As the academic year draws to a close, an update on the activities and accomplishments of the Lake Winnebago Region Restructuring team throughout the past semester is below. The full update is divided into sections based on the eight major functional teams and their workgroups.

In brief, the teams and workgroups have made a great deal of progress toward uniting UW-Fond du Lac, UW Oshkosh and UW-Fox Valley since this process began late last year. Among the accomplishments are an integrated vision for the new university, a determination of departmental “homes” for UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac faculty, a high-level policy on integration of curricula, and a shared governance framework to guide development of a permanent representational structure.

Work will continue throughout the summer. The teams have established ambitious goals, many of which appear within the update. Please note, however, that significant academic decisions will continue to involve faculty, whose absence may necessarily defer some work associated with governance and academic affairs.

Throughout the summer, periodic updates will be provided on progress toward the restructuring of the UW-Fond du Lac, UW Oshkosh and UW-Fox Valley campuses. Future updates will likely be shorter and include information about decisions made as the process continues.

Summary of Progress and Ongoing Activities

Accomplished:

• Created integrated vision for the new university
• Established more than 40 workgroups focused on eight identified key functional areas associated with learning and working in the Lake Winnebago community
• Determined departmental “homes” of all UW-Fox Valley and Fond du Lac faculty
• Determined tenure and tenure-track status of all faculty will be preserved
• Determined probationary faculty on all three campuses will be evaluated for tenure using the criteria under which they were hired
• Drafted a shared governance framework to guide development of a permanent shared governance structure for 2019-2020
• Finalized an organizational chart for the new university that visually describes the relationships between the UW-Fond du Lac, UW Oshkosh and UW-Fox Valley campuses
• Created a plan to establish UW Oshkosh oversight of instruction at the branch campuses (i.e., hiring of branch administrator)
• Submitted a final recommendation on the future of UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac athletics
• Established an inclusive policy on integration of course catalogs

In Progress:

• Naming the new university
• Creating a restructuring “roadmap,” a customized project plan that assigns milestones and interdependencies to dates
• Creating new governance frameworks for branch campus students
• Filling regional employment vacancies and completing orientation of all new hires
• Determining criteria for merit evaluation, promotion, and post-tenure review of all faculty, and tenure of new hires across all campuses
• Continuing to make progress toward the integration of curriculum across the campuses, with a fulsome discussion scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year

New Development – Project Management Support:

• The Lake Winnebago team now has project management support from UW System
• The project management team is based on the UW-Oshkosh campus but will travel to UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley
• It has been performing a critical needs assessment for the past two weeks and will shift to priorities of the regional team lead in the coming weeks
• Among the services on offer are integrated project plan development, alignment of restructuring activities with the UW System critical path, and conduct data or other analyses

Academics

• Determined tenure and tenure-track status of all faculty will be preserved
• Determined probationary faculty on all three campuses will be evaluated for tenure using the criteria under which they were hired
• Established an inclusive policy on integration of course catalogs
• Continue to map student support services on all three campuses by operation, scope and funding source to find commonalities
• Continue to build lists of assumptions to be approved for how academics in 2018-2019 will work and of questions to be studied about how it will work in 2019-2020 and beyond
• Work has begun to determine the relationship between the UW Oshkosh University Studies Program general education and both the current and reimagined AAS degrees

Finance and Administration

Facilities Management

• Piloted the regional hiring process for a regional facilities management supervisor
• Engaged UW-Fox Valley Trustees on major facilities management projects
• Sustained momentum of ongoing facilities projects at UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac

Financial Services

• Helped delineate the vision and structure of the Lake Winnebago community post-July 1, 2018
• Helped shape the structuring of the Student Information System in 2019-2020
• Began discussions of alignment of budget model across the Lake Winnebago Region campuses

Human Resources

• Held a virtual town hall meeting for Lake Winnebago Region community employees
• Kicked off initial team meetings
• Drafted letters of intent and sent them to the UW System
• Facilitated the transmission of letters of intent to employees

Public Safety

• Met with Fond du Lac and Menasha Police chiefs to ascertain the history of the partnership with and current services to UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley
• Set up conference call with UW Police Chiefs regarding a proposal to unite under one RAVE notification system

Student Affairs

Admissions

• Pursued goal of creating a seamless admissions process for one university with three campuses
• Developed subgroups to tackle applications, marketing, recruiting, orientation
• Plan to continue to meet and examine questions and issues throughout the summer

