Office of the Chancellor > State of the Campus Address 2004

State of the Campus Address
September 28, 2004

At CU-Boulder, our plan is to improve quality, with the resources available, by recruiting and retaining outstanding and diverse faculty and students, enhancing undergraduate education, improving our graduate programs, and investing selectively in our infrastructure.

We know that to remain competitive, we need to make strategic investments. I'd like to highlight three specific areas targeted for investment: the first-year experience, graduate and professional education, and enhanced academic quality.

Students need to feel a sense of community, especially in the first year — and if they don't find it, they will leave. We've seen the benefits of smaller programs in terms of student retention and success, but unfortunately, not all of our students get to experience them. It's important that we establish a goal that every student will have a first-year, small-group experience among a choice of different programs, with scholarship opportunities and outstanding faculty.

A required first-year experience also would help increase retention of diverse students. We've seen the benefits of such programs through the CU-LEAD Alliance. More than 1,000 students are being served in the CU-LEAD academic community and the retention and graduation rates for students in these programs are higher than the overall rates.

Additional fees for participation in small-group programs can pose a problem for some of our students. We need to overcome those financial barriers, including developing excellent experiences that are less costly than the highly successful RAP model. A campus-wide faculty discussion and coherent course structure are necessary in order to make this vision a reality - but it must be done quickly.

Our plans call for a more robust graduate and professional education for our students. Graduate students play an important role as contributing members of our academic community — and we are committed to enhancing their experience and increasing enrollment in certain areas.

Currently, we are prepared to make strategic investments in our doctoral programs and to find the necessary resources to support targeted growth. According to a recent Graduate School task force report, many of our graduate programs could accommodate increased growth, such as the arts, humanities and social sciences. Some programs in the sciences may not have room to expand but could enhance their quality. We will explore such possibilities as differential tuition and creating a business model for tuition remission. We will emphasize increasing our doctoral program enrollment and quality as one means of providing the next generation of faculty teachers and researchers.

Another recent Graduate School task force report has motivated new discussions on interdisciplinary studies - one of our campus's great strengths — to help enhance the quality of graduate education on campus. This task force is crafting an institutional strategy for implementing some of their recommendations.

We must consider research and graduate education, not as separate functions, but as interconnected pursuits that create added synergy and vitality. At the same time, we must anticipate the impacts of growth in research and graduate education, including pressures for faculty lines, facilities, infrastructure, and staffing.

While we have been extremely successful in competing for contracts and grants, our research mission is not shielded from budget concerns. It's important to note that our research funding success comes mainly from federal sources, which makes us vulnerable to federal budget deficits. Therefore, we need to identify other sources for support of graduate education and research, including partnerships with the business community, for example.

Enhanced Academic Quality

Last but not least, the Quality for Colorado plan calls for targeted investments in a select number of core academic areas, areas of existing strength, and emerging areas of excellence. In particular, we will invest in the recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty, especially in the targeted academic programs.

Core academic areas are those disciplines that make up an outstanding comprehensive education. At CU-Boulder, examples include:

• Physics, chemistry and biochemistry, MCD biology and engineering
• Programs in the arts, such as the opera and jazz programs and the Takacs Quartet
• English, foreign languages and social sciences

Programs of existing distinction include:

• Research institutes and centers
• Space and atmospheric sciences
• Environmental sciences and sustainability
• The American West

Emerging areas of excellence include:

• Chemical and molecular biotechnology
• Micro- and nano-technology
• Information sciences
• Neurosciences

At CU-Boulder, high value is placed on interdisciplinary work, continuing a long tradition of crossing the academic boundaries. Opportunities for academic collaboration will continue to play an important role in future investment choices.

I am extremely gratified that enhancing academic excellence is a topic that is being discussed across the campus— in the Boulder Faculty Assembly and the schools and colleges. One area currently under consideration is how we should address perceptions surrounding academic expectations and rigor.

The BFA and faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences, among others, are discussing ways of clearly articulating expectations for the level of student work needed for success in their courses. They — and we — must ask the question: "How do we stimulate students to learn — each and every day they are enrolled at CU-Boulder?"

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