Faculty Community Building
Faculty SPACE
Shared Perspectives and Community Engagement, or SPACE sponsors community-building events for faculty throughout the academic year. Faculty SPACE is held monthly throughout the year in locations across the CU Boulder campus, where faculty meet up over breakfast, lunch, happy hour, or campus walks. SPACE is faculty-initiated and faculty-led, with the support of the Office of Faculty Affairs.
Be engaged. Be inspired. Be connected.
Faculty offices, labs, conference rooms, and lounges are spaces that generally reinforce silos rather than transcending them, as these are associated with individual faculty, units, or schools rather than faculty as such. The result of this separation is that few opportunities exist for interaction among faculty across the Boulder campus. The continuing expansion of the university to the East Campus and potentially to the South Campus adds further complications in bringing faculty together.
As part of the effort to bridge these gaps and build a greater sense of faculty community, the Faculty Leadership Institute (FLI), with support from the Provost initiated the Shared Perspectives and Community Engagement (SPACE) project and to ensure its continuation SPACE is now managed by the Office of Faculty Affairs. The basis of the effort is the idea that these events bring faculty together regularly and build the community that many feel is lacking on the campus.
We acknowledge the original Faculty SPACE planning committee, who began this community-building effort: Tiffany Beechy, Paul Chinowsky, Ginger Ferguson, David Hekman, Mark Hoefer, Heather Lewandowski, Shelly Miller, Rebecca Safran, Steve Vanderheiden, Gabby Wiersma, and Phoebe Young. Learn more about SPACE in Shelly Miller's interview with CU Boulder Today and the grassroots effort to create a community-building series inviting faculty and instructors to gather and discuss topics they care about.
If you would like to be involved, bookmark this page to see our upcoming events, and contact Sam Boyd, Faculty Fellow for Faculty SPACE for more information.
Faculty SPACE thanks the following partners for their co-sponsorship of the AY 2024-25 events: Research & Innovation Office, College of Arts & Sciences, College of Engineering & Applied Science, College of Media, Communication & Information, University Libraries, Leeds School of Business, Fiske Planetarium, Department of Environmental Studies, Department of Physics, and the Office of the Chancellor.
International Faculty Topics & Interests—Faculty Lunches
One luncheon each semester, designed to bring faculty together in community and dialogue around diverse international faculty topics and interests.
Questions? Email OFAFDS@Colorado.EDU.
International Faculty of Color Topics & Interests—Faculty Lunches
One luncheon each semester, designed to bring faculty together in community and dialogue around diverse international faculty of color topics and interests.
Questions? Email OFAFDS@Colorado.EDU.
Women+ Faculty Topics & Interests—Faculty Lunches
We host two luncheons each semester, designed to bring faculty together in community and dialogue around diverse women+ topics and interests. "Women+” encompasses topics and interests that center the experiences of women, non-binary, and genderqueer faculty.
Questions? Email OFAFDS@Colorado.EDU.
Our programs are designed to bring faculty together in community and dialogue around diverse topics and interests. Our events are open to all CU Boulder faculty regardless of their academic discipline, faculty rank, or career stage and do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, creed, religion, veteran status, marital status, political affiliation, political philosophy, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression in accordance with state, federal, and Regent law.