Administration

Buff Experience Transformation moves into implementation

Megan M Rogers — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:12:55 +0000

Buff Experience Transformation moves into implementation Megan M Rogers Thu, 04/09/2026 - 14:12

С�� Boulder is moving forward with Buff Experience Transformation, a campuswide initiative focused on implementation of a Salesforce Education Cloud-based enterprise student success system that will improve how students experience support, services and engagement throughout their time at the university. The multi-year project, previously known as the Learner Lifecycle CRM (LLCRM), has now entered its implementation phase, following approval of the Phase 1 scope of work and the launch of structured implementation sprints.

Over the past year, campus leaders, subject matter experts and students have worked together to clarify priorities and define what to build first. That work included discovery sessions, working groups and a two-day workshop focused on understanding the student experience and aligning on early needs, particularly within advising and related student success services.

With this foundational work complete, Buff Experience Transformation has transitioned from planning into active implementation. Development sprints are now underway, focused on building core capabilities, confirming priorities and delivering early progress while continuing to center on student needs.

What is Buff Experience Transformation?

Buff Experience Transformation is a campuswide effort to support a more connected, student-centered experience by improving how information, systems and services work together. The initiative builds on work already underway across campus and reflects a shared commitment to making it easier to be a Buff—especially as students navigate advising, student success services and other points of support.

As part of this effort, С�� Boulder is implementing a Salesforce Education Cloud-based solution in phases, beginning with a clearly defined first phase and expanding over time.

Staying connected and informed

To support transparency, change management and ongoing engagement, several communications and feedback channels are being activated this month:

Weekly Buff Experience Transformation Q&A sessions are underway and open to anyone interested in learning more about the project or sharing feedback. Add the sessions to your calendar and make plans to join.
A dedicated email communications channel has been established to share project updates with subscribers. Sign up for the emails and stay in the loop.
A project communications plan is in development to guide ongoing updates, sprint summaries, leadership briefings and campuswide messaging.
A new Buff Experience Transformation website is in development and will replace the existing Learner Lifecycle CRM website in the coming weeks.

As implementation continues, the project team will share regular updates and additional opportunities for engagement. Faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in Q&A sessions and subscribe to project communications to stay informed as the Buff Experience Transformation moves forward.

С�� Boulder is moving forward with Buff Experience Transformation, formerly known as the Learner Lifecycle CRM. The campuswide initiative is focused on implementation of a Salesforce Education Cloud-based enterprise student success system that will improve how students experience support, services and engagement.

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Campus shared values project moves into authoring phase

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:44:46 +0000

Campus shared values project moves into authoring phase Megan M Rogers Tue, 04/07/2026 - 10:44

С�� Boulder’s campus shared values project is entering its next phase, building on the broad community input gathered from faculty, staff and students during the 2025–26 academic year.

Since the fall semester, the campus community has shared perspectives on the values that matter most in shaping С�� Boulder’s culture through a survey with more than 300 responses, a series of open in-person and online conversations, and engagement with campus shared governance groups. That input has helped identify common themes reflecting the lived experiences and aspirations of the С�� Boulder community.

Authoring committee convened

To translate that feedback into a usable set of shared values, project co-leads Sonia DeLuca Fernández, senior vice chancellor for leadership support and programming, and Jon Leslie, vice chancellor for strategic communications, have convened a Campus Shared Values Authoring Committee. The committee is charged with developing a draft set of campus values and definitions that are inclusive, actionable and grounded in community input.

Co‑chaired by Julia Zigarelli, deputy director of the Reneé Crown Wellness Institute, and Ashley Grice, senior consultant in Leadership Support and Programming, the committee includes representatives from Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA), Staff Council (SC), С�� Student Government (С��SG) and Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) working with five staff members: Carla Anthony (Human Resources), Crystal Cyr (SC), Devin Cramer (Student Life), Michaele Ferguson (BFA), Gianna Guido (С��SG), Dejun “Tony” Kong (BFA), Funda Kus (GPSG), David Martinez (CMDI), Kristi Ryujin (Leeds) and Mike Williamson (Digital Accessibility).

