Content
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES
Present: Gorman, Gruverman, James, Leiter, Lewis, Pierobon, Reddi, Reimer, Robison, Shrader, Timmerman, Tschetter
Absent: Baesu
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Location: 201 Canfield Administration Building
Note: These are not verbatim minutes. They are a summary of the discussions at the Executive Committee meeting as corrected by those participating.
______________________________________________________________________
- Call (Leiter)
Leiter called the meeting to order at 2:31 p.m.
2.0 Interim Chancellor Ankerson/EVC Button/VC Heng-Moss
2.1 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?
EVC Button reported that most of the use of Activity Insight is being phased out and largely it is only being utilized in two colleges. He stated that the consensus is that the expense of the program is not worth it and this is a relevant time to end the contract. He noted that there is no current plan to consolidate or create a common program for the campuses to use.
EVC Button stated that at the system level there is consideration for developing an enterprise resource planning system, and an assessment will be made of how finance, human resources, and student processes and systems operate today. He noted that the goal will be to modernize our systems, but it will take approximately a year or two to get it up and running. He pointed out that anything that would be in the domain of creating a shared database across our campus that would coordinate faculty annual reports or promotion and tenure processes would need to be aligned within the new ERP system. He stated that the faculty would need to be intimately involved in developing and viewing anything that might be a common shared approach to gathering faculty data.
VC Heng-Moss reported that IANR transitioned from using Activity Insight in 2025 and shifted to faculty submitting a document stating what their goals and accomplishments were for the year and focusing on what their goals are for the next year. She noted that faculty also submit impact reports, one for each of the faculty member’s apportionment areas or one that describes impacts that cut across all apportionment areas. She indicated that faculty with Extension appointments also submit PEARS report – Program Evaluation and Reporting System (PEARS). She pointed out that the move away from Activity Insight was informed by feedback from the faculty. She noted that IANR is still working across mission areas to determine how best to collect all the data needed for federal reporting by ARD and Extension.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson reported that there have been meetings with the Deloitte consultants who are working with the system office to develop an RFP for an enterprise resource planning system. She stated that in order for this to be done, more information needs to be gathered about the human resources, business and finance, and student systems that we have. She stated that a survey will be sent to mostly staff to gather information about what is working well with the current system in these areas and where there needs to be improvement. She reported that she questioned the consultants whether faculty would receive the surveys as well and she pointed out that she submitted some faculty’s names but will follow up with VP Barnes and AVP Watts about this. She stated that the purpose of the surveys is to gain a big enough understanding of what we need to move forward to develop an RFP and pointed out that the ERP would streamline processes across the system.
2.2 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? How is it that we are still waiting on strategic hiring approvals when UNO posted a position for a Music professor two days ago?
EVC Button reported that hiring priorities are set in coordination between units, colleges, the Vice Chancellors, and with approval from the Chancellor. He noted that the priorities come out of the reflection that our missions are diverse and they include providing outstanding education and timely degrees. The degree pathway for our students includes outstanding research and creative activity, along with the many other incredible things that our faculty do. He pointed out that there is a balancing between important mission-critical areas and identifying what those priorities are, and there are numerous conversations and partnerships to reach these decisions.
EVC Button stated that we meet student demands in many different ways, and the academic administration handles this through tenure line or professor of practice permanent hires, or it could be met through temporary hires. He pointed out that overloads for faculty are not ideal and is an option that is infrequently utilized. Gorman asked if it is true that there are faculty members teaching four or five courses. EVC Button stated that he is not aware of anyone who would have these many courses as overload assignments, and all overloads must be approved by the EVC and Chancellor. A four-course load per semester as part of a standard teaching apportionment (lecturer or practice faculty) is not uncommon. VC Heng-Moss stated that in IANR, the number of courses depends on a faculty member’s apportionment noting that IANR does not have standardized apportionments with some faculty members having 80% teaching and 20% research which could impact how much someone teaches. Interim Chancellor Ankerson pointed out that some courses may be one- or two-credit hour courses. EVC Button stated that the administration takes the responsibilities of fiscal stewardship seriously and conversations with the colleges about strategic hiring have been thorough and due diligence is exercised as every strategic hiring plan is assessed. He reported that the plan is to finish executing all of the few remaining strategic hiring plans by the end of the week.
Reimer asked if the EVC can translate what execute on the hiring plans means in actual activity. EVC Button stated that it means that an assessment of the finances and resources to meet the obligations of the strategic hiring has been conducted by his office and considered by the Chancellor. The plans are returned to the deans and the units, and each specific position in the plan will either receive authorization or not.
VC Heng-Moss reported that IANR’s hiring cycle occurs year-round, and as a result, there are specific guidelines for the process which starts with the units engaging with the faculty to identify what the unit’s priorities are. Once identified the strategic hiring priorities are elevated up to the three deans for consideration.
