A strategic advisory group of student leaders, faculty and staff representing all university units will convene for the first time this month to begin the historic work of implementing the Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan, a campus blueprint for building a more diverse and inclusive CU Boulder.
Council co-chairs will formally proceed with the IDEA Plan’s implementation phase during a meeting with authoring co-chairs at the end of August, a step that will enable the full council to begin rolling out the plan’s specific actions shortly thereafter.
Academic and administrative leaders nominated more than two dozen members of the campus community to serve on the foundational Council for Community and Inclusion, which is identified in the IDEA Plan as the entity charged with ensuring progress and accountability.
The council is critical to the plan’s implementation, said Vice Chancellor Bob Boswell, who oversees the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement (ODECE), and the group’s work will follow a deeply collaborative process involving every school, college, governance group and academic and administrative unit in order to reach consensus on the plan’s goals and recommendations.
“We are more than ready to fulfill our mission of creating a campus environment that enables all students, faculty and staff—regardless of their personal identities—to feel welcome at CU Boulder as they pursue their academic and career goals,” Boswell said.
The council will work with ODECE to provide guidance on strategies to promote inclusion, diversity and equity at CU Boulder, advise campus leadership on specific action plans, and will serve as the advisory group that assesses and monitors the implementation of the plan’s key components and objectives.
On June 18, Chancellor Phil DiStefano issued eight immediate actions to enable change, and convening the council is among them. Boswell said he would update the campus on progress with all of the eight actions within the next two weeks.
Boswell commissioned the IDEA Plan at the behest of Chancellor Phil DiStefano, Provost Russell Moore and former Chief Operating Officer Kelly Fox. A diverse committee of students, faculty and staff delivered a final draft to Boswell last year.
Among the plan’s charges is a commitment to creating a CU Boulder that is “a diverse, inclusive and equitable public research university for the 21st century” while building on the chancellor’s imperatives of shaping tomorrow’s leaders, being the top university for innovation and positively impacting humanity.
Boswell said the plan’s intent and core objectives are more relevant and necessary today than ever before.
“There is no doubt that we are living through a historic moment in time on so many levels, and we recognize that our campus community is asking for immediate action,” he said. “Future generations of CU Boulder students, faculty, staff and alumni will judge how well we rose as a campus to address systemic racism and other barriers that have prohibited the success of individuals historically underrepresented in higher education.”
The following individuals were nominated by the campus’s deans and vice chancellors to serve on the council:
Council Members
Deborah Cantrell
Colorado Law
Lance Carl
Athletics
Pakou Cha
Office of Advancement
Kelsey Draper
Infrastructure and Sustainability
Jasimine Evans
Staff Council
Robert J. Ferry
Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA)
Lisa Flores (Co-Chair)
College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI)
Molly Frommelt
CU Student Government (CUSG)
David Hekman
Leeds School of Business
Teresa Hernández (Co-Chair)
Human Resources
Bronson Hilliard
Strategic Relations and Communications
Doreen Jokerst
Integrity, Safety and Compliance
Susan Jurow
School of Education
Xiang Li
University Libraries
Kevin Lee MacLennan
Enrollment Management
David Eric Meens
Continuing Education
Eduardo Montes Romero
Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG)
Hillary Potter
Arts & Sciences
Fernando Rosario-Ortiz
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Drew Smorul
Office of Information Technology (OIT)
Seth Spielman
Office of Data Analytics/Finance and Business Strategy
Susan Thomas
College of Music
Regina Tirella
Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC)
Konstantin Tovstiadi
Digital Accessibility
Julie Volckens
Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC)
