Author: Kristin Bouchard

Beer Minute

‘Great Duos’ are on Mike’s mind in this week’s Minute as he reminds everyone of the upcoming Beer and Ballet event at The Weidner on May 4, 2024. Who would have thought beer and ballet would mix? The creative minds at The Weidner, that’s who! And what an excellent combination it is. In this week’s Minute, Mike encourages everyone to think creatively…and raise your glass!

Message to Faculty and Staff on Thursday, April 11, 2024

Dear UW-Green Bay Faculty and Staff,

Today, Deloitte’s Financial and Strategic Assessment reports will be released publicly for 7 universities.  The reports discuss the economic assessment and opportunities for us as well as Oshkosh, Parkside, Platteville, River Falls, Superior, and Whitewater.  Attached you will find three documents.  The first talks about our current economic assessment, the second potential opportunities for us, and the third, labeled UW Green Bay UFA, is a summary of the Deloitte reports along with a presentation I gave to the Board of Regents that provides context to those reports.  We will discuss all of this at the Coffee Break on Tuesday, but below are some important things to keep in mind.

Documents can be found here:

UW Green Bay UFA

UW-Green Bay Current State Assessment

UW-Green Bay Opportunity Report

First, the slide shown from Deloitte on page 19 of their Current State Assessment and again on pages 8 and 10 of the summary are crucial to put in context. It takes FY23, which was our worst year by far of the last 6 years, and projects out as if we have not made any financial adjustments in FY24 or planned reductions in FY25.  As a reminder, in FY23, we purposely chose to spend down some of our tuition balance to support our mission.  Page 11 of the summary talks broadly about adjustments we have made in FY24 and FY25 and page 12 outlines the projections for our tuition balance as a result, which shows a much more accurate and positive trajectory for us moving forward.  We pledged to end our “structural deficit” by FY25 and I believe that we have done that with the understanding that changes to projected enrollment can always cause us to have to adjust.  We used flat enrollment as a baseline for our numbers.  The Deloitte reports are a snapshot of our financials in Fall 2023. It is important to recognize this distinction and the heavy lifting you have done in recent months to set the stage for us to move into the opportunities before us.

Second, the structural deficit as defined by Deloitte does not include any revenue that we generate through our Continuing Education Division.  This revenue has been stable for some time now and we continue to seek to grow our presence here in the future as a unique revenue stream that we can rely on.

Third, on page 19 of the summary, I talk about our future plans to keep our budget on the plus side of the ledger and build on our mission.  I discussed further growing our dual enrollment and continuing education work, continually examining the sustainability of our program array, developing Phoenix Innovation Park as an entity that drives enrollment and revenue, exploring additional revenue opportunities for athletics, and continually pushing ourselves to have the strongest possible student support network.

Finally, at the Coffee Break on April 16th, we will discuss some of the other findings in the financial assessment and opportunities.  I have already met with governance leaders at the UC regarding the report.  Nothing in the report is new to us, but having these things validated by a third-party source will be helpful for us to continue to have conversations about our future.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions that you would like clarified.

Best,  Mike

The university financial assessments for seven universities and President Rothman’s statement are now live: https://www.wisconsin.edu/president/strategic-plan/

Design Minute

In this week’s Minute with Mike, UW-Green Bay’s Art and Design program is featured, including Assistant Professor Abbey Kleinert. She shares how students are combining art and science to develop a logo and visual identity for the NERR, and how a RISO printer technology levels-up what students can do. Listen below and check out the Design Arts program.

Art Minute

In this week’s ‘Minute,” Mike is joined by Associate Professor Minkyu Lee, advisor and former chair in UW-Green Bay’s Art Program. Students have the opportunity and are encouraged to take a dynamic approach to studio arts. Everything from painting to ceramics to jewelry-making and woodworking are there to explore. Mike speaks proudly of this exceptional program in the ‘Minute with Mike’ video below!

Giving Day Minute

‘AMPLIFY UW-Green Bay pride’ is Mike’s message in this week’s Minute. He shared this message today alongside Elizabeth Paul, Annual Giving Manager for UW-Green Bay who talks about the first ever Annual Giving Day being held on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Both Mike and Beth encourage everyone – including faculty, staff, alumni and the community – to both donate and share their Phoenix pride through social media. Every donation, no matter what size, will make a huge difference!

Andrea “Tess” Arenas Minute

Collecting the oral histories from the Latinx community in Wisconsin is the topic being featured in this week’s ‘Minute with Mike.’ In the video below, Mike speaks with Dr. Dawn Crim, Vice Chancellor for Inclusivity and Community Engagement and Cindy Johnson in the Multicultural Resource Center about the exciting speaker and supporting student/community/faculty and staff events surrounding Andrea “Tess” Arenas’ presentation on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 1 p.m. at The Weidner. Listen below and learn more about the two-day schedule of events here.

Non-profit Minute

This week, Mike speaks with members of UW-Green Bay’s Continuing Education program who work with regional non-profits. Serving more than 67,000 people each year, Continuing Education offers a plethora of non-credit learning options, including education for local non-profits like the annual Non-profit Conference at Lambeau Field. This year’s event is Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Learn more here!

Career Minute

In this week’s Minute with Mike, the Chancellor is joined by Kay Voss, Director of UW-Green Bay’s Career Planning and Professional Connections. With the backdrop of the two-day Job and Opportunities Fair, Mike and Kay speak to the importance of providing students with the opportunity to connect with future employers in the area. This not only enhances their classroom experience, but creates community connection. Find out more here.

 

Minute with Student Engagement

It’s all about the students in this week’s Minute with Mike. Nearing the end of the Krash the Kress event, Mike chats with Katie Lesperance, the director of Student Engagement about the importance of what students have available outside of the classroom on campus. Katie shares that students are at the heart of everything they do and work hard to create a vibrant campus community for students to be a part of. Thank you, Katie and team, for all that you do for our students!