Content
Members Present: Bradshaw, Clarke, Combs, Cressler, Davis, Eklund, Gay, Hanrahan, Heng-Moss, Henson, Jemkur, Mueller, Nelson, Sharif, Tschetter, Van Den Wymelenberg, Wilkins
Members Absent: Button
Guests: Jason Casey, Director Institutional Effectiveness and Analytics; James Volkmer, Academic Affairs; Becky Zavala, AVC Office of Research and Innovation; Mike Zeleny, VC Business & Finance
Note: These are not verbatim minutes. This is a summary of the discussions at the Academic Planning Committee meeting as corrected by those participating.
1.0 Call
Cressler called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
2.0 Election of Vice Chair
Cressler reported that Gay and Hanrahan have agreed to run for election to become Vice Chair. He noted that Griffin will send out an electronic poll tomorrow for Committee members to vote.
3.0 Approval of August 20, 2025 Minutes
Cressler noted that the minutes are a briefer overview of the meeting due to the confidentiality of the discussions pertaining to the budget reductions. He pointed out that it can become difficult to discern whether comments made during the meeting break confidentiality. Clarke stated that she believes that members should have the option of asking that their comments be included in the minutes and moved that we have this option which is similar to when people ask to make comments off the record. Bradshaw seconded the motion. Hanrahan asked if the committee would need to vote on a comment should it seem confidential. Clarke suggested that people should be able to say they have an objection to a comment being recorded in the minutes. Davis pointed out that there are already complicated rules for the budget reductions but he is fine with giving this suggestion a try although the APC needs to see if this procedure becomes too cumbersome and bogs the work of the committee down. The majority of the APC voted to approve this procedure.
Van Den Wymelenberg reported that he had three suggested comments to add to the August 20 minutes, and he did not think they broke confidentiality. After some discussion, Van Den Wymelenberg retracted his comments.
Nelson noted the last paragraph needed a correction needed to be made in the last paragraph about remissions. The minutes were approved by the APC.
4.0 Budget Reduction Process
The APC members then began an in-depth discussion with Director Casey, AVC Volkmer, AVC Zavala, and VC Zeleny about the metrics that were used to help determine academic unit budget reductions. There was agreement to have more detailed explanations and justification for the reduction provided to the committee for each program elimination prior to the next APC meeting.
Discussions occurred about the timeline for the APC to make decisions in order to provide its recommendations to the Chancellor. The committee then began discussion on the format for the public hearings agreeing that there should be a hybrid approach combining online feedback with limited in-person testimony while also providing a webinar. The committee also talked about how the budget reduction plan should be released during the week of September 8th.
The meeting adjourned at 5:09 p.m. The next meeting of the APC will be on Wednesday, September 3, 2025. The minutes are respectfully submitted by Karen Griffin, Coordinator.