The committee members represent a range of campus perspectives and are working as a comprehensive authoring body—focused on clarity, accessibility and alignment—rather than representing individual units or roles.

What comes next

In the upcoming weeks, the authoring committee will review campus feedback, draft values and definitions, and address community input on language and framing.

A draft set of shared campus values will then be shared with the broader campus community for additional feedback before being brought forward to campus leadership.

The final phase of the project will focus on rolling out and integrating shared campus values into С�� Boulder’s culture and practices, with implementation planned for the 2026–27 academic year starting this fall.

Questions about the project can be directed to buffinfo@colorado.edu for routing to the project team.

С�� Boulder is beginning the authoring phase of its campus shared values project, building directly from faculty, staff and student input.

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Provost discusses faculty salaries and more during assembly meeting

Megan M Rogers — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:11:04 +0000

Provost discusses faculty salaries and more during assembly meeting Megan M Rogers Mon, 04/06/2026 - 11:11

In their March meeting, the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) heard an update about the Chancellor’s Faculty Salary Task Force’s final report. Provost Ann Stevens returned to the April 2 BFA meeting to discuss what the Office of the Provost is doing to address that report.

The Chancellor’s Faculty Salary Task Force began their work in spring 2025 in response to existing BFA concerns that С�� Boulder’s pay for tenured and tenure-track faculty lagged behind that of peer public institutions. Their final report recommended, among other actions, that the university work to remedy that lag.

“I take the task force report as a sign of a very healthy collaboration between shared governance and leadership. That makes all of our work easier when we work together,” Stevens remarked.

Much of the work to address those recommendations is already underway, Stevens said, including:

A proposed campus investment of $6 million over the next three years to address salary competitiveness of tenured and tenure-track faculty with the intention that schools and colleges will match, totaling up to a $12 million investment in faculty salaries
Hiring a director of faculty compensation in the Office of the Provost who will provide advice, training and support to deans, associate deans and chairs in competitive hiring, compression and equity issues
Giving all schools and college leaders, including deans, associate deans and chairs, access to С�� Boulder’s AAU faculty salary comparison dashboard
Developing a faculty retention dashboard to track retention actions taken by the units

“Over a few years, I think we’ll make progress on all of these (recommendations) and be in a better place,” said Stevens.

Stevens also emphasized to the group that the report made clear that С�� Boulder is not compensating outstanding faculty at a level consistent with its AAU public peer universities. Stevens’s written response to the report will be available soon and posted on the Academic Affairs website.

During her talk, Stevens also encouraged faculty to attend commencement and one of the upcoming visioning sessions for С�� Boulder Online, and addressed two resolutions related to collective bargaining, voted on after the meeting. Stevens said, as a member of campus leadership, she’s agnostic on collective bargaining, but she applauds the effort to establish a task force to look into how collective bargaining might interact with shared governance.

“I hope that that (task force) will give us some really clear guidance and fact finding, much like the salary task force, so that we can all make better, informed decisions,” said Stevens.

She encouraged any potential task force that may arise to rely on the work already accomplished thanks to the faculty salary task force, including a page on the HR website that outlines what the university has already accomplished in recent years related to compensation.

Faculty Report of Professional Activities (FRPA) update

Marin Stanek, vice chancellor for IT, updated the BFA on work in progress by the Office of Faculty Affairs and the Office of Information Technology to replace С�� Boulder’s existing FRPA software. This long process has involved extensive campuswide outreach and a request for proposal (RFP) process that has now resulted in eight promising proposals for new software.

The group is now systematically reviewing the options and has held demo sessions to get faculty feedback. Stanek said the process is on track to roll out a pilot of the new software in the fall 2026 semester, with a full campuswide rollout scheduled for fall 2027.

“No institution has the secret sauce for having this (faculty reporting process) be where faculty love it and it’s really easy or automated. In a way, it’s one of those activities that is a necessary evil that happens,” Stanek said. “We just strongly believe that we can make it much better than it is today, and so that’s what our commitment is.”

