CU Connections

Story of Bolder Boulder began with Bosley

Regent Steve Bosley tells his Bolder Boulder story Tuesday at CU system administration. (Photo: Jon Arnold/University of Colorado)

Steve Bosley, a banker and fitness runner, just wanted to organize a kids’ track meet. His friend, Olympic medalist runner Frank Shorter, suggested he take the idea further and launch a road race.

“What’s a road race?” Bosley asked.

That was in 1979. Today, the Boulder entrepreneur and member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents is an undisputed expert on the topic, one who can point with pride to the Bolder Boulder whenever anyone might ask, “What’s a road race?” Or, more to the point, “What’s the best road race?”

Bosley traded his regental suit and tie for a Bolder Boulder logo polo shirt to offer a narrative history of the event during a brown bag lunch presented Tuesday by the CU System Staff Council at 1800 Grant St., Denver.

The 10K road race is entrenched as a Memorial Day weekend tradition in the state, expected to draw about 51,000 runners this year. Another 70,000 will make their way to Folsom Field on the CU-Boulder campus, where racers cross the finish line to the cheers of thousands, then enjoy an expo in and around the stadium.

“It’s been a fabulous relationship,” Bosley said of the Bolder Boulder-CU connection. “Over 120,000 people come through the stadium on race day, and 65 percent of them have no other experience with CU. So the opportunity for the exposure to CU and (to) tell the CU story … is one that’s pretty special.”

Bosley said the race creates a $10 million economic impact on the city of Boulder. The number of participants makes it one of the top two or three races in the country, and top six or seven in the world. Quality, though, rather than size, is the race’s goal.

“Size doesn’t matter in this case. What we want to do is be the best,” he said. Runners World Magazine named the Bolder Boulder the “All-Time Best 10K Race in America.”

The race has earned national accolades as just that, thanks in part to the big-money prizes for elite runners, the challenging and scenic route throughout the town, its spirit of celebration and the military tributes that honor the holiday. The race also is recognized for pioneering wave starts, a practice begun in 1984 that enables all skill levels of runners, joggers and walkers to take part without slowing – or being slowed by – one another.

“If you just fired the gun and everybody took off, most people wouldn’t be able to ever get up to speed and race,” Bosley said. “Here, you can run your whole race.”

The timing of those waves is a science, Bosley said, with race organizers employing a computer model to track five-year trends that estimate the optimal amount of time to wait between the start of each wave – 104 waves at this year’s race.

New on the Bolder Boulder website this year, Bosley said, is a way for past race participants to upload stories – words, pictures and/or video – that tell their personal connection to the race.

“It’s one experience and tens of thousands of stories. I’m now hearing stories of four generations,” Bosley said. “We’ve had 50-some people that met at the Bolder Boulder who have been married at the Bolder Boulder – I don’t know if we’ve got any divorces yet!

“So those stories that we hear all the time are humbling because of the effect (the race) has on so many people.”

Bosley’s oldest daughter created a special Bolder Boulder story after her Navy reserve unit was deployed; she devised the idea of a Memorial Day race for deployed troops who can’t be in Boulder. The race sends the troops T-shirts for the occasion.

“Over 15,000 troops around the world deployed in harm’s way have now run a Bolder Boulder,” Bosley said. “This year, there’ll be 2,800 running in five races around the world. One of them is on a ship, where they’ll be running laps on an aircraft carrier.”

Bosley also mentioned a letter sent earlier this month from CU President Bruce Benson to service members who are participating in satellite races around the world. It invites them to come run the Bolder Boulder free of charge after returning home, and asks them to keep CU’s campuses in mind should college education be part of their future.

“We don’t know what it’s going to produce, but I think that’s pretty neat,” Bosley said.

Last month’s Boston Marathon attack necessitated the quick pursuit of revised security plans for this year’s event, Bosley said.

“We have had an outstanding series of meetings with Boulder police, CU police and other advisers. It’s the way government’s supposed to work.

“A plan has been rolled out. … We’re not going to tell what the game plan is, but we’ve got hundreds and hundreds of hours of planning into it.”

Security will be stepped up at Folsom Field, Bosley said, and off-duty law enforcement officers across the state have been invited to run the race for free, to increase the number of trained professionals at the event.

Click here for race registration information.

CU to move quickly in hunt for new fundraising chief

The University of Colorado Board of Regents on Wednesday voted 7-0 to allow President Bruce Benson to deviate from the standard search process as he looks for a chief fundraiser to oversee a realignment of CU’s fundraising and advancement efforts.

Benson told the board the executive vice president position will play a critical role in the many moving parts that make up the restructuring of the university’s fundraising operations, so it is important to proceed quickly with a search. He also said he intends to provide governance groups an opportunity to meet the candidate(s) before a final decision is made. The search committee will comprise Benson, the four campus leaders and Vice President and Chief of Staff Leonard Dinegar. The search will begin immediately.

The new executive vice president position is one of the primary recommendations made by Grenzebach, Glier and Associates, a leading international philanthropic services firm, which has been working with CU to assess its fundraising and advancement activities and recommend improvements.

Transition teams at the university and the foundation are working on details of moves and coordinating efforts.

“We’ve done a great job with our fundraising in recent years, but given the continual declines in state funding and bleak prospects for its future, we have to raise the bar on attracting private support to CU,” Benson said. “These efforts will help us take fundraising to the next level.”

Five questions for Max Boykoff

When Hurricane Mitch stuck Honduras in 1998, Max Boykoff was a member of the Peace Corps, working with farmers on crop diversification and integrated pest management practices. The Category 5 event left thousands of people dead and millions homeless. Struck by the power of nature, Boykoff felt motivated to pursue questions of the environment, including those surrounding land management. After earning a Ph.D. in environmental studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz, he became a research fellow at the Environmental Change Institute and lecturer in geography at the University of Oxford. He came to the University of Colorado Boulder four years ago, and he quips, is now a “senior.” He teaches environmental studies and geography and also maintains a collaborative relationship with Oxford University.

As an assistant professor in the Center for Science and Technology Policy in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), his research interests include the cultural politics of climate change and carbon-based economies and societies. In addition, he’s looked at how “outlier” perspectives (particularly climate contrarians and countermovement groups) gain traction in public discourses. (See article at http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/2013.05.pdf)

His books include “Who Speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change” (2011) and another that will be released in June titled “Successful Adaptation to Climate Change.”

From left, Max Boykoff, Beth Osnes, James Balog and Becca Safran at the Inside the Greenhouse event in April.

Boykoff has worked with researchers around the world, from studying water issues in the lower Jordan River Valley to collaborating with the Red Cross in East Africa. He says he has been fortunate to be able to “expose myself to a lot of different cultures, perspectives and ideas. I’m continuing to learn from them, and some of it is simmering, and I believe my best work and most important contributions are yet to come.”

1. What have your studies on climate change and the media found and what types of improvements need to be made to offer accurate assessments of what’s happening to Earth’s environment?

There’s a lot of nuance and texture so that’s why I ended up writing a book about it, pulling together a number of different studies I had done. Some were quantitative, looking at content and how the media had been covering certain elements of climate change; for instance, the degree to which humans contribute to the climate change we detect now. Some were qualitative treatments, where I interviewed journalists, policy actors, and research academic scientists to understand barriers to — and levers for — change.

My findings have pointed to a range of opportunities for improvement, from the practices of individual journalists — such as more effective contextualization through labeling – to actions of individual scientists or research academics who must work hard to smarten up their language so they can translate complex work to the general public. Both cases seem straightforward, but institutional architectures often haven’t been conducive to supporting those efforts. Scientists still often consider their work with media and the public as an extension or sometimes even an annoyance to the laboratory research. But it’s a different time and it has to be part of our responsibility in doing this work. It’s not about dumbing down for the public; it’s really about smartening it up.

There are also larger institutional practices – ongoing media consolidation and drive for profit – that have worked to the detriment of covering complex and abstract issues. Climate change is certainly an example; it’s a difficult story to cover.

2. Can individuals make a difference when it comes to climate change, and if so, how?

I teach an introduction to environmental studies class, and this is one of the questions that comes up a lot. While it’s important to think about our role in this larger trend on the plant, I tend to favor working in the international and national arena where significant advances can be made. Of course everything we do matters. But we need to recognize that large-scale decisions that are informed by the best science available have the possibility to most effectively improve how we’re dealing with issues like climate change. When I do my work, it’s not to prescribe which policy tool is right or wrong but to make us more aware of what can be gained from certain policy decisions. For example, when you flip on the lights or use your computer, you don’t know offhand what mix of coal-fired power has gone into the electricity generation that you’re benefitting from or what percentage is due to wind. Yet decision-making and systems change will enable us to continue to prosper and do better much more efficiently and effectively.

3.  Some of your students are working on “social acceptability of renewable energy development in the American West.” Explain what they are doing and the results they have found.

My advisee Shawn Olson just defended her master’s thesis, which looks at Converse County, Wyo., and the social acceptability of turbine placements along with questions around resistance to where the projects are sited. One of my current advisees Xi Wang is looking at renewable portfolio standards and how different states are adopting these standards and changing profiles of their energy generation. Xi just received the Albert E. Smith Emerging Scholar Award from The Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) at CU which is good acknowledgement and support for her path-breaking research.

One of the things I love about my role is being able to work with students and create the conditions where they can do their best work. I’m excited about all of their projects. (Visit http://www.icecaps.org/ for more information about Boykoff’s lab and research work.)

4. What other projects or research are you working on?

I have a co-edited book coming out next month titled “Successful Adaptation to Climate Change.” We’ve been able to pull together top scholars and look at questions around climate adaptation in a variety of cases. They comment on different case studies and how we can measure what’s working. We already are committed to a certain level of climate change, and adaptation is a necessity that’s become more and more acceptable and needed. My co-editor is Susie Moser (Stanford University), who has worked on this for a few decades, and I’ve jumped into these considerations around climate adaptation  more recently.

