Last month, Chancellor Gary Miller announced the formation of the University Innovation Council, which he hopes will provide a space for administrators, faculty and students to brainstorm ideas on keeping UNCW competitive. With few specific mandates handed down from the Chancellor’s office, the group will primarily serve as a think-tank for helping UNCW to evolve with the world around it. According to Miller, the idea for the council came less from our school’s economic pressures, and more from the success of similar councils founded on other campuses.

 While initial reports on the innovation council included some degree of student representation, the roster currently listed on the council’s web page includes just four faculty members and nine campus administrators. In an interview, Miller stressed that this was not intended to be a representational group, but rather an evolving membership of people who feel comfortable working together.

 After meeting for the second time this past Monday, the members have begun to shape the contours of the committee. According to Dr. Len Lecci, a professor in UNCW Department of Psychology who serves on the council, they have begun to form two central subcommittees for the council. One will be tasked with helping to create innovations and providing ways in which students, faculty and administrators on campus can introduce suggestions. The other is charged with vetting those ideas, looking into the feasibility and possible impacts such policy moves would entail. This latter group will likely be supported by a technical workgroup made up of administrators to offer specific suggestions and critiques, and the University Budget Committee will also be on hand to crunch the numbers and determine the costs or savings associated with the ideas.

 In explaining the influence of the two administration-based support groups, Miller stressed that he wants the innovation council to be free to explore larger, more expansive ideas rather than become entangled in the nuts and bolts of day-to-day campus operations.

 “This is not a normal committee,” Miller said. “I’m not charging it to produce any specific outcomes.” However, Miller noted that he was encouraging their reports and recommendations to coincide with the annual budget cycles.

 The council is essentially free of an explicit framework, as the chancellor chose members based primarily on who showed an interest, and is now trying to allow them maneuvering space to figure out a format that works best for them. He hopes that the group will eventually evolve its own momentum, though he stressed three areas of focus for moving the campus forward as it grows: “big data,” mobile technology and globalization.

 Miller said during an interview that he believes UNCW does a good job preparing students for a global economy but kept his comments relatively abstract regarding the other two focal points. What he calls “big data” mainly involves collecting and mining the myriad forms of data available today, and he said he would like to see the council try to incorporate its growing role in modern business and education. Regarding mobile technology, he said that the proliferation of smart phones and the way they are changing how people communicate is something that universities need to understand and learn to use to their advantage.

 Overall, however, the chancellor hopes the members of the council will feel free to let their imaginations run. “Maybe at the end of the year one of the council’s innovations will be that we don’t need an innovation council,” joked Miller.