In other BFA action

The BFA voted to approve two different resolutions introduced during the March meeting related to collective bargaining: one calling for a BFA Collective Bargaining Task Force, which would examine the relationship between collective bargaining and shared governance and another in support of collective bargaining, introduced in response to the Board of Regents’ call for faculty feedback regarding a potential expansion of collective bargaining rights to university faculty, staff and student workers.
The BFA also voted to approve a motion to add more seats to the assembly for the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information after the recent merger with environmental design.
The assembly tabled a resolution to postpone the rollout of ChatGPT on campus after the resolution was revised in response to the university’s recent delay for the student version.
Three different notices of motion were also introduced: an update of the faculty affairs committee charge, a recommendation to establish generative AI-use guidelines and resources, and a change to the BFA bylaws and standing rules.
The BFA is holding a special assembly meeting on April 16 to discuss AI on campus. The meeting will be hybrid, with an in-person option in the Law School Wittemyer Courtroom, and is open to all members of the faculty senate.
Faculty are encouraged to attend the BFA Excellence Awards ceremony on April 7.

Learn more about the BFA and previous actions on the BFA website.

Provost Ann Stevens joined the first of two Boulder Faculty Assembly meetings in April to discuss progress made following the Chancellor's Faculty Salary Task Force.

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С�� Boulder Online—Attend a visioning session April 6–9

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:03:15 +0000

С�� Boulder Online—Attend a visioning session April 6–9 Megan M Rogers Tue, 03/17/2026 - 08:03

С�� Boulder is launching a campuswide visioning process to define the future of С�� Boulder Online, an effort designed to bring together the university’s multiple online models into one holistic approach, strengthening support for online students and faculty and positioning С�� Boulder for long‑term impact locally, nationally and globally.

The visioning effort, directed by Provost Ann Stevens and led by Fernando Rosario‑Ortiz, interim vice chancellor and executive vice provost for academic resource management, builds on leadership changes announced earlier this academic year and marks the next phase of a comprehensive review of the university’s online ecosystem

Get involved

Read the charge for the next phase of С�� Boulder Online.

Participate in a campuswide survey later this spring.

Stay current; visit the project webpage.

“Through this process, we seek to listen to all campus constituencies as we collectively develop a vision for the future of online education at С�� Boulder. We are focused on enhancing our academic mission of serving students, faculty and staff, while extending the reach and impact of our learning resources locally and internationally,” Rosario‑Ortiz said.

An executive committee, representing key campus constituents has been selected and will participate in the visioning process. This committee includes deans as well as key leaders who are actively involved in advancing online education.

Defining С�� Boulder’s distinct online identity

“At the heart of the process is a fundamental question: How should С�� Boulder shape the future of online education to reflect its unique academic strengths and serve learners on campus and beyond for the long term?” said Stevens.

The visioning effort will explore where С�� Boulder can offer a distinct online identity, informed by the university’s research excellence, faculty expertise, creative work and commitment to student success.

“Once we’ve defined that distinct identity, the task will be to scale our programs to serve the specific learning goals of С�� Boulder students, alumni and learners across the globe, advancing the research, scholarship, creative work and teaching of our faculty all the while,” Rosario-Ortiz said.

Broad engagement, clear timeline

The visioning process is expected to conclude by fall 2026 and will be shaped by multiple sources of input and analysis. Join the conversation by participating in upcoming forums and surveys.

Four open forums for faculty, staff and students, scheduled during a single week at different times to maximize participation.
A survey distributed to several campus constituencies—including students—to establish baseline information and identify gaps in the current online experience.

“These engagement opportunities are intended to ensure the online education vision reflects lived experiences across campus and supports both campus‑based and online learners,” said Rosario-Ortiz.

The visioning process to define the future of С�� Boulder Online kicks off this month, with four opportunities for campus input.

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@cuboulderpolice social media handle changing to @С��BoulderDPS

Megan M Rogers — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:59:05 +0000

@cuboulderpolice social media handle changing to @С��BoulderDPS Megan M Rogers Fri, 03/13/2026 - 10:59

The Division of Public Safety today launched a process of transitioning its social media channels from С�� Boulder Police Department (@cuboulderpolice) to С�� Boulder Division of Public Safety (@С��BoulderDPS).

