January 20, 2006

President Wilson convened the SPBC meeting at 11:50 am in the Henning Room.

There was a brief discussion, led by the President, of whether or not the Strategic Plan ought to have a name other than "The Illinois Wesleyan University Strategic Plan."  Several suggestions were briefly considered, but none seemed to be completely appropriate.  Rather than devote too much time to the issue, the President asked committee members to think about the question and get back to him if anything appropriate occurred to them.

The President set the agenda for today's meeting by stating that we are about ready to go into the "production phase" of the strategic plan.  In other words, we have listened carefully at a number of forums to what faculty, students, staff, and trustees have had to say in response to the plan.  We now need to address the issues that were raised in these meetings, decide how to change our documents, and then present them to the full Board of Trustees at their February meeting.

The committee reviewed and discussed at some lengths the comments recorded from: the January 18th forum for staff; the January 19th forum open to all interested persons; the discussion by the faculty at their January 16th faculty meeting; the discussion by the trustees at the Executive Committee meeting on January 11th; and the student discussion in the Hansen Student Center on the evening of January 16th.  In each case, the SPBC carefully considered whether or not to modify the original plan.  In several cases, changes were made.  The President stated that the revised plan will be circulated soon to the IWU community.

The SPBC then went into "budget" mode.  Vice President Klotzbach circulated copies of the relevant parts of the university budget.  The committee was informed by President Wilson of some unanticipated costs of funding the recommendations of the Athletic Task Force.  This task force, formed by President Wilson in response to the accidental death of student Doug Schmied last summer, is recommending the following actions that will have budgetary consequences: that we increase the number of athletic trainers, both full-time and part-time and that we enhance equipment and supplies for athletic hydration and cooling.  There are other task force recommendations that will have no significant impact or negligible impact on the budget. The President told the committee that he would implement the recommendations of the task force as quickly as he can do so.

The Committee adjourned at 12:55 pm.

Distributed to faculty and staff 2/2/2006