Another project I’m happy to be working on is “Inside the Greenhouse” with two other professors, Beth Osnes in the Theatre Department and Rebecca Safran, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. We’re working with students to foster their development of creative ways to communicate about climate change and other issues in the environment. Students present multi-modal forms of communications – performance art, film, dance, public art and so on. The overall project combines courses we’ve developed along with public-facing events. For instance, we sit down with celebrities and talk about the climate and environmental issues and try to draw out their motivations. We had an April event, attended by about 1,500 people, where James Balog talked about the motivations behind his awarding-winning documentary “Chasing Ice.” We’re taking the students’ work and interviews and turning it into a TV program that will launch this summer or fall.

5. What’s the most important thing you keep on your desk?

My grandfather Alvin passed away a few years ago. He worked in the stock room for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for more than 50 years and when he reached 25 years of service with them, he got a paperweight. I inherited it and now keep it on my desk. His motto was, “Live, work, study, play, relax.”

CU notches successes in recently ended legislative session

The 2013 state legislative session concluded last week. All the CU-initiated bills have made their way through the process and are on their way to Gov. John Hickenlooper for signature.

Legislative highlights include:

Budget and Capital

The governor signed SB 13-230, the Long Appropriations Bill, which sets the FY 13-14 budget, on April 29. Higher education will receive an increase of $30 million plus $5 million in financial aid; it is the first time higher education has received an increase since 2008.

The bill also includes $142 million state general fund for capital construction. CU’s share is about $21 million:

• $7 million for CU Anschutz Medical Campus COP payment
• $6 million for Systems BioTech at CU-Boulder
• $4 million for Performing Arts at UCCS
• $4 million for the Library on the Auraria Campus.

The Joint Budget Committee’s supplemental bill, SB 13-090, includes about $9 million for higher education for the current fiscal year. CU’s portion is $3 million.

In addition, an amendment to SB 13-133 Distribution of Limited Gaming Revenues put an additional $500,000 into the Innovative Higher Education Research Grant Fund, available to research institutions. CU has been the most successful university in the state in competing for the funds.

HB 13-1194 In-state Tuition for Military Dependents

Current law allows a dependent of a service member to receive in-state tuition at a Colorado public college or university if the service member was stationed in Colorado during the dependent’s last year of high school and the dependent enrolled in a Colorado college within 12 months of graduation from a Colorado high school. The bill extends in-state tuition to all dependents, including spouses.

HB 13-1320 Support For Meritorious Colorado Students

Under current law, state-supported institutions of higher education must maintain a required ratio of resident student admissions to nonresident student admissions. The bill allows an institution to count a student who is admitted as a Colorado scholar as two in-state students for purposes of calculating this ratio.

This CU-initiated bill will allow institutions to create and have a stable funding source for a merit scholarship program that will allow us to be more competitive in keeping Colorado’s brightest students in the state. The bill passed through both houses and was sent to the governor.

SB 13-165 Community Colleges Limited Number of Bachelor Degrees

SB 13-165, a bill that would have allowed the state board for community colleges to seek approval from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to offer up to 10 four-year baccalaureate degree programs, was defeated.

CU joined a coalition of the state’s four-year institutions against the bill, arguing it would allow costly and duplicative degree programs in the state currently lacking adequate funding for higher education.

Other legislation affecting CU:

SB 13-023 Increase Damages Caps Under CGIA: The “Colorado Governmental Immunity Act” caps the amount that can be recovered by a person suing a public entity or public employee for loss or injury caused by the entity or employee in any single occurrence, whether from one or more public entities and public employees. The bill increases the damages limitation (one person, one occurrence) from $150,000 to $350,000, and from $600,000 to $990,000 (two or more people, single occurrence). It further specifies that a single-person is precluded from recovering more than $350,000.

CU worked with stakeholders on amendment negotiations to make the impact less severe, amending everything but the upper and lower dollar limits. The university also worked to change the effective date so that it applies only to injuries occurring after the effective date.

HB 13-1001 Advanced Industries Acceleration Act:

The bill creates the Advanced Industries Acceleration Grant Program within the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). The program provides for an incentive for collaboration between industry, research institutions and federal laboratories, and private-sector funders. It will create a program to provide grants to advanced industries seeking funding for proof of concept research and development, early stage capital and retention, and infrastructure.

SB 13-042 Foreign Assistant Medical Professor Renew Physician License:

Current law allows distinguished foreign physicians to be licensed for one year by the Colorado Medical Board to practice medicine at a state medical school. To renew a license, they must be a full-time faculty member (associate professor or higher). This bill allows those at the level of assistant professor to renew his or her license.

HB 13-1090 Construction Contractor Subcontractor Prompt Pay:

This bill establishes standards to govern construction agreements valued at $100,000 or more between contractors, subcontractors and project owners, including both private parties and public entities. In particular, the bill concerns payment terms, including progress payments, payment schedules, and limitations on retainage.

The university lobbied against the bill, which would have added major costs, delays and contractual burdens on campus construction projects. The bill was killed.

HB 13-1147 Voter Registration at Public Higher Education Institutions:

The bill requires institutions of higher education to provide students (as part of class registration) a link to the online voter registration website operated by the Secretary of State.

CU meets the intent of the bill and minor amendments to it were removed. During the bill’s hearing, the sponsor commended CU for facilitating student voter registration.  The bill passed through both Houses and was sent to the governor.

HB 13-1292 Keep Jobs In Colorado Act:

The bill makes changes to contracting requirements for state and local government agencies, including changes to the enforcement of the 80 percent labor law, the preference for resident bidders, the addition of competitive sealed best value bidding and the modification of disclosure requirements related to outsourcing services, labor and manufactured goods.

The university worked with capital stakeholders and internal capital construction experts on amendments to lessen the financial and procedural burdens.

HB 13-1310 Pharmacy Intern Definition Repeal:

This CU initiated bill will help clear up some definitions in statute from a bill that passed last year and will allow a group of more than 100 of our students to get a pharmacy intern license so that they can continue to complete their degree requirements.

More details on the legislation and the session are available here: http://statebillinfo.com/SBI/index.cfm?fuseaction=Public.Dossier&id=18716&pk=747

Shakespeare Fest offers tradition, twists

This summer of Shakespeare under the stars promises to be particularly special.

The 56th annual season of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival will feature a classic lineup — a comedy, a tragedy, a history — alongside a hilarious Shakespeare sendup and a return engagement of an off-Broadway hit.

But if anything, expect the unexpected, as two veterans and two of CSF’s favorite comic actors take the helm and offer their own visions, from the exotic to the traditional.

On deck for the season are the beloved comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”; the hilarious 37-plays-within-a-play, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged),”; the dark tragedy of “Macbeth”; and “Richard II,” cited by many actors and directors as their favorite play in the canon.

There also will be two very special performances of Tina Packer’s “Women of Will: The Overview,” fresh off its successful runs off-Broadway and in Prague.

“This season is fantastic because it’s so well-balanced,” says Timothy Orr, interim producing artistic director. “And we’ve got some fresh, brand-new directors who are making their CSF debuts.”

Directors Geoffrey Kent (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) and Gary Wright (“The Complete Works …”) step into directors’ roles for the first time at CSF following many seasons as favorite comic actors.

“These are two of the funniest actors I’ve ever worked with,” Orr says. “We are thrilled to see what they will do when they’re in charge.”

Kent — who won raves for his work in “Noises Off” at CSF in 2012 — says this year’s “Midsummer” will remind audiences of both “Downton Abbey” and “The Great Gatsby.”

“Set in the 1920s British countryside, you’ll find your toes tapping to a jazz soundscape, people with rude mechanical clowns, a new take on Shakespeare’s famous lovers and fairies chock full of magic and attended by puppets,” he says. “Fun, fast and great for the family and newcomers to Shakespeare.”

Wright’s job is to wrangle three actors (“These guys are painfully funny,” Orr says) in a semi-free-form take on all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays crammed into a couple of hours.

“If you can imagine Shakespeare’s plays as innocent pedestrians, our show is a speeding, out-of-control clown car, running them over, sometimes individually — ‘Titus Andronicus,’ ‘Othello,’ ‘Macbeth’ — sometimes in wholesale groups — the comedies, the histories,” Wright says. “In certain cases, we’ll run ’em down and then back over ’em a couple of times for good measure — can you say ‘Hamlet’?”

For a walk on the darker side, Jane Page returns to CSF for the first time since her smash-hit 2009 production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” for a brooding “Macbeth” set amid the harsh landscapes — both literal and political — of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.

“I decided to reference this production to pre-Taliban Afghanistan because it evokes a world that is at once exotic, dangerous, familiar and unknown,” Page says. “But it’s also a world with which we have a modern connection.”

“‘Macbeth’ is a story about recurring violence, the cycle of violence, something that CSF is exploring with its anti-violence school tours of ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The Tempest,’” Orr says. “We’re excited to see this in a context so relevant to our own time.”

James Symons will direct his 11th CSF play — more than any other director — with a spare and traditional rendering of “Richard II.”

“Willful. Wasteful. Arrogant. Young King Richard II was all of these; but he was also the smartest fellow in any room. ‘Richard II’ is the story of a young king’s determined but doomed efforts to hold on to his crown — and his life,” Symons says.

And in a very special engagement, Tina Packer and Nigel Gore return to CSF after their hit 2012 run of “Women of Will: The Full Cycle” for just two performances of  “The Overview,” which has been playing off-Broadway and has become an international sensation. The Denver Post says, “The pair have an … astonishing chemistry as they inhabit Shakespeare’s creations.”

“They perfected this at CSF last summer for their off-Broadway opening, and after CSF this season ‘Women of Will’ goes to The Hague. You don’t want to miss this,” Orr says.

One week left for Open Enrollment

University of Colorado benefits-eligible employees and retirees may make changes to benefits plans during Open Enrollment, which ends at 5 p.m. May 24.

The 2013-14 Open Enrollment is an active enrollment for all benefits-eligible employees and retirees. If you take no action, you will be automatically enrolled into your current medical and dental plan elections.