For more information about DPS and campus safety resources, visit @С��BoulderDPS on social media.

The change reflects DPS’s ongoing work to enhance communication, increase transparency and help the campus community better understand the full range of safety services available at С�� Boulder. It also aligns to the university priority of aligning resources and infrastructure to our mission.

While С��PD has represented the university’s public safety presence on social media for over a decade, the evolution of public safety on campus through DPS drives this change. DPS is an integrated organization that includes С��PD, Public Safety Operations, Security Services, Threat Assessment, Flight Operations and a range of safety education and prevention programs.

“Students and employees interact with DPS in many ways beyond traditional policing,” said Marlon Lynch, vice chancellor for public safety. “This change allows us to communicate more clearly about who we are, what we do and how our various teams work together to support campus.”

The renaming process is taking place across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X. While the process for X, Facebook and YouTube are complete, the process for Instagram is still underway because of technical difficulties, with a resolution time potentially being lengthy.

Current followers will automatically remain connected, and the content will remain familiar—including timely information, safety education, community engagement and updates from across the division.

Importantly, emergency alerts will continue to appear on X and Facebook, along with other non-social media channels, ensuring the community maintains uninterrupted access to fast, critical information during urgent situations. The channel names will change, but its role in emergency communication will not.

DPS will introduce a short educational series on the newly named accounts to help the community learn more about its departments and programs. Topics will include how campus building access is managed, how emergency alerts are issued, what the threat assessment team does and what safety tools—such as the С�� Boulder Safe app—offers students and employees.

The goal of the transition is to make it easier for students, faculty and staff to understand the resources available to them and to strengthen awareness of the teams working behind the scenes every day within DPS.

The С�� Boulder Police Department’s social media handle is transitioning to @С��BoulderDPS to better reflect the broader work of the Division of Public Safety and its integrated public safety model.

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Campus values project moves forward with broad community input

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:24:22 +0000

Campus values project moves forward with broad community input Megan M Rogers Tue, 03/10/2026 - 10:24

С�� Boulder’s campuswide values project is entering its next phase, following strong early engagement from students, faculty and staff and continued opportunities for the campus community to help shape a shared set of values.

Launched in fall 2025, the project seeks to build consensus around values that will guide how С�� Boulder communities advance the university’s mission, vision and institutional priorities. The effort is cofacilitated by Sonia DeLuca Fernández, senior vice chancellor for leadership programming and support, and Jon Leslie, vice chancellor for strategic communications, and is part of the broader framework for engaging С�� Boulder’s mission, vision and objectives that began in the 2025–26 academic year.

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff have shared input through a campus survey and a series of virtual and in‑person sessions held in November and December. Those sessions engaged shared governance and campus leadership groups, including С�� Student Government, Graduate and Professional Student Government, the Boulder Faculty Assembly and Staff Council leadership.

That feedback is informing a draft set of shared values now under collaborative review with campus leadership and shared governance groups. A formal authorizing committee is also being formed to help synthesize input and guide the values toward campuswide adoption.

What’s next

Randomized outreach: Students, faculty and staff will receive a randomized email inviting additional feedback on the draft values.
Ongoing review: Leadership and shared governance groups will continue refining the draft.
Spring input: Additional opportunities for campus feedback will be offered throughout the semester.
Toward adoption: Input will shape revisions as the values move toward broader use.

Once finalized, С�� Boulder’s shared values will serve as a reference point for strategy, prioritization and decision making, while helping clarify the behaviors and outcomes the university seeks to support in alignment with its public research mission.

The С�� Boulder campus community is encouraged to continue participating this spring to help ensure the shared values reflect the experiences, aspirations and responsibilities of the С�� Boulder community.

С�� Boulder's shared values project is entering its next phase, with continued opportunities for campus input.

