SRS Insights: Staying grounded in our mission 🦬

Mar. 20, 2025

Dear Strategic Resources and Support team,

We’ve talked a lot about navigating change in this space in recent months, and one way to do that can be to intentionally reflect on how each of us supports the mission and vision of the university.

We often sum our mission up at its core as education and research. More deeply, our statutory mission is to be Colorado’s comprehensive doctoral-granting public research university, with a vision of transforming lives in service to a just, sustainable world.

Aside from organizational change, amid all the uncertainty in the world, thinking about questions like where your organization fits into that mission and what success looks like can serve to not only re-center our focus on our core purpose. It can also be uplifting in reminding ourselves of our individual connections to that larger purpose.

I continue to see our SRS staff contribute to that larger purpose in meaningful ways every day. A few recent examples have included:

• Student mental health: Our Health and Wellness Services team will be collaborating with the Renee Crown Wellness Institute, Student Affairs, our students and other groups around campus on a new student mental health and wellness initiative announced by Chancellor Schwartz last week.
• Federal transition: Staff from all corners of SRS continue to work tirelessly to help our campus navigate change and uncertainty related to the federal transition to ensure our students have the support and services they need to continue thriving and that our researchers can continue to deliver impactful discovery to our state, nation and world.
• Sustainability: Our Infrastructure and Resilience team just helped advance our climate goals and push for operational excellence by partnering with the CU System to win a $220,000 award to help fund window retrofits in the Environmental Design building that will reduce energy use by 15% and create cost savings of nearly $50,000 per year.
• Computing devices: OIT has launched a new pilot program for the return and repurposing of computing devices to make this process easier and more efficient for departments without an established equipment return process.

There are numerous other examples. I encourage each of you, amid the bustle of the spring semester, to think about how your daily work creates an environment where all of our students, researchers, faculty and staff thrive. Each of our roles is essential to the university’s success.

Other SRS news and notes

• Commencement volunteers needed: Our SRS leadership team encourages all our staff to consider volunteering to help with commencement May 8-10. If you don’t already have a commencement-related role, volunteering is one of the best ways to connect with our mission first-hand as we celebrate our class of 2025 and help create a memorable day for our students, families and their guests. You can learn more about the opportunity and sign up online for specific days and times.
• Spring break, meeting break: With spring break week upon us March 24-28 and many staff taking the week off, we encourage you to cancel or postpone meetings where feasible to create space for staff who are on campus to catch up on projects. March is a busy time and spring break week can present a great opportunity to recharge, reset and position ourselves for success the rest of the semester.
• Time for self care: Did we say busy? During the fast-paced months of March and April, it’s important to make time for self care. From yoga and fitness classes to mindfulness sessions and the Wellable app, our Health and Wellness Services team provides a number of opportunities for staff via the WorkWell website.

Sincerely,

Jennifer McDuffie
Interim senior vice chancellor for operations