Office of the Chancellor > Campus Stragetic Planning > The Quality for Colorado Plan

Quality for Colorado: An Investment in Students and the State

The University of Colorado at Boulder proposes a partnership among students, parents, and the state of Colorado, and the university to invest in students while supporting the economic vitality of Colorado. Colorado is growing in importance nationally and internationally as a quality place to live and as a center for intellectual and economic vitality. To ensure our competitiveness in the global economy, it is in the best interest of Colorado to support a world-class research university. An outstanding university campus has a profound impact on Colorado's ability to attract, retain, and educate the best people, maintain and add well-paying jobs, and sustain a high quality of life, in part, through discovery, innovation, and the exploration of new ideas. In addition, we want to keep our best young people in Colorado, attending Colorado institutions, to provide the leadership and educated workforce for Colorado's future. This is critical to the state's future, both economically and to maintain an affordable top-tier college choice for well-prepared Colorado high school graduates.

To meet these goals we propose to emphasize "quality growth" rather than enrollment growth.

Specifically, the Boulder campus proposes to:

• Reduce or stabilize the size of the entering freshman class to between 4,600 and 4,950 students, to ensure a quality campus experience and stabilize enrollment at or near current levels. This is consistent with indications from the Board of Regents, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE), and some legislators that the Boulder campus should not be considered a significant "enrollment growth" campus.
  
  
• Improve the average academic preparation of entering freshmen by limiting admitted students with CCHE admission indices below 103 to no more than 15 percent of total admits (vs. the 20 percent currently allowed by CCHE standards). We will continue to ensure access to well-prepared students by guaranteeing admission to the top 10 percent of each Colorado high school's graduating class and by continuing to guarantee admission to additional Colorado high school graduates who meet published high school performance, test score, and curricular standards. Additional financial aid and our continuing precollegiate programs aimed at preparing and enrolling first generation students and students of color will both help ensure access.
  
  
• Increase the amount of institutional financial aid to neutralize the special tuition increase for resident students with demonstrated financial need and to increase available aid for additional need-based and merit scholarships. This additional aid will enhance accessibility.
  
  
• Invest in the undergraduate learning experience by committing additional revenues to undergraduate-specific programs, such as internships, academic advising, and improving high enrollment courses. Bring more undergraduate students into our thriving research enterprise, using new methods of team-based investigations.
  
  
• Invest in academic areas of high demand and national distinction by recruiting and retaining the best teaching and research faculty possible in these areas, to enhance quality, improve reputation, and increase the value of a CU-Boulder degree.
  
  
• Increase enrollment of graduate and upper-division transfer students by providing competitive support for graduate students and earmarked scholarships for high-achieving graduates of Colorado community colleges.
  
  

To muster the resources to carry out our plan, we propose:

• An increase in tuition for all students — resident and nonresident, graduate and undergraduate — by $1,200 per academic year over inflation, phased-in over four years ($300 each year). This will bring resident tuition to the peer average and help us obtain the resources necessary to maintain and enhance quality. Currently, in-state tuition is well below that of similar institutions in the nation. CU-Boulder's tuition charges are 27th out of 32 U.S. public universities in the Association of American Universities.
  
  
• A change in the state funding model for CU-Boulder. Replace the allocation of state tax dollars based on an enrollment funding formula with a block grant that increases at inflation plus an annual increment related to quality. This will allow us to focus on quality rather than purely on enrollment growth.
  
  
• Private fundraising. The Total Learning Environment (TLE) campaign, which started in 1996, had raised $237 million for the Boulder campus through August 2001. TLE-campaign and previously donated funds have supported the establishment of 16 endowed chairs through May 2001.
  
  

The Quality for Colorado proposal was approved on September 6, 2001, by the University of Colorado Board of Regents. It will be considered by the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Higher Education, with members from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and the Colorado General Assembly. The plan ultimately must be approved by the General Assembly as part of the omnibus budget bill.