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Justin Schwartz addresses ChatGPT partnership, more with faculty assembly

Megan M Rogers — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 17:25:43 +0000

Justin Schwartz addresses ChatGPT partnership, more with faculty assembly Megan M Rogers Mon, 03/09/2026 - 11:25

Chancellor Justin Schwartz addresses the Boulder Faculty Assembly during its meeting Thursday, March 5. Photo by Patrick Campbell/С�� Boulder.

We are in an AI world, so now's the time to figure out how to best implement those tools for our students.

That was one of the main points discussed during Chancellor Justin Schwartz’s first presentation to the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) this year. As part of his remarks, he stressed the importance of the С�� system’s recently announced partnership agreement with ChatGPT to allow the university to not just get ahead of the rapidly changing AI landscape but to help define it going forward.

“We cannot ignore the existence of the rapidly growing prevalence of AI in our society,” said Schwartz. “This is not something we can choose to have exist in American society or around the globe, or not. It is here, and so either we will deal with it together as a community or we won’t.”

Schwartz did not shy away from the sustainability drawbacks of this new partnership, nor the related academic integrity and security concerns he said are shared by the administration, but argued that the university also can't ignore the 30,000 members of the С�� Boulder community already using the ChatGPT platform with their colorado.edu email address.

“This (ChatGPT) is not something new to us,” Schwartz added. “This is already here.”

Schwartz said that by partnering with OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, the university can ensure everyone has equitable access to the product, if they want to use it, and that everyone who uses the product receives training designed by the university to set expectations and educate potential users.

“We need to embrace, in my view, that preparing our students for a world of AI is just as much a part of ethical AI as the challenging issues that we have to address in the process,” said Schwartz. “When we talk about preparing our students for life and the workplace, this is that. Their lives, their workplaces, are going to be inundated with AI, and we’re either preparing them for that or we’re not.”

In addition to AI, the chancellor touched on subjects including С�� Boulder’s shared values project, the university’s 150th anniversary, the new Carnegie Elective Classification for Sustainability and a call for faculty to join this year’s commencement ceremonies. He also previewed the report of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Faculty Salaries and the rollout of the new С�� Boulder common curriculum, both of which were also addressed during the meeting.

Other topics discussed

Faculty Salary Task Force final report

Full and associate professor salaries at С�� Boulder are not competitive compared to our public university peers, according to the final report from the Chancellor’s Faculty Salary Task Force.

During the October BFA meeting, task force co-chairs Shelly Miller, professor emerita of mechanical engineering and past BFA chair, and Ann Schmiesing, senior vice chancellor for strategic initiatives, presented on the working group and the charge that they were given. They returned to present the group’s final findings and encouraged everyone to read the report.

“It’s packed with good information, and we were very concise. You can probably read it in 20 minutes. It’s really worth it,” said Miller.

The task force found that the typical С�� Boulder annual compensation pool is not in line with the university’s peer institutions and insufficient to address the fact that С�� Boulder’s faculty salaries lag those of our peers, with the gap largest at the full professor level, though it’s also felt at the associate level. Approaches to addressing faculty salary issues are also highly fragmented across campus.

“The approach that we’ve been using for decades is not working, obviously,” said Miller.

The report’s many recommendations include developing a faculty-specific compensation strategy, investing in faculty salary competitiveness and equity, and developing a plan to eventually raise all affected faculty salaries so that they match the university’s public peers.

“We believe the correction should begin as soon as possible, because the longer we wait to address some of these issues, the more they compound,” said Schmiesing.

Common Curriculum Faculty Working Group update

The BFA Common Curriculum Faculty Working Group recently submitted their final report to Provost Ann Stevens, who has accepted the report and its recommendations.

This group, chaired by teaching professor of history and BFA Chair Elect David Paradis and working in partnership with Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Assessment Katherine Eggert, began their work last fall. Eggert and Interim Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Erika Randall gave a general update during the December BFA meeting. They returned to present the working group’s recommendations, as well as to give a general common curriculum implementation update to the group.

The working group was charged with examining the common curriculum’s learning outcomes and providing determinations for how the university will teach them across all colleges, schools and majors, including in a course required for incoming students. The common curriculum is set to roll out in fall 2027.

