Meeting of the University Planning Council, April 8, 9:00 A.M. Present: Mercy Robb, Alan
Gorr, Eileen Kolich, Peter Seely, Susan Mikula, Maria de la Camara, Marco Masini, Pat
Ariano, Jonathan Lewis.
The meeting commenced at 9:15.
I.
II.
Eileen Kolich opened the meeting with a discussion of the future direction of the UPC
- Alan Gorr discussed how weight is often given to things we don’t see, and we
may be moving toward a period of “re-weighting.” Pat Ariano pointed out that
perhaps our focus goes too much to things which are already under way. Susan
Mikula said we need to keep track of efforts as they are ongoing Eileen Kolich
pointed out that we need to be concrete about what it is we need from
administrators. She also mentioned that there is an ongoing need to keep UPC
informed so things can make it into our planning.
- Maria de la Camara made the point that any concrete recommendations or actions
wouldn’t be able to take place until UPC is connected to the money. Kolich
responded that if we are to make budget recommendations we need to get all
interested parties together at the same time. Gorr said we cannot set every
priority, but we do need to identify that which has been ignored.
- Ariano mentioned that there is a plan in the works for alumni outreach that is not
ready to be announced yet.
Sandra Gill made a presentation on the Strategic Plan for the College of Business.
- She supports the institutional research initiative.
- There is a need for customer relations management software, which is needed for
process management.
- There needs to be an assessment of IT.
- She discussed the Business Program accreditation.
- She described a succession plan for administrators within the college.
- Broke down how administration areas work within the college.
- She presented an events calendar for the college. She described a needed for
greater professionalism in events planning.
- She spoke briefly to how the college interacts with Sodexho and the role of the
branding image.
- She reported that the student tax assistance project has returned over one million
dollars since 2005.
- She spoke briefly about the MSA program. Over 50 people are enrolled; there was
a successful assessment of FINA (20 students)
- She discussed the Title VI grant as it relates to social media and academic cases.
- There are currently close to 400 students in the Asian MBA/MIS programs.
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III.
IV.
Kolich initiated a discussion about how the college justifies the curriculum with
accreditors, and how they handle their staffing. Gill described a “syllabus project”
where the syllabus for every course is tied to learning objectives for each course.
- Gill talked about understanding student and stakeholder needs: a survey
conducted said that 90% of COB graduates indicated that their BU experience
helps them to function in their jobs.
- Gill spoke to the goal of valuing people: they continue to send people to
conferences, and have created Senior Lecturer criteria.
- To leading and communicating, she talked about the college’s newsletter, staff
meetings, and the expansion of development.
- She spoke about the adult program, which will eventually become a DCP,
consistent with the current teachout process.
- Gorr inquired about values being determined for the leadership doctorate.
- Gill said she would think about anything else she wished to include in the
Strategic Plan.
- Later a discussion ensued about linking the Strategic Plan with resources. It was
pointed out that the Asian Institute appears to operate in a silo, and without input
from UPC.
Marco Masini initiated a discussion about developing a plan for prioritizing
concurrent events on campus. There was a consensus among the group that something
needs to be developed in this area. A plan in this area would be shared with the
individual units and with Faculty Assembly.
The group set the schedule for upcoming UPC meetings: May 6, July 15, and August
The meeting adjourned at 11:25 A.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Seely