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 the Faculty as such. The result of this separation is that there exist few opportunities for interaction among Faculty across the Boulder campus. The continuing expansion of the university to East Campus and potentially to South Campus adds further complications in terms of bringing faculty together.
As part of the effort to bridge these gaps and build greater faculty community, the Faculty Leadership Institute with support from the Provost initiated the Shared Perspectives and Community Engagement (SPACE) project. The project is organized by Faculty from all different parts of campus and sponsors community building events for Faculty throughout the Academic Year, including a Welcome Back Happy Hour, monthly lunches, and pop-up coffee hours around campus. The basis of the effort is the idea that these events, which are a combination of socializing and discussing topics of importance to Faculty, will bring Faculty together on a regular basis and begin to build the community that many feel is lacking on the campus.
The Faculty SPACE planning committee, which thanks Faculty SPACE participants for supporting the community building effort, includes Tiffany Beechy, Paul Chinowsky, Ginger Ferguson, David Hekman, Mark Hoefer, Heather Lewandowski, Shelly Miller (Faculty Lead), Rebecca Safran, Steve Vanderheiden, Gabby Wiersma, and Phoebe Young. If you would like to be involved, please contact Shelly.Miller@Colorado.edu.
CU Boulder Today sat down with Shelly Miller, professor of mechanical engineering, to learn more about the grassroots effort—a community-building series inviting faculty and instructors to gather and discuss topics they care about.