From the Provost and COO - Campus operating model updates

Dear colleagues,

We are writing to provide an update on CU Boulder’s operating model moving forward toward a new academic year.

Since our students returned to campus in the fall of 2020, our departments across the university have learned a lot about work modalities. As a university, CU Boulder promises students a vibrant on-campus experience that includes face-to-face classroom interaction, an engaging campus life, convenient support services, research and creative connections and an open, welcoming culture. It is essential that the way we work and the modalities we choose best enable us to deliver on this promise and enhance student success. At the same time, through our work over the previous two years we also came to recognize that our pre-pandemic operations did not accommodate non-traditional work modalities. To best support our employees’ success, we now embrace the value of a working model that provides flexibility for our employees in alignment with each individual’s role and duties on campus.

With these values as a foundation, and with our recent employee and student input as our guide, we are asking each major unit on campus to begin implementing a number of new standards starting July 1. These include work modality standards for student- and public-facing offices and the units that support those offices. We ask that you visit the CU Boulder Today story outlining these changes and review the new standards with your supervisors to discuss how to best implement them in your units. In parallel, Academic Affairs will soon disseminate a new edition of academic instruction guidance that addresses work modality standards for faculty and GPTI/TAs in regard to curricular planning and teaching assignments.

We know that like the rest of the nation, we will continue to learn and evolve the ways we work. We are grateful for the flexibility and resilience each of you continues to embody to ensure that we are delivering on our mission of teaching, research and creative work in the best ways possible.

Sincerely,

Russell Moore
Provost

Patrick O’Rourke
Chief Operating Officer