UW-Milwaukee Strategic Plan Highlights Research Goals

UW-Milwaukee wants to advance and become a top-tier research university.

Faculty and staff gathered in the Union Ballroom to discuss the Strategic Plan that has been developed to do just that. UW-Milwaukee Interim Chancellor Mark Mone discussed the plan and the goals that such a plan looks to accomplish saying that it provides the necessary direction of the university and shows where the university is going and what the future holds.

“That was something that was endorsed campus-wide in 2011; to be, among other things, a top-tier research university that is the best place to learn and work for faculty, staff, students, and to be a driver of sustainable prosperity,” Mone said.

The Strategic Plan, which has been evolving for two years now, looks to generate discoveries and scholarly outcomes recognized within the global research community and that impact society both locally and globally.

When faculty and staff members voiced their opinions, many agreed that the goals laid out in the plan were well chosen and of great importance to the university; however, some saw problems when it came to the range and inclusiveness of the goals. Some thought that the goals were too focused on undergraduate students and did not include graduate students enough, whereas others thought that the goals did not include enough about cultural diversity of the university.

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Johannes Britz says that advancing to the height of a top-tier research university is going to be difficult, due in large part to funding.

“We want to be a top-tier research university; that’s our mission,” Britz says. “And it’s very challenging of course because we’re not really funded as a research university.” Britz suggests an increase in externally funded research expenditures to aid in the resolution of such funding issues.

The Strategic Plan details three other campus goals that the university has and those are as follows: To graduate highly skilled individuals at all levels, from undergraduate to doctoral; to deepen the positive impact of the university in the city and region through community and business partnerships; and lastly, to enhance a culture that embraces innovation, creativity, and diverse perspectives within an inclusive environment for all faculty, staff, and students.

Mone quickly tried to ease audience members’ concerns when he said that all input is welcomed and ways to include such input and suggestions would certainly be looked at.

The only other concern that was voiced from various faculty and staff members was the concern that the language of certain aspects of the plan were too confusing and not clear enough. Again Mone tried to ease the concerns by reminding those present that the plan was consistently being looked over by those considered to be experts in writing on campus.

“We did have some outside people who are professional writers take a look at this (Strategic Plan) and see how it read and what kind of coherency it had,” Mone said, “They weren’t working as much on the content as much as just the language and clarity of content.” Mone concluded the meeting by laying out the timeline for the strategic plan and the implementation of the plan.

There will be a meeting in November with academic staff and faculty senate to hopefully get endorsement of the plan from them. At the same time, there will be a smaller meeting during which they will identify who the coordinating team is going to be. Mone said that the university will have an initial pass at what the thematic implementation teams will look like by December. They also hope to have the coordinating team set by then.

January 2015 is when the university would like to launch the plan, have all groups receive their charge, and move ahead.