CU regent Jack Kroll Thursday heard from members of the Boulder Faculty Assembly that CU鈥檚 next permanent president should be well-versed in the world of academics, not be a partisan politician and should ascend from an open and transparent search process.听
The discussion鈥攐riginally intended to be among several members of the University of Colorado Board of Regents and the BFA鈥檚 general assembly鈥攅nded up being a conversation between BFA members and Kroll, a Democrat and a CU Boulder associate director of admissions who represents Colorado鈥檚 First Congressional District on the board of regents.听
Other regents who had committed to join the regent-requested conversation could not due to a technical glitch in the Zoom meeting that prevented them from joining with their CU system email addresses.听
鈥淲e extend our apologies to the board听 . . .听 the listening session will be re-scheduled,鈥� said BFA chair Tiffany Beechy of English, presiding over her first BFA general assembly meeting as the group鈥檚 chair.听
In the discussion with Kroll, BFA members鈥攚orking off a nine-point BFA draft statement from 2018 updated earlier in the week by the BFA's听executive committee鈥攖old Kroll a new CU president should understand the work of faculty, embrace the university鈥檚 public mission听and not be 鈥渧isionary鈥� to the point of exalting a narrow and self-serving agenda.听
鈥淲e want a president who is committed to a robust role for faculty in sharing in the important decisions of the university,鈥� said Alastair Norcross of philosophy.听
Cathy Comstock of the philosophy, arts and culture academic program at Farrand Hall agreed, saying she also thought it would be 鈥済reat鈥� if the new president 鈥渃ould be a great listener鈥攕omeone with empathy who really hears what people are saying and who goes out of their way to act on that.鈥�
鈥淚f they鈥檙e not a great listener, I鈥檓 not sure any of the other qualities matter,鈥� she said.听
Other BFA members were strong in calling for an open search process that would produce more than simply a 鈥渟ole finalist,鈥� which happened in searches that produced former CU President Mark Kennedy in 2018 and former CU President Bruce Benson in 2008.听
The searches that produced Kennedy and Benson drew strong criticism of the regents from CU faculty and some newspaper editorial pages for their lack of transparency in revealing the full slate of candidates who were under consideration for the post.听
鈥淲hat unbelievable contempt it shows for the public to not show the full list of candidates,鈥� said Jennifer Hendricks of law. 鈥淚 would urge the Board of Regents to show more respect to a public institution.鈥澨�
Kroll said there has been 鈥渁n evolution of the board鈥檚 search process鈥� in recent years and that the point of needing a transparent process 鈥渋s not lost on me.鈥澨�
He acknowledged that the board had heard from higher ed executives鈥攊ncluding Colorado State University Chancellor Tony Frank鈥攖hat they would not stand as a candidate in any search that publicly revealed all finalists.听听
鈥淭he message I have sent to my colleagues (on the board) is that our goal is not just to pick a president, but to run a process that allows that president to succeed,鈥� Kroll said.听听
Other members were emphatic that CU鈥檚 next president should not come from the world of politics.听
鈥淚t makes a big difference鈥攚e as a faculty can say we want someone from us, who has been in our shoes, not who has been a politician or in big business, but someone who knows what our problems are and who has been in a university before,鈥� said Markus Pflaum of mathematics.
CU鈥檚 past presidents with political backgrounds have included Denver Mayor Quigg Newton, a Democrat; Benson, a GOP candidate for governor and former chair of Colorado鈥檚 Republican Party; former United States Sen. Hank Brown, a Greeley Republican and the former president of the University of Northern Colorado, and Kennedy, who served as a Republican Minnesota congressman before a career in private business, running a graduate program at George Washington University, and serving as the president of the University of North Dakota.听
Kroll told the BFA this would not be the last time for the board to hear feedback on the search process. He said on Sept. 10 the board would vote to finalize the chairs of the search committee and would put out a call for nominations to serve on the committee and would name it sometime in late October or early November.听
Beechy said the BFA will take in Thursday鈥檚 feedback and provide BFA members with a Qualtrics poll on the draft statement of attributes for its vote in the next 10 days.
In other BFA business, representatives from the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) provided the members of the BFA with a presentation about the upcoming听Campus Culture Survey, a campuswide effort to assess the extent to which students, faculty and staff feel respected, supported and valued at CU Boulder.
The survey鈥撯�揳n unprecedented effort by CU Boulder to gather insights from all students, faculty and staff about their experiences on and off campus鈥撯�搘ill be administered through Qualtrics the week of Oct. 18 and close on Nov. 21.
For Faculty, staff and graduate students, survey questions will focus on questions about sense of belonging, academic/administrative workplace cultures, and incidents involving hostile treatment鈥撯�揺specially as they tie in with aspects of personal identity鈥撯�揹iscrimination, and protected-class harassment, including sexual harassment.
The undergraduate student survey will focus on sense of belonging, academic, residential and social cultures, hostile treatment, discrimination and protected-class harassment, including sexual harassment.
Undergraduate and graduate students will also be asked about sexual misconduct since becoming students at CU Boulder, including incidents of sexual assault and exploitation, relationship abuse (dating and domestic violence) and stalking.
During her presentation to the full faculty assembly, Volckens explained the scope, vision and mission of the survey, which is a collaborative effort among OIEC, the Office of Data Analytics (ODA), the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement (ODECE) and other campus partners.
Volckens said the campus would use survey results 鈥渢o better understand our existing culture and to identify both strengths and areas of concern鈥� in order to make recommendations on how to create a more inclusive campus community. Insights from the survey will help address employee and student retention and provide data that will be actionable at the department, division and campus levels, she said.
The survey has been in development since 2016 and is designed to support theInclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan. It is also incorporated into the听Academic Review and Planning听(ARP) process. The campus hopes to achieve an overall survey participation rate of at least 50% and at least 70% among historically underrepresented groups, Volckens said.
Next spring, aggregated survey results will be made available to the campus, including sexual misconduct survey sometime in April.
The BFA also:听
-Reminded members to vote in the internal elections for BFA committees by Friday, Sept. 3, at 11:59 p.m. External elections for remaining seats will open to campus faculty next week.听
-Reminded members to share information with their colleagues on faculty opportunities to serve on both the CU Boulder Honor Code Advisory board and on the CU Police Department鈥檚 new oversight board.
