Office of the Chancellor > State of the Campus Address 2004

State of the Campus Address
September 28, 2004

To make our vision for quality a reality, we need to take a hard look at the obstacles we are facing. The question is, how are we going to meet our mission without sufficient resources? It's becoming increasingly clear that the old funding model won't work.

Let me share some facts with you, as illustrated on a few slides. First, let's look at how we compare with our peers in terms of total revenues.

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Next, let's look at the current cost of a quality education at CU-Boulder.

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Next, let's review how we compare with our peers nationwide in terms of tuition and fees.

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So, how do we bridge the resource gap?

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To start, we propose a comprehensive plan to increase resources from all sources, including from endowments and private gifts, doubling that income over the next few years.

We have to be considerably more entrepreneurial, especially in regard to executive education, summer school and technology transfer.

The consumers of higher education — students and their families — must shoulder a larger share of the cost. A college degree is a tremendously valuable investment, and our job is to help our students plan for and reap the most benefits from the educational experience. It's important that we engage our constituents, including students, in a serious dialogue about the future of higher education — and who's going to pay for it.

We strongly believe the state must continue to support higher education — and should increase that support to the levels received in Fiscal Year 2000. But we also must develop a long-term, multi-year strategy to obtain the necessary resources for achieving the quality needed as the flagship research university campus in Colorado.

Because public policy and financing of higher education have changed, we will have to organize and function differently. We must look at proportionate resources in a different way.

Although we are part of a university system, CU-Boulder has different and unique challenges as the flagship university. We need to consider multiple models that could help us to meet those challenges and reach our goal of enhancing quality.

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