Employee Services’ benefits specialists are in the midst of conducting Open Enrollment Sessions, which give an overview of plans, detail changes, explain enrollment and answer questions. Upcoming sessions:

• Today, CU-Boulder, UMC Glenn Miller Ballroom
• Friday, CU Anschutz Medical Campus, ED2 South 2206

For a full schedule of times, visit www.cusys.edu/openenrollment/oe-calendar.pdf

Plan spotlight: CU Health Plan – High Deductible

With several CU Health Plans to consider, the High Deductible plan frequently is overlooked because of the higher deductibles it requires. Often, it is misunderstood to be a “Catastrophic” plan. However, this plan has many features that may make it a good fit for you and your family.

The CU Health Plan – High Deductible is an HSA qualified plan and offers a national network of providers. There are no referrals required, and there are both in-network and out-of-network physicians, specialists and hospitals.

Although the deductibles are higher, employees will pay lower monthly premiums for the High Deductible plan. Most preventive services are free, and you pay a discounted rate when you use medical services. The annual deductible is $1,500 for individuals and $3,000 for families.

The out-of-pocket maximum per year is $3,000 for individuals and $6,000 for families, which includes the deductible and co-insurance. Once you have reached the maximum, all covered health care services are 100-percent paid by the plan.

For healthy individuals, this plan can be an excellent option because your monthly premiums are lower and you pay when services are needed. For individuals with a major illness, the plan’s out-of-pocket maximum can help to reduce overall healthcare costs.

Is this plan right for you? The benefits specialists in Employee Services encourage you to examine the pros and cons of each plan by using the Plan Comparison Tool (www.cusys.edu/openenrollment/univ-compare.html) and the Educated Decisions Worksheet (www.cu.edu/pbs/benefits/downloads/Educated-Decisions.pdf) to determine the best plan for you and your family.

What’s new?

• No rate increase: Final rates and plan descriptions are now available. The good news: There will be no increase in premiums this year for CU benefits-eligible employees or retirees.

• Dental coverage unbundled: Starting this year, medical and dental insurance can be elected separately.
• Vision plan added: The CU Health Plan will now offer voluntary vision coverage, which includes routine eye exams, eye glasses and contact lenses. The new plan is only available to active employees (benefits-eligible 50 percent or greater).
• Hearing aids: Adult hearing aid coverage has been added to all plans, except CU Health Plan – Kaiser and CU Health Plan – Medicare, providing for a $3,500 maximum allowance every 60 months.

Reminders

• Set your flexible spending: You must re-enroll and actively elect annual contributions for Health Care and Dependent Care flexible spending accounts each year at open enrollment.
• Choose your doctor: This year, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield will replace Cigna as the university’s Administrative Services Organization. Due to this change, all CU Health Plan members in the Exclusive or Access Network plan are encouraged to select a primary care physician.
• Dependents: Dependents only need to be verified once then they remain in the system every year.

For more information about plans and plan changes, final rates, how to enroll and what happens if you choose to take no action during open enrollment, go to www.cu.edu/openenrollment.

If you have questions, please call Employee Services at 303-860-4200 and select option 3 or call toll free at 855-216-7740.

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Boulder Campus Staff Council welcomes new members, returning incumbents

Seven incumbents and four newcomers recently were elected to the Boulder Campus Staff Council following a campus-wide, web-based nomination and voting process.

After being nominated by fellow staff, 18 staff members competed for several open council seats during this year’s election, which closed April 29.

Incumbent Philip Bradley and newcomer Joshua Firestone were elected to represent area one.

Newly elected Serena Leland will fill the vacancy in area two.

Joanna Iturbe, who will be a new addition to the council, received the most votes in a very competitive area three election.

Area four will be represented by newcomer Amaury Batista.

Current council member Sharon Vieyra, will continue to represent area five after running uncontested.

Three incumbent council members ran unopposed in areas six, seven and eight: John McKee from area six, Nicholas O’Connor from area seven and Greg Roers from area eight will return to represent staff in their respective areas.

Former co-chair Sarah Douvres was elected to the council’s vacant at-large seat.

Those elected will serve three-year terms beginning July 1 and ending June 30, 2016.

Boulder Campus Staff Council is composed of 30 elected and appointed staff members who represent classified and professional staff on the CU-Boulder campus. Each spring, the council elects officers from the current council roster. The following incumbent council members have been elected to serve as officers beginning July 1:

• Co-chair: Randi Viola, ATLAS Institute
• Co-chair: John McKee, Facilities Management
• Vice Chair: Greg Roers, ABS
• Secretary: Dana Drummond, Bursar’s Office
• Treasurer: Erin Foster, Office of the Provost
• Parliamentarian: Dana Kusjanovic, Office of the Registrar

More information about Boulder Campus Staff Council, area representatives, and upcoming events may be found at http://www.colorado.edu/staffcouncil. To see your area representatives, click on membership from the home page then click on the area your building is located in on the membership page. A drop-down displays your area reps.

Submitted by Boulder Campus Staff Council

Connections sets summer publication calendar

Even if you’ll be away from your campus for any of this summer, you can stay up to date on happenings across the University of Colorado system by connecting with CU Connections.

The Connections summer schedule begins after the May 30 issue, when we’ll shift to biweekly issues. No new issues are scheduled to appear on the following dates (subject to change):

• June 6
• June 20
• July 4
• July 18
• Aug. 1

Weekly publication will resume with the Aug. 8 issue.

Throughout the season, the site will be updated with news should events warrant.

If you’re sending postcards from your vacation, be sure to keep us in the loop, too. We always welcome Letters to the Editor on topics of interest to current and retired CU faculty and staff. Please send submissions to newsletter@cu.edu. And if you have a news item or story suggestion you’d like to pass along, please send it to Jay.Dedrick@cu.edu.

Deadline for submissions is noon Friday prior to the Thursday publication.

Jabs’ pledge of $10 million a record gift for CU Denver

The University of Colorado Denver Business School is poised to dramatically expand its entrepreneurship education, research, programmatic reach, and caliber — thanks to a $10 million pledge by Jake Jabs, founder and CEO of American Furniture Warehouse, to CU Denver.

With the gift, the newly renamed Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship will expand its annual Business Plan competition to encompass universities throughout Colorado and the West. It will enable the build-out of a named marquee space for the new Business School building. It will fund new endowments for a professorship, faculty research, programming and operations.

In sum, Jabs’ gift will strengthen all aspects of the entrepreneurship center, foster connections between entrepreneurs and students region-wide, and bolster the center’s stature as it progresses toward becoming one of the top academic entrepreneurship centers in the nation.

Jabs’s gift is nearly double the total of the largest prior cash commitment to CU Denver, and leads a wave of more than $20 million in private support toward the CU Denver Business School within two years.

“Jake Jabs is a highly accomplished and well-regarded businessman who has done a considerable amount for Colorado and the Denver community,” CU President Bruce Benson said. “His contribution to the Business School will help CU Denver nurture the next generation of business leaders and deepen our connections with the Denver business community.”

Jabs has supported an entrepreneurship center at Montana State University in addition to numerous charities. He chose to make this transformative gift to CU Denver’s Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship, where he has guest-lectured on occasion, as part of his broader personal goals of celebrating entrepreneurial values, and of raising the bar to keep American university graduates competitive in a global marketplace.

“What motivated me to get more involved with CU, frankly, is Madhavan Parthasarathy,” said Jabs, referring to the center’s director, a CU Denver associate professor of marketing. “We think a lot alike. We both come from humble beginnings. We believe in living below our means. We have quite a bit in common, in terms of our philosophy of life.”

Parthasarathy, who has known Jabs for seven years, thinks the gift’s most immediate and visible impact will be on the annual Business Plan Competition; the 2013 competition will culminate June 18.

“The goal is to get as many students involved as possible, whether within the Business School, or in engineering, music, or other fields,” Parthasarathy said. “Next year, the business plan competition will be open to a much broader range of schools, which will give our center a real regional impact.”

Until the last 30 years, few American universities had formal entrepreneurship programs. Since the 1980s, there has been increased prevalence and interest in entrepreneurship education, responding to the notion that in a highly competitive landscape, the launch of new businesses (and innovation of existing ones) requires more than just vision. Entrepreneurship also requires fluency with business planning, financing, regulation, and other systemic factors that are taught and nurtured in an academic setting, in conjunction with exposure to start-up companies, family businesses, and small business operations.

CU Denver launched its entrepreneurship center in 1996 with an initial gift by Richard H. and Pamela S. Bard. In the 17 years since, more than 2,500 CU Denver students have participated in programs including more than a dozen courses, the business plan competition, speaker series, and a business incubator among other activities. Several growing Colorado businesses got their start thanks to this center, including Elevated Third, Viktorian Guitars, and Nokero.

“Jake Jabs’ story and vision will inspire many future entrepreneurs at the Center,” Richard Bard said. “Pam and I feel honored to have launched this entrepreneurship program for CU Denver, and we know it has had a positive impact for both the students and the state in transforming ideas into economic results.”

Jake Jabs is an appropriate namesake for an entrepreneurship center in the heart of the Rocky Mountain region. Jabs was born one of nine children in an immigrant family in a small, hardscrabble Montana ranch town, and through military service and early business experiences operating a music store, he developed an ethic of hard work and a respect for the start-up spirit.

From the vestiges of a defunct furniture business, Jabs started American Furniture Warehouse in 1975. Throughout 38 years of sustained business growth, Jabs has become a recognized icon throughout Colorado, sometimes appearing in advertisements with a live tiger on his lap. Today, American Furniture Warehouse has 12 Colorado stores, $350 million in annual sales, and plans for out-of-state expansion.

Jabs’s gift is one of more than 275,000 gifts made during Creating Futures, a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign to enhance University of Colorado education, research, outreach, and health programs benefiting citizens throughout and beyond Colorado. Visit cufund.org for more information.

Boulder Campus Staff Council celebrates 50 years

The Boulder Campus Staff Council hosted a reunion of past and current members on April 18 to celebrate 50 years of service.

One attendee, Margaret Kneebone, has the distinction of having the earliest service date. She started at CU in 1969 and began serving on the council a few years after that. She served on council one elected year and 26 additional years in a non-elected support role. Later, she was honored as an honorary lifetime member of staff council.

