The CU Boulder campus undertook a bold initiative in August of 2017: Academic Futures: Reimagining the university—the futures of learning and discovery.
A three-year process, Academic Futures in its first year asked our community to bring forth ideas—without constraints or concerns about resources—about what CU Boulder might become and how we might transform teaching, learning, creative work and scholarship.
Come forth the campus did, via more than 100 community meetings during the fall semester (community forums, department-based meetings, open town halls), supplemented by more than 155 white papers. A committee then got to work to sort through the ideas, look for patterns of input and identify core themes.
At key junctures, organizers communicated the progress of the initiative to you in formal updates, a set of short videos and in a series of themed articles in CU Boulder Today called “Notes from a great conversation.” These organizers included Provost Moore and Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Kelly Fox, Chancellor Phil DiStefano, Vice Provost and AVC for Faculty Affairs Jeff Cox (convener of the Academic Futures campus conversation) and Director of Strategic Projects for the Research & Innovation Office Emily CoBabe-Ammann (facilitator of the Academic Futures campus conversation), as well as members of the Academic Futures Committee.
As the semester closes, the committee is taking feedback from the community (through June 1) on the ideas presented in a series of short videos and is preparing to begin the work of presenting the campus with a draft report on Sept. 1.
Read today’s “Notes from a great conversation,” the final one of the semester, to get a more extensive look at how our community’s vision has evolved.
