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Response to CCHE Quality Indicator System Report of December 1999 (issued January 2000)

The University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) strives to lead in the discovery, communication, and use of knowledge through instruction, research, and service to the public.

CU-Boulder's mission includes scholarship and research, graduate education, and undergraduate education. The quality indicator system is a limited set of measures for undergraduate programs only. The results verify the excellence and efficiency of CU-Boulder's programs, especially those for undergraduates.

CU-Boulder strives to improve, not merely maintain, our undergraduate, graduate, and research programs. Efforts for improvement are coordinated through campus strategic planning, the CU-system-wide Total Learning Environment initiative, and a budgeting initiative, the Integrated Resource Management Strategy.

Comments on each indicator

1A: Graduation rates and credits for degree

• We are pleased that our four-year graduation rate is well above those of all other public institutions in Colorado. Indeed, almost half of all four-year graduates from the entire State system graduate from CU-Boulder. All of CU-Boulder's graduation rates are consistent with those at other selective public research universities nationwide
• Ongoing efforts to improve graduation rates include changes in academic advising and freshmen orientation implemented in 1998-99 and 99-2000, and new leadership and residential academic programs to afford more students the opportunity for participation in a small "academic neighborhood" early in their studies.
• All of CU-Boulder's bachelors programs require the minimum 120 credit hours except journalism (124), engineering (128), and music (124-130). Keeping credit hour requirements to a minimum helps students graduate faster. Even so, some students pursue double majors, double degrees, participation in ROTC, combined bachelors/masters programs, and other study options in which they earn more than the minimum required hours. Accordingly, we feel that the proportion of degree recipients who currently graduate with no more than 110% of minimum required single-degree hours is appropriate.

2: Faculty instructional productivity

• CU-Boulder's fulltime faculty spend an average of more than 21 hours per week in activities directly related to teaching, in addition to their research and service obligations. Teaching activities include classroom time, grading, preparing course materials, office hours, developing new courses, advising, and supervising students. Faculty also spend additional time in other interactions with students, such as letters of recommendation, and on committees considering such topics as curricular requirements, advising systems, teaching evaluation, and student outcomes assessment.
• The figures for CU-Boulder are consistent with national figures for public research universities.

3: Freshman persistence

• 84% of full-time CU-Boulder freshmen return their second fall to CU-Boulder, higher than the national average of 80.5% for selective public PhD-granting universities. Our efforts to improve graduation rates should help maintain this high retention rate.
• On the measure used by CCHE, freshmen returning to any Colorado public, the CU-Boulder rate has been increasing slowly for some years.

4: Achievement rates

• CU-Boulder students exceed the national or state average on all 14 tests or subtests listed: PLACE teacher preparation (liberal arts, elementary, secondary), Graduate Record Exam (verbal, quantitative, analytic), uniform Certified Public Accountant exam, fundamentals of engineering, law school admissions test, bar exam, graduate management admissions test, and medical college admissions test (verbal, physical science, biological science). CU-Boulder and Health Sciences are the only institutions with all tests over benchmarks.
• With solid performance in such a broad range of disciplines, the results again demonstrate the breadth of excellence of CU-Boulder's programs.

5: Lower division class size

• Our educational strategy combines personalized small-group experiences (in and out of the classroom) with some large lecture classes to provide efficient and effective instruction. Student satisfaction ratings of lower-division courses with 100 or more students differ little from those for courses with 35 or fewer students, and 42% of these large courses receive ratings of "B" or better.
• Our strategy results in a high proportion of lower division courses with 30 or fewer students -- 74%, a proportion matched by only two other Colorado four-year public institutions.
• Only 16% of primary undergraduate sections at CU-Boulder have 50 or more students, consistent with national averages for selective public research universities. The occasional large class, however, also leads to an average lower-division class size (mean 38, with a median of only 23) that is higher than the benchmark of 35 set by CCHE.

6: Approved and implemented diversity plan

7: Institutional support costs

8: Undergraduate participation in special academic opportunities (institution-specific)

• 64% of the 2,366 calendar year 1998 bachelors degree recipients who entered as CU-Boulder full-time fall freshmen had participated in at least one special academic opportunity
• The opportunities we have considered are honors courses, independent study, credit internships, and independent research courses; special research programs for undergraduates; study abroad; completion of an honors thesis in the major discipline; first-year leadership and residential academic programs; double and student-designed majors; and combined bachelors-masters programs.
• 37% of graduates participated in two or more special academic opportunities. The five most popular programs were honors courses (16%), independent study (16%), credit internships (17%), study abroad (20%), and first-year residential academic programs (19%).
• Figures reported for public research universities in the Best Colleges 2000 issue of U.S. News and World Report (September 1999) show that CU-Boulder has the highest participation rates listed for both honors and study abroad, and average participation in double majors. Figures for participation in all programs together are not available for other institutions.
• We are extremely pleased that almost two-thirds of our entering-freshmen graduates have participated in these special academic opportunities, for such programs are a hallmark of the unique, total learning environment provided by a comprehensive research university with top faculty and a large and diverse student population.

9: Federal science and engineering research and development expenditures per tenured and tenure-track faculty member

• With $139,000 in federal science and engineering research and development expenditures per tenured and tenure-track faculty member in FY1997-98, CU-Boulder is second in the nation among the 17 public research universities with comparable data available. We trail only the University of California at San Diego on this measure, and lead such well-known research universities as Michigan, California-Berkeley, and Wisconsin.
• Our standing demonstrates the high research productivity of our faculty. There is economic benefit to Colorado in addition, including jobs -- over 6,000, based on a U.S. Commerce Department Bureau of Economic Analysis multiplier for the "college, universities, and professional schools" sector in Colorado.

The quality indicators touch on only a few areas of CU-Boulder's mission and excellence. Our planning efforts are directed at preparing the future leaders of Colorado, the nation, and the world and improving human life through learning. To achieve this goal we are focussing campus efforts and resources in four areas:

Undergraduate Learning Environment: Generate innovation in the undergraduate learning environment in ways that promote a sense of discovery and lifelong learning, critical thinking skills, and preparation for citizenship and leadership.

Research and Graduate Education: Continue our leadership role in advancing knowledge and understanding through research and graduate education with appropriate links to government, business and other institutions through outreach and technology transfer.

Diversity: Nurture a campus climate of inclusion, knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the full range of the human experience in order to foster a better society and to prepare students for the future.

Technology: Situate the University of Colorado at Boulder to be a leader in the technological transformation of the 21st Century, empowering the entire campus and its graduates to succeed in the world.

L:\ir\cche\qis\99\reply3.doc, last updated 2/21/2000

Last revision 07/12/02