Island was distributed and discussed briefly.

Next JSPC Agenda: Ms. Morrissey reminded the committee that their December 20 meeting had been rescheduled for December 19 for a Branding presentation.

The meeting adjourned at 10:15 a.m.