A look at 2006-07: Investing in our future
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	Martha-Elizabeth Baylor, a PhD student in Physics, works on laser research. (Photo/Larry Harwood)

Investing in faculty - The heart and soul of any great university is its faculty. This past year, we continued to recognize the important contributions that our faculty make to the quality of the instruction and research at CU-Boulder. We need to ensure that we are able to attract, develop and retain the very highest quality faculty possible. This past year, in addition to working to fill 80 faculty vacancies, we created 25 new tenure-track lines with the required startup funds. This, coupled with our efforts to attract additional Endowed Chairs, means that we should have more than 110 new tenure-track faculty join us in the 2007-08 academic year. While still dependent upon the final actions of the legislature, as part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen our educational, scholarly and research activities, we are planning to add funds to support an additional 25-30 new tenure-track lines and startup in the coming year. Finally, this past year, we took significant steps to retain our best faculty and made significant progress towards salary parity with our peers in the Association of American Universities.

Intercollegiate athletics – Significant progress has been made in our efforts to incorporate the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics as an integral part of the University. As part of this process, Athletics is setting and maintaining new standards of accountability and advancing the values of our institution with enthusiasm and renewed credibility – this is embodied in the recent hiring of former Air Force and Denver Nuggets head coach, Jeff Bzdelik, as new the head coach of our men's basketball team. Coach Bzdelik, like all of our coaches, fully supports the academic values and mission of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and we can look forward to all of our athletic programs representing the University in a positive and inspiring manner.

Commitment to diversity - I am pleased to note that we have worked closely with the President's Blue Ribbon Commission, which has resulted in a number of new initiatives. One of these, our search for a new Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Community Engagement, is in the final stages. This position will oversee our diversity efforts and help us to reach our diverse communities, both within the university and statewide, to create a welcoming and diverse community that better reflects the diversity, in all of its forms, of our nation and our world. We are making significant progress on this goal and everywhere I look, I see a community engaged in dialogue, discussion and healthy debate about how we can better foster ethnic, gender, geographic and intellectual diversity on the Boulder campus. Best of all, we have balanced our commitment to diversity with our historic values of free speech and inclusion, and I see more progress on this issue on the immediate horizon.

Chancellor's executive committee meets with members of CU's Emergency Management Operations Group (EMOG) and emergency services personnel from the city and county of Boulder to discuss how to coordinate appropriate response to possible campus emergencies, Monday April 30, 2007. (Photo/Larry Harwood)

Community engagement with the City of Boulder - We are working closely with the Boulder community and the City of Boulder on a number of issues of mutual interest and concern. Whether the issue is alcohol management, land-use, or environmental sustainability, we are working to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones, to enhance the level of cooperation. We have arranged for our students to serve on key city committees and to help represent the university and student interests with integrity and vision. I am pleased to count City Manager Frank Bruno as a trusted partner in all of these efforts and a good many more, and I believe we are entering a new era of possibilities and opportunities for this important relationship.

State and federal relations - I was delighted this past March to appear before the Joint Education Committee of the Colorado General Assembly to provide a summary of the issues facing the University of Colorado at Boulder. We received a warm reception and were asked a number of insightful questions about the future of higher education. I can tell you that our state lawmakers are keenly aware of the funding challenges that our university and the other universities across the state face. While still in process, it appears that we will make significant progress with respect to the support we receive from the state. We have sown the seeds of a strong working relationship with lawmakers this session and I look forward to continuing to make the case for investment in the University of Colorado at Boulder with state and federal lawmakers whom I believe understand well, the value the University adds to our state and nation.