Minutes of February 21, 2005 Meeting

	The meeting convened at 2:04 p.m. in room 817, Cathedral of 
Learning.

	UPBC members present were: Livingston Alexander, Nicholas Bircher, 
Stephen Carr, Jerome Cochran, Richard Colwell, N. John Cooper, David 
DeJong, Ronald Larsen, James Maher, Maureen McClure, and Arthur Ramicone.  
Also present were: Jeffrey Liebmann, William Madden, Robert Pack, and Paul 
Supowitz.
	UPBC members not present were: James Alexander, Carolyn Carson, 
Mary Ann Caton, Christine Dollaghan, Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob, Carol 
Hodgkiss, Rakshiet Jain, Brian Kelly, Arthur Levine, Thomas Metzger, 
Michael Stuckart, Stephen Wisniewski, and Thomas Wolf.

Approval of Minutes and Report of the Provost

	The minutes of the December 9 meeting were approved.  The Provost 
discussed the schedule of upcoming meetings with the Legislature regarding 
FY 2006 appropriations.

Presentation on University Strategic Issues

	Maher provided the Committee with a presentation on strategic 
planning implementation for academic programs of the University.  He began 
with a brief discussion of the overall University mission and the core 
academic values that govern its programs.  These core values include: 
educating the whole person; intellectual excellence and growth; teamwork; 
engagement with the community; and diversity.  Maher summarized the 
academic vision guiding the University as being the best it can be by 
building on its strengths, including high quality students, faculty 
research, and the interdisciplinarity made possible by an urban location.  
He discussed externally-imposed constraints and the University's current 
position among the top public research universities in the United States.

	Maher then provided data showing the dramatic improvements at the 
University in the past 10 years, including information on the 
characteristics of incoming freshmen, freshman acceptance rates, student 
retention and graduation rates, library resources, and research 
expenditures.  He outlined seven key strategic academic goals for the 
future, including:

-- Become one of the nation's top 25 research universities.
-- Offer truly superb undergraduate experiences in a research 
university of nationally recognized stature.
-- Nurture a world-class environment which results in increased 
sponsored research and scholarly and creative output.
-- Strategically develop areas of excellence in collaborative 
research scholarship.
-- Take advantage of the academic opportunities available in an urban 
environment.
-- Become engaged with external constituencies with whom we have 
common goals and interests.
-- Expand global focus by increasing international study and research 
opportunities. 

	The meeting adjourned at 4:02 p.m.