Dear Colleague,

Last  Fall we talked about the importance of good communication.   We
agreed that we ought to try to schedule opportunities for as many as could
to engage in conversations about the challenges and opportunities facing
UTC as we serve the people of Tennessee.  We benefit from conversations
about mission.  We benefit from conversations about how others articulate
mission, what strategies they use to accomplish mission and goals, and how
they handle the fiscal squeeze that seems to affect all state budgets.  We
benefit from reviewing our fiscal priorities.

I am pleased to see several "speaker series" around the campus this Spring,
and I would ask your consideration of also joining when you could the
series I suggested last Fall.

On Tuesday, February 3, we have invited Dr. Rich Rhoda,  Executive Director
of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, to talk with us about what
the Commission has adopted as a "Plan of Action" for meeting higher
education's challenges in Tennessee.  He will be helpful in identifying
major interests of the Commission.  He will have just heard the Governor's
Budget proposal for 2005 the night before.  He will have just heard  UTC's
proposed Ph. D. in Computational Engineering the week before.  He is, of
course, very knowledgeable of UTC's various curricular and program review,
Geier Status, enrollment patterns, articulation, retention, etc.

We are assembling a good group of speakers who will be helpful for us as
they frame issues and offer examples of what they think higher education
faces.  Our job remains to determine how best UTC commits to mission and
figures out how to achieve what is achievable.

While I regret that I do not have the full slate of suggested speaker/dates
at this writing, I did want to give as much lead time as possible for next
Tuesday's conversation.  I hope several of us can grab some lunch from the
University Center cafeteria and move the Chickamauga Room at noon.  We will
have some light sandwiches and soft drinks in the Chickamauga.

Dr. Rhoda will speak at 12:15.  We will want to reserve some time to talk
with him and among ourselves from about 1:00 - 1:30.

I hope you will be able to join us.  These conversations may be useful to
us in several ways.  We will publicize the schedule of the remaining half
dozen conversations at the meeting on the 3rd.

Thanks,

Bill