Category: Speeches & Communications

E-mails, speeches, addresses and public remarks from Chancellor Michael Alexander

Conversation about the State Budget

Greetings, UWGB Colleagues,

We find ourselves in challenging times.  To meet these challenges and to turn them into opportunities we will need the engagement of everyone.  Please use this space to give your best ideas and ask important questions.  I will work to answer questions and I will make sure your views are shared with the various planning and governance groups.  This is a fantastic university with an important mission.  With your help, we will move through this period and into a bright future.

Go Phoenix!
Gary

SOFAS Response on Interdisciplinarity

Cliff Abbott, UW-Green Bay Secretary of the Faculty and Academic Staff, issued a paper in response to Chancellor Miller’s essay Thoughts on Interdisciplinarity posted here last week. Prof. Abbott prefaces his response as follows:

The chancellor’s essay (Thoughts on Interdisciplinarity January 12, 2015) offers a vision for the type of graduate that our university should be producing and the kind of university we should be in order to accomplish that. He also offers a critique of the way we currently are structured to achieve our mission. I appreciate both the vision and the critique and I am moved to offer a response.

View the full text of Prof. Abbott’s response in the paper below.

SOFAS Response on Interdisciplinarity
by Prof. Cliff Abbott
Secretary of the Faculty and Academic Staff
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
February 2015

View the full text of Chancellor Miller’s original essay below.

Thoughts on Interdisciplinarity
Essay: Thoughts on Interdisciplinarity
by Gary L. Miller, Chancellor
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
January 2015

Immediate Cost Containment Measures

UW-Green Bay Chancellor Gary L. Miller released the following statement via e-mail to employees on Wednesday, February 4, 2015:

As you know, we have initiated the difficult process of taking a substantial reduction in the university budget.  In order to manage resources to achieve as much flexibility as possible I am taking the following actions effective immediately:

  1. A moratorium on hiring for all positions including permanent ongoing, temporary or short-term for all employment classifications, from any fund source.  Requests for exceptions should be submitted to the Position Review Committee and approved by the Provost.  Student hires are allowed to fulfill duties normally covered by student employees.
  2. A moratorium on all out-of-state travel (excluding Minneapolis and Chicago).
  3. Immediately centralize expenditure authority for all funds.  Expenditure approval must be made at the Dean or Area Leader level.  Expenditures for Student Organizations is exempted.
  4. Immediately centralize all tuition funded cash balances outside of the tuition pool.  This will include balances in funds 131, 136 and 189.

These actions will be in effect until further notice.  Exceptions must be approved by the Provost.

I am deeply appreciative of your understanding of the necessity of these measures.

Further discussion of the proposed state budget will take place at a Town Hall Meeting, scheduled for Monday, February 9th at 2:30 p.m. in Phoenix B.  I hope to see many of you there.

c:  Council of Trustees

Essay: ‘Thoughts on Interdisciplinary’

Since arriving at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay as Chancellor in August 2014, Gary L. Miller has said the University’s commitment to the ideals of interdisciplinarity, a founding principle, is both one of institution’s most important assets and potentially one of the strongest inertial forces to progress. In this essay, he reflects on higher learning, interdisciplinary education, UW-Green Bay and the intersection of larger societal, economic and education issues.

Thoughts on Interdisciplinarity

Essay: Thoughts on Interdisciplinarity
by Gary L. Miller, Chancellor
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
January 2015

Governor’s comments on faculty, staff workload

On Jan. 29, Chancellor Gary L. Miller issued the following message to all UW-Green Bay faculty and staff:

I want to join President Cross in expressing deep disappointment with the suggestion by Governor Walker that university faculty and staff do not work as hard as they could.  My nearly thirty years of experience in higher education has demonstrated to me that university faculty and staff are among the most hard working, committed and creative workers in America.  Your role is one of the most unique and important in this country – to serve your community, to create knowledge and to shape the developing mind to discern truth, evaluate evidence, develop communication skills and to learn how to learn.  It is work that requires great energy, continual study, deep commitment to learning and to those who learn and, importantly, a love of Wisconsin and its future. I want you to know I am deeply appreciative and admiring of your hard work and dedication.  I cannot think of a better group of colleagues to have at my side as we manage the unprecedented budget reductions ahead of us.  Thank you.

Gary L. Miller

Chancellor

Academic Achievement Night

UW-Green Bay Chancellor Gary L. Miller released the following invitation via e-mail to employees on Tuesday, January 27, 2015:

Excellence in academics is at the core of what we do as a university, and we will be emphasizing that commitment at the men’s basketball game on THURSDAY, February 5 at the Resch Center.  We will be recognizing the many student-athletes who have earned a GPA of 3.5 or better in the spring or fall 2014 during a halftime ceremony.

To help honor these student-athletes and thank those who contribute to their academic success, I join Athletics Director Mary Ellen Gillespie and the entire Athletics Department in inviting you – UW-Green Bay faculty and staff – to attend the game as guests of the Athletics Department.