What began as a celebration evolved into an educational session where current Staff Council members could learn from the experiences of our predecessors. In addition to Ms. Kneebone, 27 other past members attended the reunion, where they shared numerous and inspiring experiences and memories. Some recounted their memories of rallies held to expand staff rights while others talked about Staff Council’s role in educating staff on how to contact legislators and advocate for themselves. Everyone reminisced about the pride they felt regarding the accomplishments during their time serving staff.

What type of person volunteers to serve on Staff Council? This past year, Boulder Campus Staff Council officers were invited to participate in a research project regarding shared governance. As it turns out, many different types of employees chose to serve. The research showed that no defined length of service, type of occupation, or gender predetermines a council member. Rather, the defining quality is a desire to make a difference on the campus via researching and contributing ideas that can improve work life and streamline work processes. Staff Council members all have different backgrounds, experiences and talents. What brings them together is the common goal to use these talents to ensure that a place everyone loves continues to grow and evolve; and that staff positions, also continue to grow and evolve.

Was it worth adding the role of council member on top of regular work duties? The 28 past council members said “yes” over and over again as they shared their experiences and the bonds that they formed with their fellow members. As current members listened to the experiences, it felt like a family reunion where the older generations told of the good ’ol days, with a slight hint of hyperbole to get the next generation to wish they had been there. Staff Council is currently developing a pamphlet that recaps a timeline of the first 50 years’ accomplishments and hopes to have this ready for issue in the fall.

Highlights from the University of Colorado Staff Council’s First decade:

Staff Advisory Council’s (SAC) only statutory authority was to exist as an advocacy group for staff. For it to change anything, it needed to influence administration regarding the issue being discussed.  Some early accomplishments involved updating the personnel manual, reviewing benefits within an overall budget and recommending changes based upon staff surveys, the researching of compensation within comparable universities and advocating for increases to both administration and the legislature, joining the CU Presidential Search Committees, serving as delegates within campus committees and thereby further expanding the voice of staff, and representing staff at Board of Regent meetings. SAC’s advocacy added another voice along with the Student and Faculty Councils which were already in place. Staff were a critical and until this time overlooked voice.

In 1962, the Staff Advisory Council (SAC) was created and authorized by the Board of Regents to represent the staff of the University of Colorado’s Boulder Campus. The primary purpose was to improve productivity by alleviating the frustrations due to cumbersome bureaucracy, gathering ideas for streamlining processes, eliminating inefficiencies, and being the conduit for improved communication between the staff and administration, therefore improving morale by allowing staff to have a voice within administration. The secondary purpose was to review the personnel manual and to recommend changes to the Personnel Department regarding general policies and benefits offered by CU.

SAC stabilized through the ’60s, transitioning from the founders to newly elected members, updating and enforcing bylaws on its members in order to remain a strong advocacy group on campus.  The other campuses formed similar staff councils but ran their resolutions through the Boulder SAC until the Board of Regents formed the CU System Council in 1972.  At that time, CU Denver, Medical Center and UCCS requested that their staff councils become autonomous from the Boulder Campus SAC. The campus staff councils formed a committee to recommend how all this would work and the result is the current systemwide organization. Each campus council plus the system council elects three representatives to the University of Colorado Staff Council (UCSC), thereby creating a 15 member council that reports to the Board of Regents and works with the University System’s HR Department.

How does University of Colorado Boulder Campus Staff Council represent staff?

• By always serving as a viable communication conduit between staff and administration.  BSC surveys provide representatives with valuable insights that are shared within campus ad hoc issue committees, Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet, Statewide Liaison Council, etc.  Because of the increased speed of business, there is now an increased need for quick, but informed decision-making by administration.  Many times throughout the year, BCSC reps who are serving as staff delegates on committees are asked to provide a voice on how staff would react to a campus committee decision.
• By staying informed on shared governance issues impacting the campus.  Being informed takes research and training. Speakers are invited to monthly meetings as needed to keep the council up to speed.  Council members are encouraged to broaden their perspective to the campus and CU System level while representing their geographic area on campus.
• By maintaining campus morale by hosting annual staff appreciation events such as the Fall Welcome, Winter Breakfast, Spring Luncheon, and Years of Service.
• By hosting or lending support to events that promote the personal and professional development of staff such as the Bullying in the Workplace Workshops, Diversity Events, Women in Leadership Events, Healthy Workplace Fairs, etc.
• By advocacy for issues such as supporting University Benefits Advisory Board (UBAB) in being maintained as an organization when it was thought by administration to no longer be needed, lobbying to improve the tuition benefit, stressing the importance of supervisor training and review to make sure evaluations are consistent with CU goals, and advocating to allow UCB employees to purchase equipment at auctions, etc.
• By writing articles to keep staff informed of what Staff Council is working on to support them and also articles to recognize the accomplishments of our great staff.

You do not need to be elected to the Staff Council to serve on our committees: Please check out our website if you are interested in our work.  www.colorado.edu/staffcouncil or send an email to scouncil@colorado.edu.

Submitted by Boulder Campus Staff Council

UCCS finds way to SUCCEED

Be Colorado’s Mark Gelband presents UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak with the health assessment trophy won by the campus.

Faculty and staff at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs have bragging rights in one measurement of health and wellness.

The campus was tops in the friendly competition for most participation in the Be Colorado SUCCEED Health Assessment. Led by Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak, who motivated the campus with inspiring messages, UCCS exceeded its goal of 25 percent participation, reaching 27 percent.

Mark Gelband, director of the Be Colorado wellness program, last week presented Shockley-Zalabak with the health assessment trophy.

“I appreciate the recognition and having the ability to accept the SUCCEED award on behalf of UCCS faculty and staff members,” Shockley-Zalabak said. “More important than the award, however, is that faculty and staff are taking an active role in improving their health and the health of the campus.”

This year participation increased on every campus and at system administration (which was not eligible to participate in the contest). The results:

Strong leadership support is essential to the success of any wellness program. Be Colorado thanks all the chancellors for support of and participation in the SUCCEED Health Assessment.

Besides the friendly campus competition, Be Colorado also sponsored a drawing for $300 airfare vouchers. The 12 lucky winners are: Kristi Chapin, William Wan, Michael Zoppa, Nikki Snortum, Mary Shkapich, Makoto Miyazaki, Adam Holliday, Gwen Kerby, Joseph Brown, Chisya Delamarte, Sherry Lee and Miriam Maslanik.

The second month of the new Move. program is in full swing, with more than 1,200 participants signed up for the program.

Key points about the Move. program:

• You still may register for the program – there is no deadline.
• You must take the SUCCEED health assessment in order to qualify for the $25 monthly incentive.
• Only two manual entries will count toward the requirement each month – the rest must be recorded in real-time by the app or by another compatible device such as a Fitbit, Garmin or Body Media device.
• Unsure of how to use the app? iPhone users click here and Android users click here for a how-to guide that explains how to use the app to track your activity.
• Once you download the app and create an account, make sure you officially enroll in the program by signing in at http://becolorado.digifit.com with your app login and click on “Groups” then click “Join Move Program.”
• You must complete 30 minutes of physical activity on 12 different days of the month.
• You can meet the 30 minutes of physical activity in no less than 10-minute increments.
• You can track your progress towards the monthly goal by reviewing the progress bar located on your Dashboard as well as in the Calendar section. The Calendar section will display a yellow ribbon on each day you met the requirement.

Questions or comments: email questions@becolorado.org.

Realignment of CU’s fundraising organization set to begin

The University of Colorado is taking another step in an ongoing process of increasing revenue streams it has some control over in light of one it has little influence on, declines in state funding.

CU President Bruce Benson this week announced recommendations from a months-long assessment of the university’s fundraising and advancement operations conducted by Grenzebach, Glier and Associates (GG+A), a leading advancement and philanthropic services firm.

Its primary recommendation is to realign the fundraising organizational structure to allow for more engagement and accountability in operations. Doing so will require moving campus-based fundraisers and their support staff, now CU Foundation employees, to the university, where they will become CU employees. The move will provide clear and direct reporting lines from fundraisers to academic leadership, chancellors and the president, leading to greater accountability and results, Benson said. The first phase of the transition is expected to be complete by July 1.

“We’ve got to raise the bar in our efforts to attract private support for CU,” he said. “We’ve shown strong fundraising results in recent years, but I believe we can and will do significantly better.”

The impetus for the move is Colorado’s ranking of 48th nationally in state funding per student. CU is expected to receive $150 million from the state in the coming fiscal year, which includes a modest increase, the first in five years. Yet projections show an ongoing downward trend in state funding. In 2008, CU received $229 million. Benson said that when inflation and enrollment growth are factored in, CU should be receiving about $350 million annually. A study conducted by the University of Denver last year, the national Race to the Bottom report and CU’s internal analysis all predict the state could run out of funding for higher education within a decade.

“The state doesn’t have the money to help us, so we have to do what we can to help ourselves so we can continue to deliver on our educational and research missions,” he said.

Enhancements to fundraising join a series of moves the university has made in recent years to increase revenues and cut costs, including securing legislation to allow for better business practices, increasing the number of international students, strategically reducing staff and services, realizing internal efficiencies, and furthering outreach and engagement efforts with key constituents. Additionally, many faculty are teaching and advising more for minimal additional compensation and staff are taking on more, reducing administrative costs to 44 percent below peer averages. CU is also beginning the process of improving the administration of its research enterprise and diversifying research partners beyond federal agencies.

Benson said efforts to improve fundraising are another step in the process, with the goal to significantly increase the private support it attracts. Last year, the university received a record $221 million in private support and is some $1.4 billion toward reaching the $1.5 billion goal of its Creating Futures fundraising campaign. Yet it still lags behind national peers such as the University of California-Berkeley ($405 million), UCLA ($344 million), Ohio State University ($334 million) and the University of Washington ($310 million), all of which employ the model CU is moving toward.

Another recommendation from the GG+A study is to hire an executive vice president for advancement who will oversee and coordinate efforts across the CU system. A search for the position, which will report to the president, is under way. Additionally, transition teams at the university and the CU Foundation are working out details of the new structure.