Auxiliaries

• Developed a central list of auxiliary services on each campus
• Plan to continue to work toward a seamless integration of auxiliary services between all three institutions

Financial Aid

• Convened the team in April
• Developed timeline of critical activities—namely, those that involve the Department of Education guidelines and data transfer dates
• Set additional meetings on the UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley campuses in June
  Interventions
• Created subgroups to address issues related to Clery Act, conduct, crisis intervention and prevention
• Launched work of these subgroups

Services

• Collected general information about programs, services and funding across the Lake Winnebago Region campuses
• Scheduled additional meetings for the summer months

Student Organizations

• Held three meetings and scheduled a half-day meeting for June
• Identified critical questions about student registration, student organization funding, groups/activities across campuses and risk management

Information and Technology

• Held face-to-face meeting with participants from all campuses in the Lake Winnebago Region
• Developed IT and Technology Working Group charter, thereby determining the scope of work
• Outlined desired future state and resolved to dissolve the Operations Team
• Formulated service options based on recommendations from UW System Functional Team recommendations
• Reviewed these options and began voting on them
• Plan to collect votes and send them for review by Directors and CIO
• Plan to participate in technical briefing from Central IT Services in mid-June
• Are awaiting further recommendations from the UW System IT Functional Team
• Will begin identifying tasks and approximate timeline based on these recommendations and proposals raised in technical briefing
• Plan to work with Huron Consulting Group resources and other regional teams to identify task intersections and service needs of other teams

Governance

• Completed a plan for the inclusion of faculty, staff and students from UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac in UWO Governance for the 2018-2019 transition year
• Facilitated the election of additional Senators from UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley to the UW Oshkosh Senates
• Notified current and incoming Senate Presidents of incoming Senators
• Completed a comparative crosswalk of institutional policies of UW Oshkosh and UW Colleges
• Plan to use this crosswalk to inform the work of policy revision that will begin in the fall
• Collected recommendations from each functional team on committee membership after the transition year
• Plan to organize these recommendations for review by the Senates in the fall
• Expect recommendations in the next week on options for permanent governance structures to ensure representation from UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley after the transition year

Culture and Identity

Alumni

• Assessing existing alumni outreach on three campuses in the Lake Winnebago Region
• Working to identify opportunities presented by the joining of our campuses

Athletics

• Met with athletic directors from three campuses to review recent UW System decision on athletics at UW Colleges institutions
• Resolved that UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac will keep current mascots and team colors for 2018-2019

Naming

• Drafted proposals for U.S. Department of Education names for transcripts, financial aid, etc.
• Recommended modifications to tag lines for July 1
• Plan to submit recommendations to county executives and Board of Regents
• Continue to identify and evaluate possible naming options for the three-campus university
• Investigating opportunities for further stakeholder engagement
• Plan to complete a draft inventory of assets affected by any naming decisions
• Continue to gather case studies from other universities

Traditions

• Plan to continue to outline vision for celebrating and acknowledging the new university on July 2 (pending HLC approval)
• Preparing recommendations for fall 2018 Chancellor’s convocation message to all three campuses in the community
• Preparing recommendations for topics of fall opening meeting/retreat events at UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac
• Developing recommendations for continued Chancellor forums for faculty/staff and students on UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac campuses

Marketing and Branding

Emergency Communication

• Drafted list of activities to complete throughout the transition year
• Assigned sub-teams to examine functional areas that require significant commitment
• Examined and summarized current services at UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley
• Continue to assessing technology and templates within RAVE emergency alert systems on all three campuses
• Plan to develop media outreach and communication plans in the coming months

Marketing Services

• Drafted a list of activities to complete throughout the transition year
• Assigned sub-teams to examine functional areas that require significant commitment
• Examined and summarized current services at UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley
• Continue to build assessment and inventory marketing communications processes of all three campuses in the region
• Plan to begin prioritization of marketing services in the coming months

Media Relations

• Plan to create regionalized media lists
• Continue to flesh out a new media outreach plan encompassing the entire regional community
  Services
• Drafted a list of activities to complete throughout the transition year
• Assigned sub-teams to examine functional areas that require significant commitment
• Examined and summarized current services at UW-Fond du Lac and Fox Valley

Visual Brand

• Scheduled a kickoff meeting for mid-summer
• Plan to base branding discussions and decisions on naming decisions