The Athletics Department will provide a ticket free of charge for you and a guest.  Additional tickets can also be purchased for $10.

Our student-athletes’ success is made possible because of what you do for all of our students.  That is why we will be recognizing all faculty and staff colleagues in attendance during a pre-game announcement prior to the national anthem.

Here are the details:

Green Bay Men’s Basketball vs. UW-Milwaukee
Thursday, February 5, 2015
7:00 p.m. at the Resch Center

(Tickets ordered by Monday, February 2, will be mailed via campus mail. Orders received after Monday, February 2, will be held at will call.)

To order the complimentary tickets:
http://www.greenbayphoenix.com/quest/Questionaire.dbml?QID=288621&DB_OEM_ID=22500

Gary L. Miller
Chancellor

Budget reductions and university autonomy

UW-Green Bay Chancellor Gary L. Miller released the following statement via e-mail to employees on Tuesday, January 27, 2015:

Colleagues,

You have no doubt by now learned of the Governor’s proposal to reduce funding for the University of Wisconsin System by $300 million in the coming biennium.  The Governor is also proposing to give the University considerably more flexibility in the future by placing it in a state authority.  In the coming days we will learn more about the details of both proposals.  For now, let me tell you what we know so far.

University Autonomy

I attach a document developed by the UW System office that gives the details of the UW System autonomy plan as it is now conceived. I am also attaching communication from President Cross and Regent President Falbo.  I encourage you to read these documents carefully.  Creating a University Authority has many advantages for UWGB and I support it, as do the other Chancellors.  Many details must be worked out before the proposed July 1, 2016 starting date.

Three key aspects of the plan are critically important. (1) Shared governance and tenure will be preserved and managed by the authority board as is the case in most other states.  (2) Employees would remain in the Wisconsin Retirement System. (3) The authority would manage employee compensation plans.

Budget Reductions

The Governor’s proposed budget reduction of $300 million, if approved, represents an enormous challenge for a system still responding to six years of budget reductions.  We do not yet know how the reduction will be allocated to the campuses or what processes we will have at our disposal to smooth the reductions over a period of years.  However, the reductions will have a significant effect on UWGB and the way in which we do business.  Responding to the reductions in the next several months will be a real test of our innovative spirit.

As I mentioned in my recent convocation speech, we will deploy shared governance, UPIC (the new University Planning and Innovation Council) and the university leadership at all levels in developing recommendations to manage the reductions.  After the Governor’s speech next week, the Provost will issue a detailed schedule of our deliberations including important milestones (e.g., spring Regent’s meetings and the fiscal year end).  The schedule will also include time for town-hall style meetings to encourage broad community discussion.

It is important to appreciate that our reduction strategy must place the university in the best position possible to grow and prosper in a new autonomous UW System.  A budget reduction of this size cannot be accommodated with across-the-board cuts or adjustments at the margins.  We will have to make very hard choices and undertake a reshaping of our strategy, operations and organization. We are at an important place in our history.

Thank you. I’ll keep you posted as we learn more about these proposals.

Gary L. Miller
Chancellor

Attachments

UW System statement re proposed budget Jan 27 (pdf)

Outline Governor Budget Proposal (pdf)

Mid-Year Convocation remarks

Jan. 22, 2015

The prepared text of Chancellor Miller’s Mid-Year Convocation remarks is as follows:

Thank you and welcome to the Mid-Term Convocation of the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay. And, most especially, welcome to the beginning of a new semester and exciting new year.

Let me begin by again congratulating those celebrating a service milestone with the University and add my congratulations to the others who have been honored this morning. Thank you for your great work! Continue reading Mid-Year Convocation remarks

Enrollment Drive Update

UW-Green Bay Chancellor Gary L. Miller sent the following message via e-mail to employees on Tuesday, January 13, 2015:

In November 2014, we began an initiative to focus on recruiting more local students to UWGB.  November and December were busy months for those who work in, and volunteered with, the Enrollment Drive.  A volunteer phone team made thousands of phone calls encouraging freshmen to apply to UWGB.  Application teams went into the high schools to help students fill out applications.  We sent thousands of emails and postcards, and hosted over 300 students for on campus visits.  All of these efforts are paying off.  We are currently seeing a 16% increase compared to last year’s freshmen applications, and a 12% increase in admissions.  This is great work.

But, our work is not done.  We are now shifting our focus, led by Jen Jones, to ensure that we see as many freshmen as possible enroll in our great institution.  We are also finding creative ways to encourage more transfer students to apply and enroll for the fall of 2015.  Jen is collecting and implementing ideas with the help of people all around campus.  I encourage you to reach out to her to see how you might be able to help.  I appreciate all the efforts so many of the campus community members have already put forth towards recruitment.  I look forward to celebrating with you as we achieve our goals.

Gary L. Miller
Chancellor