Gorman asked for clarification on the hiring terminology. For instance, what is a strategic priority as opposed to a non-strategic priority. EVC Button stated that colleges are invited to identify their strategic priorities, but they must provide data to show that the need to fill this position is critical and whether it aligns with the broader university goals. Interim Chancellor Ankerson pointed out that the newly created Our Bold Path Forward strategic plan is for the next three years and the campus worked collectively to identify our strategic priorities. She noted that the deans all know that they must have a strategic plan. Gorman stated that some faculty think strategic hiring is special hiring, not regular hiring. Reimer stated that initially when strategic hiring was being discussed it was for hiring people who could teach in multiple areas and this idea has conflated to what strategic hiring means now. She pointed out that the hiring terminology that’s common at the administrative level, is not being translated down to the units.
2.3 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.
Reimer stated that the news that UNO was creating a statistics program after UNL has eliminated that statistics department has led some faculty members to question whether there is a plan to move certain disciplines to specific campuses. Interim Chancellor Ankerson reported that she is unaware of any system-wide approach to siloing teaching. She stated that approximately five years ago, the reporting was outdated regarding programs, and it needed to be cleaned up because it made it look like there were identical programs on the campuses, and names may have been similar, when they were not because each campus has unique characteristics and missions, developing graduates for varying positions. She stated that the CAOs had fruitful discussions and were able to update the computer system to clarify the differences.
EVC Button reported that program proposals from each of the campuses come up to the CAOs and the UNO statistics program did not go to the CAOs until June 3rd of this year. He noted that he expressed concerns about how the creation of the UNO program would be viewed after UNL decided to eliminate the statistics department. He pointed out that UNL will continue to offer statistics as an option through Mathematics in CAS as well with advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in collaboration with expertise in IANR.
Shrader asked if the provost provided information prior to the June 3rd meeting that the UNO statistics proposal would be coming forward. He pointed out that the optics of this look bad. He questioned why we offer some of the same programs at every campus when our budget is continually getting reduced, and wouldn’t it be better to be more efficient. Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that these kinds of conversations should be asked. VC Heng-Moss pointed out that any secondary education degree credential offered by a public institution must have approval of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, and when you add in programs from the state colleges, there are even more duplications.
2.4 Open Discussion Session
Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that the value of a college degree is being questioned nationwide by some people in the public and it is well known that higher education is under attack. She reported that UNL is working to help educate the people of the value of UNL and the impact that we have on the state and its communities and our economic impact. She noted that Scott Silversten is now the Chief Communication and Marketing Officer for UNL. She reported that he previously served as Associate Vice President for communications and marketing at Florida Atlantic University and has a wealth of experience. She stated that he is working on plans to help people understand how much the university is impacting the state and how every $1 that the state invests into the university generates $10 for the state.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson reported that there was an NSRI showcase this morning where Senator Fischer, Admiral Correll, General Evans of NSRA, President Gold, and many state senators attended. She stated that our faculty did a marvelous job showcasing the different research projects that they are working on and the Senator, Admiral, and General were going from table to table to talk with the faculty members about their research projects.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson noted that she was at East Campus handing out donuts and coffee to people and stated that she would be doing the same on City Campus. She pointed out that it was really enjoyable to talk with faculty, staff, and students and they were walking through the union.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson reported that our residence halls are 98% full, housing 5,710 people, which is an indication that students really want the on-campus experience of college life.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that this afternoon the raising of a steel beam for the renovation of the Lied Center will occur. She pointed out that this has been a $35 million project that was funded by private donors. She noted that in another week the statute of Louise Pound will be installed.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson reported that she is planning to have quarterly leadership meetings pointing out that there was a summer leadership retreat in June. She stated that the plan is to expand the retreat from 100 to 150 people, and rather than a townhall style meeting, she is planning a round table discussion so people will be more engaged and ideas and thoughts can be shared. She noted that these retreats will be about two hours long and the first one will be Tuesday, October 13th in the Nebraska Union. She stated that January 27 or 29th is being considered for another session and it will be held in the East Campus Union. In June 2027, she stated that there will be a full-day retreat.
Chief of Staff Gonzales reported that he attended the Information Technologies and Services Committee retreat on Friday where the main topic of discussion was the ChatGPT enterprise. He noted that the faculty on the ITSC were very vocal about having some kind of education like a Bridge training session where the user could earn GPT credits, and users could request more information if needed. He pointed out that not all students or faculty will be utilizing ChatGPT.