The planned moves have garnered strong endorsement from key groups, Benson said, including the CU Board of Regents, the CU Foundation Board of Directors and Board of Trustees, campus chancellors, leadership of the CU Foundation, and the president’s executive staff.

“We fully expect this change will allow us to take fundraising at CU to the next level so we can continue to provide a high-quality academic experience to our students, conduct research that improves lives and advances society, and contribute to Colorado and the nation,” he said.

Attend an Open Enrollment Session on your campus

Employee Services’ benefits professionals will conduct Open Enrollment (OE) Sessions on each campus beginning today and continuing next week. At each session, University of Colorado benefits-eligible employees and retirees can see an overview of plans, changes, enrollment and can ask questions.

Open Enrollment Sessions are coming to the following campuses:

• Today: Spanish and Laotian sessions will run from 9-10 a.m. and 3:30-4:30 p.m. on the Boulder Campus in UMC Rooms 382, 384 and 386.
• Monday: CU Denver, 1250 14th St., Suite 150
• Tuesday: UCCS, University Center, Theatre 302
• Wednesday: System offices, 1800 Grant St., room 441, fourth floor
• May 16: CU-Boulder, UMC, Glenn Miller Ballroom
• May 17: CU Anschutz Medical Campus, ED2 South 2206

Carrier Fairs will be held at each site from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the same days as Open Enrollment sessions, except during today’s session. At the fairs, plan representatives from Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente, Delta Dental and others will be on hand to answer questions about plans and services.

For a schedule and carrier fair details, visit www.cusys.edu/openenrollment/sessions-fairs.html

Questions: call Employee Services at 303-860-4200 and select option 3.

Get Twitter updates

Follow on Twitter at @CUOE for the latest information on OE, ask questions and get reminders for Open Enrollment Session and enrollment deadlines.

Successful legislation will help CU attract state’s top students

University of Colorado-backed legislation aimed at helping the state’s higher education institutions secure the best and brightest in-state students is awaiting Gov. Hickenlooper’s signature.

House Bill 1320 – sponsored by Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, Rep. Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, and Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder – passed 64-1 in the House on Wednesday, scheduled to be the final day of the current legislative session. That vote came a day after the Senate approved the measure 27-8.

The legislation aims to grow revenue to support merit scholarships for the top in-state students – those who might otherwise be lured elsewhere by better offers.

The bill changes how the allowable ratio of resident students to nonresident students is calculated at state institutions of higher education. It will allow an institution to count a student who is admitted as a Colorado scholar as two in-state students for purposes of calculating the ratio.

With resulting room for more nonresident students, and without limiting overall totals of resident students, the additional revenue from that tuition stream would fund merit scholarships for the state’s top scholars. Campus leadership has said that CU often loses Colorado’s best college prospects to out-of-state institutions offering richer scholarship packages.

The state budget for the coming year had originally contained $3 million for such merit scholarships, but the item was pulled after lawmakers argued over whether undocumented students would be eligible for such grants. At one point, 1320 included $3 million in state funding for the scholarships, but that provision was removed before the legislation advanced.

CU’s Government Relations team worked in support of the bill at the Capitol, and CU administrators provided information and background at committee hearings. Members of the CU Advocates program were asked to contact their representatives and ask for their support of the legislation.

Regents discuss intellectual diversity

Regent James Geddes

The University of Colorado Board of Regents debated the idea of intellectual diversity among faculty during the board’s Tuesday meeting, with Regent James Geddes, R-Sedalia, calling for university leadership “to take an active approach to diversify our faculty.”

At the meeting on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, campus chancellors presented brief reports on intellectual diversity in program offerings, student activities and among faculty; the reports, requested by the board, were followed by a discussion that revolved around perceptions of CU-Boulder and the nebulous nature of defining and measuring intellectual diversity.

“Like it or not, the University of Colorado, particularly the Boulder campus, has a large reputation for being a liberal campus made up essentially of all liberal professors,” said Geddes, adding that those faculty are “good people” and he wouldn’t disparage their work. “What’s good for our students, and what would distinguish the University of Colorado from being a very good state university to being bar-none the best in the world, would be to take an active approach to diversify our faculty.”

Geddes said CU could further distinguish itself nationally by taking on such an effort. “How can you do it? That’s up to the experts like Phil (DiStefano).”

The CU-Boulder chancellor said differences in politics, backgrounds and experiences are abundant across the campus, where he noted “everyone – faculty, staff, administration – is dedicated to ensuring our students experience strong personal growth that, in many ways, only college can offer.”

Regent Stephen Ludwig, D-Denver, said assumptions about a lack of diverse perspectives are being made not on the basis of facts, but on anecdotal evidence.

“It leaves me wondering, how do we get the facts?” Ludwig said, adding that he doesn’t want the university to be checking party affiliation in public documents of faculty. “It points to a political agenda. The other challenge is, who is a true conservative and who isn’t? Who gets to decide what that is? Again, it’s highly problematic and inappropriate.”

Regent Steve Bosley, R-Broomfield, said that “if the vast number of faculty in an individual program, department or school have a sameness of a philosophical perspective, then exposure of another view is missing for our students.”

Geddes later said, “Conservative scholars are just not welcome at the University of Colorado Boulder. That’s a problem. … Don’t hide your head in the sand. I say we measure it.”

In leading the campus presentations, UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak said the university has structure in place that encourages the provision of diverse perspectives to students; the assertion was seconded by DiStefano and CU Denver Chancellor Don Elliman.

“I believe our structure and the processes we use are not perfect, but they do create diverse perspectives and intellectual experiences for our students,” Shockley-Zalabak said. In response to a question from Ludwig, the chancellors said they have not personally fielded complaints from students about “voices being silenced.”

In March, CU-Boulder announced the appointment of Steven Hayward as the first Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy. When he begins teaching undergraduates this fall, he and his students “will be discussing the very nature of conservative thought and policy,” DiStefano said. He told the board that the hiring process, which involved current faculty as well as donors who funded the position, went especially smooth. “I’m very proud of the faculty and the way they handled themselves.”

Geddes said he had heard positives about that process, and congratulated the team. “I hope that it will be a successful program,” he said. “But it was privately funded, it was an initiative from the outside, and it’s small. It’s one guy. We’ve got a thousand faculty up there.”

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board heard a presentation on campus efficiencies from Todd Saliman, vice president of budget and finance and chief financial officer for the CU system. While leadership continues to seek and achieve savings, some told the regents that the tendency toward leaner operations may have reached its limit.

“We’re about to launch a multi-year, comprehensive study on how we manage our research enterprise,” Elliman said. “I can virtually promise you the result will be (findings that) we’ve cut far more than we should have. And the risk profile we are experiencing because of that is something we’re going to have to document to you.

“We have gone too far and we’re going to need to come back the other way.”

Lilly Marks, CU vice president for health affairs and executive vice chancellor at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, said the campus has historically “run very lean administratively.”

“In terms of FTE, we have wrung out everything we think we can reasonably do,” she added, noting that the study Elliman mentioned likely will show the campus is under-resourced.

Olds honored with Chase Faculty Community Service Award

David L. Olds, Ph.D. – professor of pediatrics, nursing, psychiatry and public health at the University of Colorado School of Medicine – is the 2012-2013 recipient of the Chase Faculty Community Service Award.

Each year, a full-time CU faculty member who provides exceptional service to the community receives a $10,000 endowment, funded by a grant from Chase. A system-wide advisory council recommends an award-winner to CU President Bruce D. Benson, who bestows the honor. Olds was recognized by the CU Board of Regents at its Tuesday meeting on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Olds directs the Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health at CU, where he has been affiliated since 1993. He is founder of the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), a program providing home visits by nurses for first-time, low-income moms and their children. After studies determined the program improved maternal and child health, Olds led the program’s expansion into 41 states across the country.

More than 150,000 U.S. families have been served in the past 17 years by the NFP, which now is in development in countries around the world. It has been identified as the only early childhood program that meets the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy’s “Top Tier” of evidence, and has served as the primary evidentiary foundation for a U.S. federal investment of $1.5 billion in evidence-based home visiting under the Affordable Care Act.

“Dr. Olds is not only a world expert in prevention science, but has taken his expertise and channeled it into the development of an exceptional prevention program that has, and will continue to, benefit hundreds of thousands of families worldwide,” wrote Heather Taussig, Ph.D., in the letter nominating Olds for the award. “His commitment to the provision of this efficacious program of prenatal and infancy home visiting for low-income families, without any financial gain, is the highest form of community service.”

Olds said he is “deeply honored to have my work acknowledged with this award.”

“It’s been a great privilege to support parents who’ve overcome often unbearable adversity to care well for their children and themselves,” Olds said. “And I’m honored to work with nurses in this mission.  They bring to this work incredible ingenuity and energy – because they’re committed to their core to making the world a better place for vulnerable children and families.”

In a nomination letter to the selection committee, Richard D. Krugman, M.D., dean of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, made note of Olds’ “extraordinary national and international reputation for his work to support the health and well-being of children and families throughout the world.”

“David is an outstanding citizen – of our university, of our community and of the world,” Krugman wrote. “He is thoughtful, measured in his approach, humble and incredibly hard working.”

The Chase Faculty Community Service Award – established in 1991 with a $100,000 donation – is funded annually by an endowment from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation through the CU Foundation. The endowment provides an annual award of $10,000 to a full-time faculty member at the University of Colorado who has rendered exceptional service in his or her community.

“Supporting the annual recognition of an outstanding member of the Colorado community is great for all of us at Chase,” said Todd Munson, president of JPMorgan Chase in Colorado. “We’re especially proud to honor David Olds and his important work with new families.”

Five questions for Tom Zeiler

He might be known as the “baseball history guy,” but Tom Zeiler, a professor at the Department of History at the University of Colorado Boulder, is well-versed in more far-reaching issues. While he teaches a popular class that examines American history through baseball, he also specializes in diplomatic history, political-economy, trade, globalization and World War II, and has written numerous books on these subjects.

