November 2019 Trustee Update

Dear Campus Community,

CC’s Board of Trustees was on campus last week (November 6-9) for its regular fall meeting. I am happy to provide you with a summary of the board’s meetings.

During their time on campus, trustees attended the Keller Family Venture Grant Forum. After the forum, trustees held a reception with students and faculty involved with Venture Grants and members of the President’s Council. On Friday, trustee Ryan Haygood ’97, president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute of Social Justice, and Professor Dana Wolfe gave a fascinating lunch presentation on “100 Years of Women’s Suffrage: Consequences and Next Steps,” which was attended by trustees, students, and faculty. The board also had the opportunity to meet with faculty serving on the Faculty Executive Committee, and staff who serve on Staff Council. Trustees welcome these opportunities to get to know students, faculty, and staff, and I thank those of you who attended these events and met with the board.
 
The Student Success Committee held its inaugural meeting. The committee, whose members include student trustee Lily Weissgold ’20 and Professor and Curriculum Executive Committee Chair Genevieve Love (advisory member), is charged with monitoring student success and educational quality. This committee will work closely with the board’s new Strategic Project Team focusing on Size and Makeup of the Student Body. This team is considering how CC’s student population should evolve over the next decades. 

The board’s other standing committees (Buildings, Grounds, and Infrastructure, Budget and Finance, Audit, and Governance) and SPTs (Athletics, Campaign Steering, and the Financial Model) also met. Of note:

• The Buildings, Grounds, and Infrastructure Committee went on a tour of campus, and met with the architects designing Robson Arena and the architects helping conceptualize a building for Innovation at CC.
• The Audit Subcommittee met with the college’s auditors and accepted the college’s annual audit. The auditors were very complimentary about the cooperation and transparency of CC’s finance staff. 

During the board’s business meeting, I gave an update on CC’s anti-racism efforts, our new access initiatives (Colorado Pledge, Stroud Scholars and the test-optional policy), and the Edge Internship program. Vice President for Enrollment Mark Hatch provided an update on Admission, and trustee Jeff Keller announced that the Building on Originality Campaign total now stands at $374 million, toward  the goal of $435 million. Provost Alan Townsend spoke about his work with Dean Claire Oberon Garcia and faculty members to envision the future of the humanities and sciences at CC. He also described the work of the climate change task force, which includes faculty, students, staff, and trustees. Professor Wade Roberts, chair of the FEC, described the faculty’s anti-racism efforts, the implementation of new general education requirements, and the FEC’s work to evaluate and restructure faculty governance. Ethan Greenberg ’20, president of CC’s Student Government Association, spoke about CCSGA’s involvement in anti-racism work, the climate change task force, the general education revisions, and increasing student participation in CC governance and local and national elections.

The board approved several items, including:

• Re-election of board officers Susie Burghart (chair), Jeff Keller (vice-chair) and Marc St. John (secretary) to additional two-year terms in these positions. 
• Approval of the scope of Robson Arena (as presented by the architects and provisionally approved by the city’s Downtown Review Board) with acknowledgement that the current volatility in construction costs nationwide will impact the final cost of the project. 
• Amendments to the college’s Gender-based Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence Policy and Procedures (Title IX Policy) and the Anti-discrimination Policy and Procedures. The amendments update the final decision-makers for student and staff cases and the appeals decision-maker for faculty and staff cases. 
• Candidates for honorary degrees to be awarded at Commencement 2020. Names of the candidates for honorary degrees will be announced in the spring. 

The next board meeting will be February 20-22, 2020.

Best regards,