Eggert, Randall and members of their teams will meet in March with college and school leadership to align the common curriculum learning outcomes further with existing degree requirements. Meetings with academic programs offering undergraduate degrees will follow and will continue into the fall 2026 semester.

Other work that will support the implementation of the common curriculum includes drafting a policy for a new standing Campus Curriculum Committee, which will serve an advisory role for the provost, and crafting an assessment plan for common curriculum learning outcomes.

“I have undying gratitude to David Paradis for chairing (the BFA working) group, and to those faculty whom David assembled to serve, representing all schools and colleges, and all three divisions of the College of Arts and Sciences,” said Eggert.

New business

There were three notices of motions introduced during the meeting:

A call for a BFA collective bargaining task force
A motion in support of the Board of Regents allowing collective bargaining on every С�� campus
A motion to increase the amount of seats in BFA for representatives from the newly expanded College of Communication, Media, Design and Information (CMDI)

After the formal agenda concluded, there was also a resolution introduced that urged the administration to delay the rollout of the ChatGPT partnership until after Maymester, so that faculty concerns can be ironed out before the tool is widely available. A straw poll was held that indicated widespread support for such a delay among the BFA representatives present.

Learn more about the BFA and previous actions on the BFA website.

During a recent address by Chancellor Justin Schwartz to the Boulder Faculty assembly, he discussed AI, the shared governance project, the university's 150th anniversary and more.

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Video: Employee Health and Well-Being launches partnership with American Red Cross

Megan M Rogers — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:36:54 +0000

Video: Employee Health and Well-Being launches partnership with American Red Cross Megan M Rogers Mon, 03/02/2026 - 09:36

A new partnership between Employee Health and Well-Being and the American Red Cross will provide ongoing resources, onsite training and volunteer opportunities that deepen our shared commitment to service and community well‑being.

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Chancellor calls for big ideas in 2026 State of the Campus

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:51:08 +0000

Chancellor calls for big ideas in 2026 State of the Campus Megan M Rogers Tue, 02/10/2026 - 10:51

Chancellor Justin Schwartz delivered his annual State of the Campus address on Feb. 10, highlighting the university’s 150th anniversary and encouraging students, faculty and staff to submit ideas for transforming the future of С�� Boulder’s societal impact.

Before a crowd of over 500 in the Glenn Miller Ballroom and 1,120 viewers online, Schwartz encouraged the campus to rely on the power of new ideas to endure and prevail during this uncertain time in higher education.

Read the full speech

Submit your big idea

“I firmly believe that today is our chance not to pause, but to evolve from within—to evaluate our strengths, define our future and leap ahead of our peers,” he said.

Schwartz issued a call to action for everyone across campus to share groundbreaking ideas that the university should pursue in the coming years—the “audacious ideas that need urgent attention.”

“Some of the greatest ideas in human history have come from asking unbounded questions. Let’s be the place where such questions are not merely rhetorical,” Schwartz said.

He also highlighted the successes of the past year and goals for the future in the university's four areas of priority: fostering the success of all students, faculty and staff; scaling research and creative work excellence; achieving global leadership in sustainability impact; and aligning our infrastructure and resources to our mission.

Schwartz announced plans for offering a Residential Learning Community experience to all first-year undergraduates at no extra charge as soon as fall 2027.

In addition, he spotlighted the launch of four new С�� Boulder Community Belonging Awards. The awards were initiated by С�� Student Government and will recognize exceptional individuals who are fostering belonging on campus.

Over lunch, attendees were invited to submit their next big ideas online.

A team of faculty, staff and leaders has been assembled to work alongside the chancellor and senior leadership to guide the “Next Big Ideas” effort. Two members of the team, professors Waleed Abdalati and Stefanie Johnson, spoke to the audience about the initiative.

“We didn’t design this process in a vacuum. We looked at what works in organizations that are exceptionally good at breakthrough innovation,” Abdalati said. “Start with big problems, not small projects. Protect imagination before evaluating feasibility. Mix disciplines and perspectives. So today, we’re starting exactly there—with imagination.”

Over the coming months, the team will continue to solicit ideas across campus.