As an undergraduate, he studied in France for a year and became captivated by European history and decided to focus his studies in that area. At the University of Massachusetts, “because I was low person on the totem pole for course selections, I got knocked into a U.S. diplomatic history course and it just clicked with me, especially because I had the international experience. I decided pretty soon after that to focus on diplomacy.”

Zeiler came to CU in 1990 right after earning his Ph.D. He received tenure in 1998 and was promoted to a full professor in 2001. Twice he has been a Fulbright Senior Fellow, spending a year in Buenos Aires and another in Tokyo. He also is director of the Global Studies Residential Academic Program.

Aside from Benjamin Franklin, Zeiler considers George Marshall to be one of the United States’ greatest diplomats. As secretary of state, Marshall outlined a program to help rebuild European economies after World War II – a plan that carries his name. “He was an imposing figure and a wise statesman,” said Zeiler, who also has high praise for Hillary Clinton, who served as secretary of state during President Obama’s first term. “I think we just experienced one of the greatest. Hillary Clinton visited more countries than any secretary of state in history; she’s diplomatic, tough and sensitive” and she helped the U.S. reverse its image around the world.

1. You do some consulting with the U.S. Department of State. What are your duties?

I have served for many years on the Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation to oversee the declassification of documents. We also oversee the publication of “Foreign Relations of the United States,” a documentary record of U.S. foreign relations. Multiple volumes are released, usually by presidency. It’s the oldest documentary series in the world, beginning in 1861 with the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. We represent the public in pushing for declassification. The nine-member board – made up of historians, political science and legal experts, and others – meets quarterly and is one of a handful of committees mandated by Congress.

What’s fascinating about the documents is the inner workings that happen at a very high level and the intimate discussions that occur between a president and secretary of state and the impact those discussions have. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger had sometimes quite jarring, quite stunning discussions that were very forthright. I used to go into the committee meetings thinking like most people, that everything should be out in the open, especially in this era of open access. But I now understand there are other factors besides openness to consider, including not putting people in danger.

2. What, if anything, can be learned from history concerning ways to deal with Kim Jong-un, the young leader of North Korea and his threats toward the U.S.?

This young kid has been groomed for leadership. I think you approach this with a lot of patience and I think the reaction from the U.S. has been proper: shaking our finger and saying we’re watching and moving the Navy into certain places. He’s a rogue. He’s very young, inexperienced and probably run by generals, and he needs to validate his political leadership at home. We’ve dealt with this before with the Russians and others.

There are two levels that diplomacy is played at — the international level and the domestic level. Even American presidents do things with an eye to domestic politics or how it plays in the press or how it affects their image. Bush went to war in Iraq amid accusations that he did it to get the oil and to prop up his presidency. So our diplomats and Secretary of State John Kerry know that. As a country, you want to make sure that our allies and other concerned nations in the area are on the same page. Obviously, South Koreans should feel threatened but the people there are yawning. The North Koreans do this periodically. In 1996, they shot a missile into the Sea of Japan. So this is the new kid on the block and he’s trying to look tough.

3. You also teach about history through baseball. Why did you choose baseball and what have you learned?

The department teaches what we call the U.S. Survey. It’s an introduction to U.S. history, with big courses focusing on pre- and post-Civil War America. I had become chair of the department with a reduced teaching load, and I started thinking about how I could teach something that would lure students in and teach them something they’d really remember.

I’ve always followed sports and liked it and wondered if anyone had taught courses on baseball and history. Some universities use baseball in their literature courses or statistics or physics. San Francisco and Metro State University had classes but they weren’t really on the radar.

I started researching, tracking topics, laying down U.S. history next to baseball history, which comes on the radar in 1840. I took a thematic approach. For instance, after the Civil War, the states needed to rebuild and, at the same time, baseball becomes a national pastime. The nation needed something to unify it and baseball was one of those things. As the U.S. took on issues of labor, management, professionalization and unionization, baseball tracks that, too. There was reform around corruption and baseball had its own scandal, the Black Sox scandal of 1919. So baseball reflects a lot of society, and in some cases, led the country. Jackie Robinson was the first baseball player to cross Major League Baseball’s color barrier and that happened a year before the president integrated the army.

In other instances, as the defense industry and people moved into the south and west for jobs, baseball followed. The Giants and Dodgers leave Brooklyn and New York for California. New stadiums being built are called “yards” or “fields” and reflect the nostalgia of Baby Boomers who remember fondly the pleasant places where baseball was played. As you superimpose baseball on history, you can talk about very important aspects of American society, culture and economics. Baseball is a window to look at larger issues.

4. How has baseball changed the culture of Denver? Has Denver changed the culture of baseball?

Coors Field helped develop LoDo, although I feel that LoDo would probably have developed anyway. There’s an interesting question of whether Coors Field and all the bars it spawned are the type of development you want, but I think it added to a renewal of the city. Denver also had an effect on baseball because Denverites and Coloradans have been willing to fund these stadiums. Of course, you can debate whether citizens should fund private companies. As we just saw, games are played in the snow. It’s also had another impact on the game – pitching. You’ve got less of a curve ball at this altitude and we probably won’t land the best pitchers because it’s harder to perform here. But frankly, this is not a baseball city; it’s a football culture.

5. Have you seen the movie “42” about the life of Jackie Robinson? Is it accurate?

I’m in the process of completing a book on Jackie Robinson that will be published in the fall titled “Jackie Robinson and Race in America: A Brief History With Documents” that is designed for classroom use. It has a great cover showing Robinson at the door of the Dodgers club house, with the words “Keep Out” on the door. It’s a double entendre: Robinson, a black man and minor leaguer, cracking open the door of a major league baseball team.

I have seen the movie and felt it was well done because they didn’t romanticize the whole thing. It was schmaltzy and typically American at the end and a bit overdone, and there were some liberties taken with some of the stories, but I’d give the film an A-minus.

Napierkowski, Shockley-Zalabak honored by Faculty Council

Napierkowski

University of Colorado Colorado Springs Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak and UCCS English professor Tom Napierkowski were this year’s honorees of the CU Faculty Council, which presented both educators with awards on April 25 at the council’s final meeting of the academic year.

Shockley-Zalabak, also a professor of communication, received Administrator of the Year. Napierkowski, who teaches in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and who earned his doctorate at CU-Boulder, received the Distinguished Service Award.

Shockley-Zalabak was recognized for 37 years of service to UCCS, including the last 12 years as chancellor. The resolution presented by the council noted that she “has championed and modeled shared governance on the University of Colorado Colorado Springs campus and across the University of Colorado system.”

“I do still consider myself a member of the faculty,” she told the council in receiving the award, noting that she has continued to teach and write during every semester of her chancellorship.

Shockley-Zalabak

Napierkowski was recognized for more than 40 years as a member of the faculty, including 20 years serving on the Faculty Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure and four terms as president of the UCCS Faculty Senate and Faculty Assembly. He also has spent 15 years working with the UCCS Educational Policy and University Standards (EPUS) Committee, often as chair.

“I believe with a passion that universities are, or should be, places of reasoned discourse … governed with reason and civility,” he said in receiving the award. “I try to do that and I know you do, too.”

The awards were presented by Faculty Council Chair Melinda Piket-May, who was re-elected as chair for the next academic year. Also elected were Laura Borgelt, vice chair, and Christina Martinez, secretary. All three ran unopposed and were voted in by acclamation.

The council also voted to support the recommendations of its EPUS Committee on four systemwide Administrative Policy Statements currently under review by university leaders. Among them is APS 7008, Student Behaviors of Concern, which outlines the university’s requirement for each campus to establish a Behavioral Review and Intervention Team, and provides institutional guidelines for policies to be adopted by each campus.

The draft of the policy states that “the university recognizes that early assessment and intervention is critical when students exhibit concerning behaviors that potentially threaten themselves or others or that disrupt the campus community. In addressing such behavior, the university is committed to:

• Promoting the health and safety of  its campus communities
• Helping students achieve success and mitigate sources of distress
• Complying with student privacy and civil rights

To achieve these objectives, the campuses shall establish proactive and collaborative mechanisms for identifying, reporting, assessing, and mitigating risks associated with student behaviors of concern.”

EPUS Committee Chair Ravinder Singh said the policy came about partly in response to last summer’s Aurora movie theater shooting.

The other policy drafts advanced by the council: APS 1014, Intellectual Property That is Educational Material; APS 1010, Program Discontinuance When No Tenured or Tenure-Track Faculty Face Dismissal; and APS 1015, Implementing Program Discontinuance.

Open Enrollment begins Monday

University of Colorado benefits-eligible employees and retirees may make changes to benefits plans beginning at 8 a.m. Monday and continuing until 5 p.m. May 24.

To help guide the process, Employee Services will conduct Open Enrollment Sessions on each campus to give an overview of plans, detail changes, explain enrollment and answer questions. The schedule:

• May 9: Spanish and Laotian sessions will run 9-10 a.m. and 3:30-4:30 p.m., CU-Boulder, UMC Rooms 382, 384 and 386.
• May 13: CU Denver, 1250 14th St., Suite 150
• May 14: UCCS, University Center, Theatre 302
• May 15: System offices, 1800 Grant St., room 441, fourth floor
• May 16: CU-Boulder, UMC, Glenn Miller Ballroom
• May 17: CU Anschutz Medical Campus, ED2 South 2206

Carrier Fairs will be held at each site from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the same days as Open Enrollment sessions. At the fairs, plan representatives from Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente, Delta Dental and others will be on hand to answer questions about their plans and services.

For a full schedule and carrier fair details, visit https://www.cusys.edu/openenrollment/oe-calendar.pdf

Reminders

• Make your selections: The 2013-14 OE is an active enrollment for all benefits-eligible employees and retirees. If you take no action, you will be automatically enrolled into your current plan elections, except for Flexible Spending, which you must choose each year.

