Board of Trustees

February 2018 Trustee Update

Last week, the Board of Trustees was on campus for its regular February meeting.
 
On Thursday, the board met with students who participated in Professor Mark Smith’s Block 3 course on the economics of international climate change policy.  The students described their experience attending the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) in Bonn, Germany and invited trustees to attend the COP meeting next year in Poland.
 
That evening, the board joined faculty and students from the Music Department, members of the Fine Arts Center Advisory Board and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic for dinner and a conversation with Jamie Bernstein in celebration of her father, Leonard Bernstein’s, 100^th birthday.
 
On Friday, the board considered whether to remove former President Slocum’s name from Slocum Hall, as requested in petitions from CC alumni, faculty, staff and students. The board will issue a statement on its decision by the end of Block 6. Additionally, the board discussed options for Robson Hockey Arena, which will be CC’s next major capital project. 
 
As part of their ongoing commitment to learning about admission and financial aid, trustees engaged in an exercise that illustrated the difficult decisions made in admitting a class each year. Faculty members of the Committee on Admission and Financial Aid and the admissions staff also participated in the exercise. 
 
During the board’s plenary session on Saturday, noted scholar and author Jean Twenge discussed the findings she describes in her book “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.”
 
During their Saturday business meeting, the board approved several items including:

• Tuition for the 2018-19 academic year at $54,996 and the comprehensive fee at $67,982. The 2018-19 budget will include a 3% increase in the salary pool for faculty and staff;
• Tenure and promotion to associate professor for faculty members Ryan Bañagale (Music), Amy Dounay (Chemistry), Heidi Lewis (Feminist and Gender Studies) and Matthew Whitehead (Mathematics and Computer Science);
• Emeritus status for Professors of History Doug Monroy and Dennis Showalter;
• Candidates for honorary degrees to be awarded at Commencement and Opening Convocation 2018 (information about the honorees will be sent to the campus community soon); and 
• New charter trustees who will join the board in June 2018. 

The board also heard reports from Dean Sandi Wong, Faculty Executive Committee Chair Professor Carol Neel, CCSGA President Dorsa Djalilzadeh, and me. Additionally, Vice President for Advancement Sean Pieri provided an update on our Building on Originality campaign progress.

The board will next meet during its annual retreat, June 13-15, 2018.