One significant source of support for the ITL is the Undergraduate Excellence Fund (UEF), a special fund established in the spring of 1991 as a result of a unique partnership between the dean and students of the College. The students agreed to allow an increase in their tuition and fees provided all of the revenues generated were placed in a fund that they could help administer. As a result, the UEF has given the students a say in how to improve their own educations.
Overseeing the use of the UEF monies is a committee of seven students, which acts as an equal partner with the College's dean in a modern day "checks and balances" system. Since its creation the students on the UEF committee and the dean have funded over forty small ($1k-$40k) educational proposals submitted by faculty in addition to creating a Computer-Aided Design Laboratory and providing considerable support for the ITL.
This past June Jenniffer Anderson, current chair of the UEF, and I had the opportunity to present the basics of the UEF to members of the American Society for Engineering Education during workshops at their annual meeting in Edmonton, Canada. We were surprised how many engineering administrators and educators never considered the idea of involving students directly in decisions shaping the educational process they were experiencing. In fact, a partnership between students and administration of this magnitude was unheard of...until now!
With the signing of the Undergraduate Excellence Fund's Background Principles and Operating Charter this fall, the College has set a precedence for partnerships between students and administration that should last well into the next century. Moves are already underway to establish similar relationships in some of the other colleges at CU-Boulder, not to mention the interest the UEF is creating in several other leading engineering colleges around the nation.
The UEF is yet another reason CU-Boulder's Engineering Colleges is considered a leading public institution.
Editor's Note: As president of the engineering student government, Thomas Boysen helped set up the UEF and served as its first student chair. He is now a graduate student in civil engineering.