Pierobon stated that he appreciates the effort to democratize and to have a little control on the use of AI on campus and noted that he has been advocating for this. He wanted to provide some feedback as he is one of the first users of the ChatGPT EDU license. He noted that he and one of his students took the course which he found to be extremely informative, but he has concerns with how UNL users are being asked to use it, especially the part where the course says that it can be used for personal purposes, but in doing this, everything the user does will be monitored. In fact, he stated, the user can book their next vacation using the program, but the vacation would be monitored.
Pierobon reported that there is also a technical problem which can have serious repercussions not only for the user, but for UNL. He stated that after finishing the course he was given his certificate and then Angie Rushman from Information Technologies Services invited him through an email to be part of the EDU workspace which he accepted. He noted that he has a private account with ChatGPT and for simplicity, when he set it up he used his unl.edu email address, but when he accepted the enterprise ChatGPT, he immediately went into his private account to change his email address to his private email address but could not make the change. He reported that he notified Angie Rushman, Coordinator, Emerging Technologies, of the problems and she immediately removed him from the EDU workspace. Once this was done, he went into his private ChatGPT, and it showed that he could change his email but after entering his private email he received a message that there was an error. He stated that he received an email message from ChatGPT that says that because he was put into the UNL ChatGPT EDU workspace, his address went into an EDU-verified domain and could be found in OpenAI and Virtual Box, and he could not make it private. He stated that ChatGPT told him he would have to either cancel his private account and that he would have to download everything from his original account, and he could not recreate a new account from scratch with a personal email but he could merge his private account with the ChatGPT EDU workspace which he does not want to do for privacy reasons. Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that this problem would be elevated to CIO Haugerud.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that the President’s Council reviewed the revised Executive Memorandum 44 Sexual Misconduct Minimum Training Standards, which has been in development for a while now. She stated that originally the in-person training was a requirement but the reality of trying to get so many students to take the in-person training is a real problem and this part of the policy has been removed. She stated that there has been discussion about an umbrella AI policy that would allow the campuses to fit underneath it, but anything additional needs to be created by the colleges of campuses. She stated that it would be difficult to have one specific system-wide policy because things are evolving so quickly in this area.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson reported that we have an upcoming HLC campus visit on October 4th and 5th and the HLC requires a landing page that contains the overall mission, a short description of both UNL and UNMC, and other information. She noted that some of the wording on the landing page is still being considered so we can really differentiate ourselves.
EVC Button reported that there has been a lot of coordination and communication between Global Affairs, Graduate Studies, and every impacted college unit across the university about who should be talking with F1 international visa students and J1 scholars and the changes that are occurring. He noted that there is a FAQ page on the ISSO website International Student and Scholar Office | Global Nebraska | Nebraska. He stated that there are changes both in the curriculum training as well as a change of duration status that are expected to go into effect on September 15. He pointed out that this is a very complicated and fast-moving area and suggested that if a faculty member has a concern about a student or the student is seeking advice, have them speak with the ISSO because they have experts on these changes and they are meeting directly with students. He reported that AVC Hope of Graduate Studies is meeting with students as well.
Chief of Staff Gonzales noted that the UNL/UNMC summit on September 30, will have about 100 people in attendance to explore opportunities for collaboration and also to identify obstacles for collaboration. He stated that this is a very intro level collaboration and the hope is to have more frequent communication between the two campuses. He stated that many faculty and staff will be in attendance.
EVC Button stated that he would like to meet with the Executive Committee to discuss and allow the Committee to review the revised program indicators. He noted that he will be asking the APC to dedicate time to discuss this as well.
3.0 Announcements
No announcements were made.
4.0 Approval of September 1, 2026 Minutes
Leiter asked if there were any revisions to the minutes. Hearing none he asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Shrader moved and Tschetter seconded approval of the minutes. Motion approved unanimously.
5.0 Unfinished Business
5.1 Finalizing Executive Committee Goals
Leiter asked if any revisions were needed on the Executive Committee goals. The members agreed that the goals were finalized. Reddi asked if these would be shared with the full Faculty Senate and Griffin noted that they would be on the October 6th Senate meeting agenda.
5.2 Figure out how best to create an online portal for faculty comments/concerns
Item is postponed until next week.
6.0 New Business
6.1 AI Institute
The Executive Committee agreed to meet with the directors of the AI Institute. Reddi moved to have the AI Institute collaborate with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee as soon as possible because the Committee has grave concerns about the security and privacy of AI systems of the university. James seconded the motion. The Executive Committee approved the motion unanimously.
6.2 Future Executive Committee Agenda
The Executive Committee agreed to speak with Interim Chancellor Ankerson about Athletics, particularly about Athletics’ request to have a conference center and hotel near the stadium.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m. The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at 2:30 pm. The minutes are respectfully submitted by Karen Griffin, Coordinator and Ann Tschetter, Secretary.