• Set your flexible spending: You must re-enroll and actively elect annual contributions for Health Care and Dependent Care flexible spending accounts each year at open enrollment.
• Choose your doctor: This year, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield will replace Cigna as the university’s Administrative Services Organization. Due to this change, all CU Health Plan members in the Exclusive or Access Network plan must select a primary care physician or one will be automatically assigned, based on ZIP code.
• Dependents: Dependents only need to be verified once; they remain in the system every year.

What’s new?

• No rate increase: Final rates and plan descriptions will be available Monday. The good news: There will be no increase in premiums this year.

• Dental coverage unbundled: Starting this year, medical and dental insurance can be elected separately.
• Vision plan added: The CU Health Plan will now offer voluntary vision coverage through Blue View Vision, which includes routine eye exams, eye glasses and contact lenses. The new plan is only available to active employees (benefits-eligible 50 percent or greater).
• Hearing aids: Adult hearing aid coverage has been added to all plans, providing for a $3,500 maximum allowance every 60 months.

If you have questions, please call Employee Services at 303-860-4200 and select option 3.

Get Twitter updates

Follow us on Twitter at @CUOE for the latest information on OE, ask questions and get reminders for Open Enrollment Session and enrollment deadlines.

CU pursuing legislation aimed at attracting state’s best students

The University of Colorado is pursuing new state legislation aimed at growing revenue to support merit scholarships for the top in-state students – those who might otherwise be lured elsewhere by better offers.

House Bill 1320 – sponsored by Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, Rep. Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, and Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder – was passed unanimously by the House Education Committee on Wednesday, a day after being introduced. Wednesday’s hearing featured testimony from CU system representatives.

The bill now moves to the House Appropriations Committee for consideration.

The bill looks to change how the allowable ratio of resident students to nonresident students is calculated at state institutions of higher education. The bill allows an institution to count a student who is admitted as a Colorado scholar as two in-state students for purposes of calculating the ratio.

With resulting room for more nonresident students, the additional revenue from that tuition stream would fund merit scholarships for the state’s top students. Campus leadership has said that CU often loses Colorado’s best college prospects to out-of-state institutions offering richer scholarship packages.

“This bill rewards success,” Waller said. “It creates an opportunity for more Colorado students to go to a state-supported college or university on a scholarship they’ve earned through their own hard work.”

The state budget for the coming year had originally contained $3 million for such merit scholarships, but the item was pulled after lawmakers argued over whether undocumented students would be eligible for such grants.

“This bill is simply about keeping our best and brightest in Colorado, because they will be entering our workforce and will contribute to our state’s economic development and general well-being,” Waller said.

Five questions for Nate Bindel

As Nate Bindel worked toward a degree in accounting, he knew he wasn’t interested in working in the corporate environment. He had friends in the field and they talked about getting burned out from the long hours and travel. His governmental accounting classes intrigued him most, and after he earned a bachelor’s degree, he applied for state positions, including those at the University of Colorado.

Nearly 10 years ago, he was hired for a job in the financial service center in the College of Arts and Sciences in Boulder. After a year, he was promoted to the position of budget officer for the School of Education. During the evening hours, he pursued his master’s degree at CU Denver using the university’s tuition waiver program. After three years, he accepted the job of finance manager in the provost’s office; during that time, he completed his degree. This January, he moved to another position, the director of budget and finance for Continuing Education.

“I found out how much I enjoyed CU: the atmosphere and the students, faculty and all the great staff,” he said. “I quickly developed a sense that this is where I’d like to spend my career and I’ve been lucky enough over the past nine and a half years to have followed that.”

1.  How did you choose this career?

As I grew up, I was into the sciences and math, and when I started college, I was interested in focusing on one of those areas. I originally thought about becoming a math teacher. But early on, maybe my first semester, my mom was reading the paper and she saw that accounting jobs were in high demand and she mentioned that. I looked into it and thought it didn’t look too bad and it had a strong emphasis on math. I began pursuing a degree in accounting. The more courses I took, the more I enjoyed it. It was based on numbers and played into a lot of my strengths.

2.  You just moved into a new position. How have your duties changed?

I became director of budget and finance for Continuing Education in January. For the past nine and a half years, I’ve been working my way up, with each position building upon the previous one. That’s been unbelievably valuable. My other jobs were main campus positions and focused mainly on the general fund. At Continuing Education, we are primarily an auxiliary unit and collect our own revenue directly. That’s a big difference; we’re collecting tuition revenue and as a result have accounts receivable, bad debt expense and collections – some balance sheet accounts that I didn’t see in my previous positions. Because we’re auxiliary funded, we need to collect enough revenue to support operations.

As the director of budget and finance, my duties are quite broad, but are ultimately focused on budget, accounting and finance. Some of the major duties are: managing the accounting department, budget process, year-end procedures, internal controls and providing financial information and analysis. In the three and half months I’ve worked at the position, I’ve really enjoyed it. I have a great team in the accounting department and the staff as a whole in continuing education has been great to work with.

3. What appeals to you most about the job? What is one of the biggest changes you’ve seen since you started working for the university?

Numbers appeal to me and I’ve always enjoyed that aspect of the job. I’ve always enjoyed working with the students, faculty and staff. Even though the campus is big, it’s surprising how tight-knit the community is. I’ve worked with a lot of individuals and have made great contacts over the years. I’m looking forward to the future in my new position.

When I started working for the university, most things were still paper-based. The biggest changes have been in the progression toward electronic processing and storage of data. Over the years a variety of new systems have been implemented and for the most part they have definitely made things easier. Initially there’s always that learning phase where it seems that it really hasn’t made things easier and you wonder if this was really a step in the right direction. But quickly, as you become more familiar with the system, it becomes obvious that these changes are for the better.

4. What are some of your outside interests?

I was born and raised in Colorado, so a huge part of growing up for me was the mountains: camping, hiking and fishing. Fishing is a hobby and a passion of mine. Whenever I have a chance, I like to go fishing with my dad and brothers. Nowadays, we usually go fly fishing, but we spin fish, we’ve ice fished – anything just to get out there and enjoy the outdoors. There’s nothing better than fly fishing on the river; it’s so peaceful and tranquil. One of my favorite places to fish is in South Park and the rivers around there and at Spinney and Antero reservoirs. We usually like to target bigger fish – trout and pike. Last June, I caught a 37-inch pike using a spinner, and that’s the biggest fish I’ve caught in Colorado.

5. What is one of the top items on your bucket list?

I’d like to travel more. One of the things my wife and I thought would be fun to do is to see a baseball game in every single stadium in the United States. It would be a great way to see a huge portion of the country. My wife is probably not as big a fan, but she likes going to games. She won’t watch on TV, but if she goes to a stadium, she enjoys the game. And I’ve become more and more of a fan. Some of the faculty members I know are huge baseball fans and they pulled me in, and I’ve been a fan since.

Three faculty members honored as exceptional educators

Three University of Colorado faculty members have been chosen as 2013 President’s Teaching Scholars, educators who have skillfully integrated teaching and research at a high level throughout their careers at CU.

The title of CU President’s Teaching Scholar signifies the university system’s highest recognition of excellence in and commitment to learning and teaching, as well as active, substantial contributions to scholarly work. CU President Bruce D. Benson solicits annual nominations of faculty for the designation, which is a lifetime appointment.

The newly named scholars are:

	Charles C. “Chip” Benight, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
	Scot Douglass, Ph.D., Associate Professor, College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Colorado Boulder
	Elspeth “Beth” Dusinberre, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Classics Department, CU-Boulder

Benight is founder and director of the CU-Trauma, Health & Hazards Center, a cross-disciplinary center focused on extreme human events. His primary area of research interest is in human adaptation from trauma, including recovery from natural and man-made disasters, auto accident trauma, sexual abuse, domestic violence and bereavement. He has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense.

“He is the prototype for what a mentor should be,” wrote Thomas P. Huber, professor and President’s Teaching Scholar at UCCS, in nominating Benight. “His teaching and his research meld together, especially for his master’s students and his colleagues in the Trauma Center.”

Benight earned his doctorate in counseling psychology, with an emphasis in health psychology/behavioral medicine, from Stanford University. He earned his master’s degree in counseling and his bachelor’s degree in business management from Arizona State University.

Douglass is director and faculty-in-residence at the Andrews Hall Residential College, Engineering Honors and Goldshirt Residential Academic Programs (RAP). He also is faculty director of the Engineering Honors Program and an associate professor in the Herbst Program of Humanities for Engineers. He strives to make literature accessible and relevant.

“Scot is an outstanding teacher and researcher, a prize-winning Residential Academic Program Director, a highly valued colleague, and an inspiration and mentor to both students and faculty alike,” wrote Diane E. Sieber, associate dean for education in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, in nominating Douglass.

He earned his doctorate in comparative literature from CU-Boulder, his master’s in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and his bachelor’s in cellular and developmental biology from the University of Arizona.

Dusinberre teaches primarily Greek and Near Eastern archaeology. She played a key role in redesigning her department’s art and archeology curriculum for graduates and undergraduates, and has authored three books.

“Dusinberre is a remarkably dedicated teacher and researcher with a passion for her subject of Greek and Near Eastern Art and Archaeology and a gift for communicating that passion to students, colleagues and the general public,” wrote Diane A. Conlin, associate professor of classics, in the nomination letter. “She has inspired a whole generation of young archaeologists and art historians in our program both through her formidable expertise and keen intellect, and also through her caring and compassionate mentoring.”

She earned her doctorate in classical art and archaeology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; her bachelor’s degree in classical archaeology from Harvard University.

President’s Diversity Awards honor leaders in inclusiveness

Faculty, staff and students from across the University of Colorado have been named recipients of the annual President’s Diversity Award, which recognizes significant achievements of individuals and administrative units in developing a more culturally diverse, competent and inclusive university community.

Awardees for 2013 were recognized May 8 in the first floor conference room at 1800 Grant St. Click here to see photos from the event. 

The 2013 honorees:

Sonja Braun-Sand, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCCS, has worked unflaggingly to increase the participation of first generation college students and women in the sciences. Braun-Sand devotes significant volunteer hours at the Girls in STEM events, the Science Olympiad in Southern Colorado and Science Fairs. She also serves as the faculty adviser for the Women in Science student group and UCCS.

