Mone to Focus on Moving UWM Forward

Lovell’s leave date was moved up, and officials said they hope to have a new permanent chancellor in place by the start of 2015.

“This is no time to take our foot off the gas pedal, in fact, if we let off at all, we will fall behind, we will not be able to stay in the all competitive race we have today on research, on our student success on a number of different fronts,” said Mone in his opening comments.

Students, staff, and faculty gathered in the crowded Alumni Fireside Lounge at the UWM Student Union to watch the naming of the university’s interim chancellor. UWM selected Former chancellor Michael Lovell announced his plans to leave the position for Marquette University last month.

Mone has been a member of the UW-Milwaukee staff since 1989. Mone is a professor at the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business of UW-Milwaukee, where he teaches organizations and strategic management courses. Mone has also served as the associate dean for Executive Education and Business Engagement for the Lubar School of Business for the past 15 years.

The desire to keep the university moving forward despite Lovell’s decision to leave was the main message presented to the audience by both UW System President Ray Cross and Mone. In the interim period, Cross and Mone also hope to maintain the relationships that UWM has with the Milwaukee community and tackle any challenges which may arise or are currently present.

“What’s extremely important to realize is that none of the agenda projects, initiatives, or relationships can afford any downtime. This university and all of these activities are on an upward trajectory. We are going up and we need to keep going up,” Cross added.

Mone presented a platform, which he called Moving Forward Together during his speech to the audience. Mone said the platform consists of four main areas, which he hopes to tackle during the interim period in order to make the transition to a new chancellor much smoother.

The first area Mone discussed was how important it is to implement the strategic plan of UWM. “Our strategic plan has at its core the goal of making UWM a top tier research university, the best place to learn, work, and to really engage in building on our academic plans that every school and college has contributed,” Mone said.

The second area Mone targeted was the desire to stabilize enrollments. Mone said that enrollments “enhance the quality of our educational experience.” Mone expressed his desire to continue the work Chancellor Lovell began during his tenure, which centered on enrollment management, which Mone stated he would look at “critically and carefully.”

The third piece that Mone brought up during his speech was the need to further engage the community through the research education and service activities at UWM. “Our faculty research has global impact. That’s a huge community,” Mone said.

Resources were the last topic Mone touched on. Mone said there needs to be deliberate attention on the issue. Mone identified three different areas that are in dire need of resources salary, UWM’s base budget and GPR sources, and the confidence campaign. Mone referred to Vision 2020, the role which scholarships and endowments play into UWM.

“We specifically need to identify and obtain in as a creative manner as we can, both internally and externally, new resources for the different types of efforts we are pursuing,” Mone said. “Clearly, if we move forward together, we just have a lot more power, and a lot more solidarity in thinking about where we can go.”

Both Lovell and Cross expressed their confidence in the abilities of Mone. “I know Mark is going to be successful in large part because of the support of faculty, staff, and students. By all of us working together during this period, moving forward together if you will, I know we’ll also be moving upward,” Cross said.

“I have absolute confidence in Mark’s ability to keep UWM moving forward. I have worked very closely with Mark for the last three years, and what I’ve seen in him is that he is a servant leader, and he will serve this campus very well,” Lovell said.

Ray Cross stated that the search for a permanent replacement for Lovell is underway and that they have been taking recommendations and hope to have a new chancellor by January 1.

Lovell will officially leave the university by May 31 to serve as the first lay president of Marquette University located in Milwaukee. Lovell cited his Catholic faith as the reason for his decision to resign from UW-Milwaukee. Lovell will officially become Marquette’s president Aug. 1 of this year.