“Where you sit in the organization does not define whether you will come up with a great idea,” Schwartz said.

Chancellor Justin Schwartz delivered his annual State of the Campus address on Feb. 10, highlighting the university's 150th anniversary and issuing a call to action for transformative ideas to guide the university's future.

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Boulder Faculty Assembly informed on budget discussions, more

Megan M Rogers — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:28:16 +0000

Boulder Faculty Assembly informed on budget discussions, more Megan M Rogers Mon, 02/09/2026 - 12:28

Members of the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) were updated on the university’s integrated marketing and communications plan (IMCP) and the current budget allocation model discussions during the first meeting of the semester on Feb. 5.

Budget allocation model updates

In October 2025, С�� Boulder launched a yearlong design review of its budget allocation model, as part of the university’s Financial Stewardship Initiative. This review is meant to ensure the model, which was adopted in 2022, continues to reflect С�� Boulder’s values of transparency, accountability and collaboration, while advancing the campus strategic priority of aligning resources to its mission.

The budget model review discussions are being led in part by Andy Cowell, BFA faculty shared governance advisor, budget and planning committee chair and professor of linguistics; and Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, interim vice chancellor and executive vice provost for academic resource management and professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering. One piece of feedback that has come up repeatedly, they said in their presentation to BFA, is that the current budget model incentivizes teaching—not research. Relatedly, there is concern about the impact on the model of shrinking graduate programs in some units.

While neither Cowell nor Rosario-Ortiz disagreed with those points, Rosario-Ortiz said the university is a comprehensive institution, which means we must factor in both research and teaching when it comes to the university’s mission. Rosario-Ortiz also commented that the model is focused on campus-level allocations to schools and colleges, not on the school, college or departmental level, which is where decisions about allocating funds to teaching or research are made.

“Obviously, we’re listening and we’ll have notes that we can take back for further discussion,” said Cowell. “This (conversation) was not meant to resolve anything today. It’s an ongoing discussion that will go on for at least several more weeks.”

Rosario-Ortiz reiterated, adding, “We’re trying to take all (feedback) into consideration, but there needs to be coordination between what we (the administration) need to do for the budget model allocation and what units need to do operationally to meet their mission of research and teaching.”

The discussions are still underway, and recommendations will be available later this spring.

Integrated marketing and communications

Jon Leslie, vice chancellor for strategic communications, introduced the BFA to the integrated marketing and communications plan (IMCP), a comprehensive campus strategy that unifies advertising, public relations, digital marketing and constituent engagement to deliver consistent, meaningful brand experiences.

“Our goal is to take what the leadership says our mission, vision, priorities, value and outcomes are and translate that into what stories we tell, for what purposes, and how those purposes are achieved efficiently or not,” said Leslie.

The IMCP began its implementation in July 2024 and has already shown positive results, including higher rankings in an annual statewide poll of how Coloradans perceive the university. Some of the projects undertaken so far using IMCP strategies include the re-envisioning of the Conference on World Affairs, the launch of the “Beyond” LinkedIn research newsletter and the launch of the shared campus values project.

Next steps for the IMCP include bringing С�� Boulder’s story to life, Leslie shared. That includes communicating “What makes us Boulder” and a comprehensive communications campaign for the university’s 150th anniversary.

In other BFA action

The BFA voted to suspend their bylaws so they could quickly approve a Statement on ICE Activity in Minnesota, which they felt was necessary given the urgency of the moment.
There was a reminder about upcoming BFA elections, including an election of at-large representatives that opens for nominations in two weeks and the election of the BFA chair-elect at the end of the semester.
During last December’s meeting, the BFA voted to approve a change to the bylaws that allows them to meet four times each semester, regardless of academic calendar. That change goes into effect this spring, with two meetings scheduled for April.

Learn more about the BFA and previous actions on the BFA website.

Members of the Boulder Faculty Assembly were updated on the university's integrated marketing and communications plan and the current budget allocation model discussions during the first meeting of the semester on Feb. 5.

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Budget allocation model updates

Integrated marketing and communications

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