Braun-Sand has reinvigorated undergraduate research in her department through a $60,000 Merck/American Academy of Sciences Undergraduate Science Research Program Award and a $300,000 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program Award. Her REU proposal, “Green Chemistry in Colorful Colorado,” focuses on recruiting students from underrepresented groups and community colleges to perform research on green chemistry and sustainability.

Mary Lassiter, office manager for the Educational Opportunities Programs (EOP) at CU Denver, has been a dedicated ambassador of diversity and humanity for the campus and community at large. In her 20 years working for the EOP office, Lassiter has developed and implemented leadership training for student workers, provided assistance and guidance in the creation of cultural programming and coached many nontraditional students, emphasizing that it is never too late to earn a college degree.

Lassiter has connected with the community through quilting, using exhibits and presentations as an opportunity to share cultural awareness. Her quilting projects have been exhibited throughout the Auraria Campus and the wider community. She has designed a one-credit class on quilting for the Ethnic Studies program at CU Denver.

David Martinez, program assistant for the Journalism and Mass Communication Program at CU-Boulder, has worked tirelessly to support students achieve academic and professional success. In collaboration with professor Paul Voakes, Martinez helped create the JMC summer intensive program for first-generation college students. The program provides students with the tools they need to adjust to the demands of academic life and succeed.

Martinez crafted a successful $8,000 grant proposal that enabled the JMC program to offer a full journalism experience to participants in CU’s Pre-Collegiate and Upward Bound programs. His efforts and leadership in the areas of diversity were instrumental in helping the JMC program focus its attention on successfully “changing its culture” while boosting the program’s case for reaccreditation.

Martinez has also been active with the CU LEAD Alliance and Scholarship Program, the CU-Boulder Equity and Excellence Celebration, the Colorado Coalition for the Educational Advancement of Latinos, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

Beatriz Salazar, undergraduate student at CU Denver, has been heavily involved with campus activities, student groups and community organizations that foster diversity on campus and within the community. She has volunteered with the Denver Scholarship Foundation to assist first generation bilingual students with filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and has worked with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund to provide outreach to bilingual parents and students seeking scholarships and financial aid.

On campus, Salazar has served as a Peer Advocate Leader and a Peer Mentor for Hispanic Student Services and the Student Advocacy Center. She is currently the President for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Executive Chair for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar Chapter. Through SHPE, Beatriz helped develop the SHPE Junior Program, which provides high school students scholarships, mentors, tutors and other resources to overcome education barriers while encouraging students to pursue a profession in the STEM fields. Salazar is graduating in the spring of 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a thesis in science and a minor in ethnic studies.

The Black Law Students Association at the Colorado Law School carries an active, influential presence at CU-Boulder, planning imaginative events and providing black students and all other students with a voice, support system and means to connect with diverse alumni and attorneys. In the past year, the BLSA hosted a well-publicized event featuring U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Chair Jacqueline Berrien.

The organization has been active in the greater community, raising and donating 100 law and graduate textbooks to the International Book Project to help create a library at the Harare Institute of Technology in Zimbabwe. It donated another 250 law books to the school libraries in the Denver area including North High School, East High School, South High School, Emily Griffiths Technical School, George Washington High School and Thornton High School.

The group has been active in recruiting future law students by attending and presenting the National Black Pre-Law Conference and Law School Recruitment Fair.

The CU Dialogues Program offers a suite of programing designed to promote civic engagement, active and participatory hands-on learning, inclusivity and intersectionality, cross-cultural communication, community building and academic achievement. The program has offered facilitated classroom discussion programs that implement diversity in lessons and in student research and writing. Students are able to engage personally with community members and their peers to draw connections between the campus and the larger community.

The program has worked to bring speakers and implement workshops on diversity, collaborating with the Program for Writing and Rhetoric to develop the Undergraduate Diversity Conference. The dialogues program was recently honored by the Milestones Project, a photography and oral history exhibit, for Colorado Conflict Resolution Month.

Also receiving commendations for 2013:

Daniela Castorena, undergraduate student at CU Denver, has served as the President for the Society of TRiO Student Club and as a mentor for the CU Denver Summer Bridge Program. As a Summer Bridge mentor, Castorena provided one-on-one peer mentoring, assistance in locating academic and student support services and help for students making the transition from high school to college.

Castorena also worked with the Denver Scholarship Foundation, Denver Public Schools and the Bruce Randolph School to provide outreach and recruitment of low-income, first-generation students.

Sheri Rosen, student at the CU School of Medicine, designed the Creative Writing and Reading Partnership Program to improve the reading and writing skills of students in the neighborhoods bordering the Anschutz Medical Campus. The program has enrolled 74 kindergarten through fifth-grade students in the reading program and an additional 32 third- to fifth-grade students in the writing programs. At the end of the writing sessions, Rosen will compile the students’ stories, autobiographies and photographs into a book that each student will receive.

Andrew Yeh, undergraduate student at CU Denver, served as a leader for the Asian Student Alliance and collaborated with the Vietnamese Student Association, CU Denver Student Government and the Hawaii Club of Auraria to host events that celebrate Asian American culture and raise awareness about Asian American issues. With five other college students, Yeh founded the Colorado Asian Pacific Youth Association to provide leadership development and cultural awareness for Asian American youth. The program provides training and mentoring for 25 to 30 Asian American high school and college students.

Yeh was recently honored in “Asian Avenue Magazine” as an outstanding youth leader for his contributions to the Asian-American community.

Open enrollment requires action by all

Open Enrollment, the time when University of Colorado faculty and staff may make changes to benefits plans, begins at 8 a.m. May 6 and ends at 5 p.m. May 24.

The 2013-14 OE is an active enrollment for all medical, dental and vision benefits-eligible employees. If you take no action, you will be automatically enrolled into your current plan elections, except for Flexible Spending, which you must choose each year.

While the overall 2013-14 plan rates are 3.8 percent higher than current rates, the amount paid by university faculty and staff will not increase – and in some cases, it may decrease. This represents the lowest overall rate increase since the University of Colorado Health and Welfare Trust was established.

This year, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield will replace Cigna as the university’s Administrative Services Organization. Due to this change, all CU Health Plan members in the Exclusive or Access Network plan must select a primary care physician; otherwise, one will be automatically assigned based on ZIP code.

The Anthem network of providers for the CU Health Plan – Access Network and High Deductible includes more than 98 percent of the providers who were available through Cigna.

Last fall, Employee Services asked for suggestions to improve the university’s health plans. Several requests have been incorporated into this year’s plans: hearing aid coverage, diabetes disease management programs and voluntary vision coverage.

Other noteworthy changes:

• Coverage expanded for civil unions: In March, the Colorado Civil Union Act was passed into law, allowing CU employees to add their partner to their benefits coverage when they enter into a civil union. The university’s health plans will continue to cover Same Gender Domestic Partners as well. However, eligibility criteria for these groups will be slightly different.
• Vision plan added: The CU Health Plan will now offer voluntary vision coverage through Blue View Vision, which includes routine eye exams, eyeglasses and contact lenses. The new plan is only available to active employees (benefits-eligible 50 percent or greater).
• Dental coverage unbundled: Starting this year, medical and dental insurance can be elected separately.
• Diabetes disease management: Diabetics can receive medication and equipment with no copay by actively participating in a disease management program. Those diagnosed with diabetes will receive a letter from Anthem or Kaiser explaining the program.
• Hearing aids: Adult hearing aid coverage has been added to all plans, providing for a $3,500 maximum allowance every 60 months.
• Health Care Reform: Health Care Reform is almost in full swing, and many changes have already taken effect. Learn more about expanded preventive care services and other related issues at Anthem’s CU Health Plan page at www.anthem.com/cuhealthplan/hcr.html

The application and final rates will be available on May 6, the first day of Open Enrollment. Learn more about rates, on-campus open enrollment sessions, how to enroll and what happens if you take no action at www.cu.edu/openenrollment/.

Benefits for 2013-14 take effect July 1.

Greg Garland, Phillips 66 CEO, visits CU-Boulder

From left, CU-Boulder students Geneva Sanchez, Alyssa Faustino, Cort Wernz, Brandon Lin, Lorenzo Herrera and David Thayer speak with Phillips 66 CEO Greg Garland, who visited the campus Tuesday. (Photo: Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado Boulder)

Just like some of the students he sat with, Greg Garland was the first in his family to go to college. Now he is the Chief Executive Officer of Phillips 66, one of the nation’s largest energy companies.

Eight University of Colorado Boulder students attended an informal chat with Garland on Tuesday at Folsom Field. Garland spoke about his 30 years of experience in the oil industry and answered students’ questions afterward. Garland was at CU-Boulder to meet students and give a check to CU as part of the last installment of the $3.5 million Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building commitment.

Alyssa Faustino, Geneva Sanchez, Cort Wernz, David Thayer and Lorenzo Herrera are earning degrees in the Leeds School of Business, while Brandon Lin, Kelsey Niemeyer and Aaron Katz are earning degrees in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Students spoke candidly about what attracted them to apply for internships and jobs at Phillips 66.

“There is lots of energy at CU where students want to make things better,” said Alyssa Faustino, a business student who will join Phillips 66 as a new employee in Information Technology, to Garland Tuesday. “That kind of curiosity led me to Phillips 66. With other recruiters I felt like I was going through an assembly line. At Phillips 66 you do care about honor, commitment and safety.”

The event started with informal networking, where Garland—who was visiting the CU campus for the first time—talked with students in small groups. He spoke about a turning point in his career when he moved to Qatar in 1997 to manage one of the first oil operations in the Middle East for ConocoPhillips (which split from Phillips 66 last summer). Although he didn’t want to take the job initially, he learned to view the company with a broad perspective. After Leeds student Geneva Sanchez asked Garland what kept his interest in the oil industry, he offered some career advice.

“Be willing to step outside your comfort zone,” Garland said. “Your education doesn’t stop when you leave the university, it continues forever. You’ll become more valuable to your company.”

Students also asked about future revenue streams for Phillips 66 as well as how to gain the most from a job at the company. