Goal 6: Expand and diversify the resources available to the College in order to achieve these goals.
The College of Arts and Sciences is dependent upon many different sources of revenue to support its mission, including tuition revenue, state appropriations, private philanthropy, and research grants. While the people of Colorado continue to recognize the value of the College's contributions to the intellectual, economic, and educational life of the state and nation, the allocation of resources to the University of Colorado and through the University to the College is not keeping pace with the needs of this institution. We feel that it is essential that the College not abandon its aspirations for its students because of fiscal exigency. It is therefore critical that the College intensify its efforts to disseminate broader understanding of the values of a liberal arts education to its many constituencies in order to generate the resources required to accomplish its goals in education. Towards that end we recommend the following objectives.
6.1 To represent the mission of the College of Arts and Sciences to the people of Colorado. Traditionally the electorate of the state of Colorado have been more supportive of this University and its College of Arts and Sciences than their elected representatives have been. The College should cultivate this base of support by increasing public awareness of the College's contributions and by sharing its expertise with our public constituencies.
- The College should encourage participation by departments in initiatives that bring members of the state community onto the campus to participate in the intellectual life of the institution and that take members of the faculty into areas of the state outside of Boulder. Faculty should be encouraged to participate in professional meetings that attract secondary school teachers and should be supported when they do so. The College should support efforts by academic units to attract extramural funding from entities such as the Carnegie Foundation, Ford Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts to build programs that foster collaboration between the College and the community of secondary school teachers and students whom we aspire to serve.
6.2 To increase faculty involvement in the development activities of the College. Members of the faculty are the principal point of contact with the College for individuals interested in supporting the institution. Alumni recall the bonds they formed with the teachers who provided them with a foundation for life. Other friends of the College are drawn into its orbit because of their interest in the teaching, research and creative activities of the faculty. It is the faculty who shape the curriculum and describe the College's priorities in research and creative work, and therefore it is the faculty who can best provide direction in the fundraising and development activities of the College.
- In collaboration with the Arts and Sciences Council, the Dean should establish a faculty advisory committee to work with development officers in the College and the University of Colorado Foundation. This committee should represent the broad interests of the College and should be responsible for communicating regularly with the Faculty through the Arts and Sciences Council.
6.3 To foster closer relationships with alumni/-ae and friends of the College. The strongest supporters of the College are those who know it best, the alumni who received their undergraduate and/or graduate degrees here. Not only do they assist the College with their donations, they represent the largest and most reliable base for generating understanding and support of the College's mission in the public arena.
- Every department in the College should communicate regularly with its alumni by newsletter. Production and mailing expenses should be included in the algorithm by which departmental operating budgets are calculated. The College should provide departments with technical support in design and production.
6.4 To improve the effectiveness of the University of Colorado Foundation in developing resources for the College from private sources. There is little prospect of increases in support for the College from public sources sufficient to accomplish its goals. Across the nation, public research universities are increasingly turning to private philanthropy to support their missions. The University of Colorado has also made significant strides in raising funds in the private sector, but progress has been slow and we still lag significantly behind other universities. Among the fourteen peer institutions selected by the CCHE, the University of Colorado ranks eighth in total support raised from private sources. This group does not include many institutions which we would consider more nearly our peers, such as the University of Wisconsin, UCLA, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and Indiana University, all of which have been far more successful than CU.
- A thorough, diagnostic review of the organization of the University of Colorado Foundation has recently been completed. Implementation of the reforms recommended by this review should be a high priority for the College and the campus. The College should cooperate with the Foundation to improve communication between the Foundation and its development officers on the one hand and faculty and academic units on the other.
6.5 To further elevate the standing of the College of Arts and Sciences in the budget priorities of the campus. The College of Arts and Sciences generates far more in revenues than it receives in allocations. While the specific figures are often disputed, this general truth is universally acknowledged. We recognize that there are constraints imposed upon other schools and colleges that arbitrarily limit their ability to generate revenues and we recognize that cross-subsidization is essential to maintaining the University's high standards across the campus. Nonetheless, it is apparent to us that the balance in the campus' budget priorities has shifted too far in a direction that impedes the development of the College. In recent years the College has been successful in garnering a more appropriate proportion of campus revenues. The centrality of the College to the University's mission and goals mandates further change in this direction.
- In implementing this Strategic Plan, the administrators of the College should make every effort to convince the campus administration that it is imperative for the development of the University that the College receive a increased share of incremental revenues. This Strategic Plan for the College of Arts and Sciences closely coincides with the Strategic Plan adopted by Academic Affairs. Our administrators must effectively demonstrate that the most efficient way for the campus to accomplish its collective goals is to support the College in implementing this plan.
