Facts & Figures

As of Jan. 30, 2020, in alignment with Colorado driver license and identification card policies, CU Boulder systems include three sex designations: male (M), female (F) and nonbinary (X). CU Boulder recognizes that your legal information doesn't always align with how you identify. To foster diversity, equity and inclusion, CU systems allow you to indicate your gender identity, name pronunciation, preferred name, pronouns and/or sexual orientation within the Buff Portal. We are currently limited in the data that we can report because the information in the student portal may not be complete (data is self-reported and optional to report). For more information visit the Office of the Registrar. While the unique identities of our students, faculty and staff may not always be reflected in the data we have available, we seek to acknowledge and support all community members and to continue improve our data collection efforts.

Student demographic information initially comes from the Common Application that a student submits when they apply for admission. The Common Application includes Hispanic/Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White (including Middle Eastern) as race/ethnicity options. At this time the demographic information we are able to report on is limited to these categories.

While the unique identities of our students, faculty and staff may not always be reflected in the data we have available, we seek to acknowledge and support all community members and to continue improve our data collection efforts.

We strive to use terms that the people in our community self-identify with whenever possible. We acknowledge that the term “underrepresented minority” is not a term that students, faculty or staff generally use to identify themselves. We use this term to compare our data to national data on STEM education when disaggregated data by race/ethnicity is not available. Acronyms and terms can be convenient when describing data, but they are imperfect and problematic at times. We strive to use person-first language and to understand the unique experiences of individual students and groups. We are always open to feedback from our community as we continue to learn more and enhance the experience for all students, faculty and staff.

The Campus Workplace and Culture Survey will be distributed to all students, faculty and staff in fall 2021 and will provide an opportunity to collect updated demographic data that will hopefully reflect the unique identities within our community. The university is committed to creating a welcoming environment that values respect, civility, and collegiality. The purpose of the Campus and Workplace Culture Survey is to gather information from CU Boulder students, staff, and faculty about their academic, workplace, and residential environments. We will use the results from this survey to better understand the existing culture of a college/department/program and to identify both strengths and areas of concern in order to make recommendations for creating and sustaining a welcoming and inclusive culture at CU Boulder.