September 1, 2026 Executive Committee Minutes

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES

Present:          Baesu, Gorman, Gruverman, James, Leiter, Lewis, Pierobon, Reddi, Reimer, Robison, Shrader, Timmerman, Tschetter

Absent:           Gruverman

Date:               Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Location:         Nebraska Union, Platte River Room

Note:   These are not verbatim minutes.  They are a summary of the discussions at the Executive Committee meeting as corrected by those participating.

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1. Call (Leiter)

Leiter called the meeting to order at 4:31 p.m.

2.0       Announcements 

            2.1       Upcoming Executive Committee Meetings

            Griffin reported that Professor Hempel, Chair of the Information Technologies and Services Committee, will be meeting with the Executive Committee on September 15 to discuss the ChatGPT enterprise.  And on October 20^th, Professor Bradshaw, Chair of the Academic Planning Committee, will meet with the Executive Committee to provide an update on the work of the APC.   

            2.2       UNL/UNMC Summit “Enhancing Partnerships in Education and Research”

            Leiter reported that he will attend the September 30^th summit meeting between UNL/UNMC as the Faculty Senate representative and Professor Bradshaw will attend as the APC representative.   

            2.3       State of the University Address

            Reimer pointed out that President Gold would be giving the State of the University address on Thursday, September 3^rd in the State Capitol rotunda.  She noted that it would be livestreaming and encouraged the Executive Committee members to view it. 

3.0       Approval of August 25, 2026 Minutes

Leiter asked if there were any revisions to the minutes.  Hearing none he asked for approval of the minutes.   Reimer moved and Shrader seconded approval of the minutes.   The minutes were approved by the Executive Committee.   

4.0       Unfinished Business

            4.1       Proposed Motion to Establish an Online Portal to Hear Faculty Concerns

Leiter noted that the motion, as written by Gorman, reads “that the Executive Committee establish an online portal through which the Committee may receive faculty concerns and suggested solutions and direct the President to oversee its implementation and technical operation.”  Reimer moved to accept the motion which was then seconded by Reddi.   Reimer questioned whether the motion should be amended to read Faculty Senate President and moved for this amendment.   Reddi seconded the motion.   

The Committee then began discussion about the technicalities of how the portal should be made available to the faculty, whether it should be sent out through Qualtrics or whether there should be a link on the Faculty Senate webpage where faculty members could submit their concerns at any time.   

Griffin noted that the motion needed to be voted on.   The Executive Committee approved the motion and agreed that the technicalities would be discussed at upcoming meetings. 

5.0       New Business

5.1       Agenda Items for Interim Chancellor Ankerson, EVC Button, VC Heng-Moss

Griffin noted that Interim Chancellor Ankerson wanted to discuss several items including valuing the service work that faculty do, the ChatGPT enterprise, the contract with Deloitte, and updating the UNL Bylaws. The Executive Committee identified the following agenda items for the ELT:

The contract with Watermark for use of Activity Insight used for evaluations is set to expire this year.   Will the administration want to consolidate what program is used to gather information on faculty performance?  Will there be faculty input for the purchase of another program and how might it intersect with academic analytics?

           What is the hiring priority for replacing faculty who took the VSIP, particularly those who taught undergraduate courses?  In some units, faculty are being asked to teach four and five courses a semester.  How will we meet the student demand for courses?

            Is there a system-wide plan to take an approach to silo different disciplines to one campus?  For instance, all engineering courses would be taught by UNO, all of the arts programs would be taught at UNL. 

            Were you aware when the budget reductions were under consideration last year that UNO would be offering an undergrad statistics program? 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:02 p.m.  The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 2:30 pm.  The minutes are respectfully submitted by Karen Griffin, Coordinator and Ann Tschetter, Secretary.