Hello. Thank you for joining me today.
I hope you had the opportunity to watch the documentary film we released yesterday
about our COVID response. If not, I highly recommend it as a
testament to the incredible people at this university.
We've all been through challenging times over the past year-and-a-half, and I'm so
proud of how our CU Boulder community has come together during the pandemic to
face the many unique situations that came our way.
The documentary tells the story of where we as CU Boulder have been
since the pandemic began. Today, I'd like to talk to you about the
future and where we're going, and to ask for your help to get us there.
I'm going to share with you my excitement and our priorities for the
new academic year, which includes reinforcing that we are one of America's
leading research universities with an emphasis on our work in the broad and
encompassing areas of space, biosciences and climate, while also
recognizing our expertise in and the critical importance of an education
grounded in the social sciences, performing arts and humanities,
fostering a student-centered approach to teaching and learning.
That includes having a common curriculum that enhances our student success,
retention and graduation outcomes, building a more diverse, equitable and
inclusive campus, sustaining and supporting our community,
including our physical, mental and emotional health,
and aligning our physical and financial resources so our campus can be
successful in its academic mission. We can invest the time and effort to
accomplish these goals together. I'm going to ask you to share what's
important to you and how your CU Boulder experience can be better shaped by our
collective efforts. But first I want to express some
well-deserved gratitude. A community is only as strong as the
people who inhabit it, and it was the people across this campus
who, without hesitation, answered the call to continue serving
the CU Boulder community as we plunged into uncertainty
in March 2020. It was truly a time of unprecedented
need. To the faculty and staff,
thank you. Thank you for putting service to this
community above self over and over as the pandemic stretched
on through the last academic year. We asked you to do things that had never
been done before. We asked many of you to keep coming to
campus, fulfilling critical roles that couldn't
be accomplished remotely, including ensuring that our students who
call the campus home were supported, and caring for our students under
challenging and changing circumstances. We asked you to teach classes using
technology that was new to many of us. We asked you to design curricula and lesson
plans that would bridge the distance between teacher and student while still
imparting the knowledge, skills and information our students needed to
succeed. We asked you to hold meetings from your homes,
connected to each other via computer monitor,
ensuring the important business of the university could continue without
interruption. And we asked you to research ways to keep our campus
community safe in the face of this deadly virus.
In every instance you answered the call. Your efforts to ensure our safety and
continued ability to teach and learn had applications beyond our campus,
into the city of Boulder and across many communities.
And I'd like to thank our students. In my 47 years at Boulder, I've never
witnessed a disruption to the learning environment
like the one we just experienced. Your flexibility,
willingness to preserve and fortitude in the face of this adversity
was admirable and commendable. And your resilience and skills you
brought to bear during these trying times will serve you well long after you
graduated from CU. Finally, I'd like to also recognize our
CU parents, alumni, donors and the greater Boulder community for your ongoing help
and support as we navigated these uncharted waters.
By now we all hope to be done with the pandemic,
but it seems the pandemic isn't quite done with us.
I am, however, pleased to report that as of today, the vast majority of
students, faculty and staff who've submitted their vaccination records are
fully vaccinated. As the academic year progresses, we'll
continue to adapt and remain flexible, applying the lessons we have all learned
these past 18 months. Now that we've gathered together back on
campus, it's imperative to forge ahead and focus on the future.
And I'm excited for you to join me in this endeavor.
One thing the pandemic has taught us is the true value of being a leading
research university. Our versatility was on full display when
dozens of top CU Boulder research teams immediately refocused their efforts
during the pandemic to find solutions to the complicated problems presented by
COVID. CU Boulder research leads the way,
especially in the areas of space, biosciences, climate, energy and
sustainability. It's no coincidence that these subject areas are some of the
world's most pressing challenges. Breakthroughs in these disciplines have
immediate, real-world impacts and a positive effect on our planet.
We are globally recognized for our research,
as well as the comprehensive breadth and impact of our innovation, public
scholarship and creative work, and we will continue to lead.
But let me be clear. The best way to optimize our academic
achievements, not only in research but across our schools and colleges, is to
ensure our students are set up for success.
To do this we must have a common approach to student success.
Things like a common curriculum and the new Buff undergraduate success program
will help us prioritize and align our students success efforts and increase
the sense of belonging here at CU. Belonging is key to making our students,
faculty and staff feel included and welcome.
We as a campus community must continue the hard and ongoing work of ensuring CU
Boulder is a diverse, inclusive and welcoming place for all who live, work
and study here. As you know,
earlier this month we were pleased to welcome Sonia DeLuca
Fernández as our first senior vice chancellor for diversity, equity and
inclusion. As she begins her time on campus, Dr.
DeLuca Fernández will take opportunities to solicit your valuable input to shape
her priorities and guide us in this important work. We'll continue to
collaborate with campus stakeholders such as the Inclusion, Diversity and
Excellence in Academics Council, ODECE and others to deepen our
engagement, advance our actions and accelerate our progress in diversity,
equity and inclusion at CU. We know that everyone's CU Boulder
experience is unique, but our mission is to make each individual feel welcome,
included and heard. It's a mission that is constantly
evolving and one to which I'm deeply committed.
Here's a recent example of these efforts in action.
During Move-In Week, I had the opportunity to visit with new students,
parents, RAs and staff. I was inspired by the joy of rekindling
those personal connections that I witnessed across the campus.
Student and staff leaders have given a great deal of thought and energy into
establishing a foundation of belonging, community and safety from the moment new
Buffs arrive on campus and through the academic year.
This commitment to a welcoming environment for all is a model for our
CU Boulder community as we put our ideas into action.
To further inform our work, this fall we're also launching our Campus Culture
Survey, and it's a crucially important project
which enables us to hear directly from you.
It will tell us how we're doing and where we need to focus our efforts on
building a community that supports belonging and the success of all.
I'm personally asking every student, faculty member and staff member to take
the survey. We need to hear your voices because they
will help us make better decisions to guide the campus and shape our future.
Your mental health and well-being is also my priority.
Before the pandemic, we were seeing an increase in demand for mental health
services. During the pandemic, this reached
unprecedented rates. If you are struggling,
please know you are not alone. CU Boulder is committed to supporting
your health and wellness. We will get through this together.
We must destigmatize asking for help. I'm committed to, and have provided
resources for, additional counselors and research
partnerships to help our community, not just today but every day. Please know
that I care, that CU Boulder cares.
Achieving our future success also depends on sustaining our campus
physical and financial resources. That means a redesigned budget model
that will bring a new level of transparency to our financial decisions
and operations. We are developing an exciting and
forward-looking campus master plan, and we are moving forward with the
annexation process of our CU Boulder South project.
All of these elements bring us back to successfully building a foundation
that supports our research mission, and these pillars inform the purpose and
direction of our role as one of the nation's leading public research universities.
But as I've said,
we cannot do this work without each other.
We need to meet the future head on, as Buffaloes do,
together. And I want to hear from you
as the year progresses. My leadership team,
including Provost Russ Moore and Chief Operating Officer Pat O'Rourke and I,
will seek out opportunities to hear from you and solicit feedback
about your own experiences at CU. To that end, next month I will attend the
Health and Wellness Summit here on campus, and in November I'm looking
forward to being at the Diversity Summit. Please visit the website listed to see
how you can get involved. And watch CU Boulder Today, social media and other
invitations for additional ways to engage throughout the year.
For our faculty and staff, you can also expect to hear from your supervisors and
unit leaders on some key items, including the upcoming Campus Culture Survey.
For now, I wish you all health and success, and
ask you to care for each other as we start the academic year.
Thank you, and Go, Buffs!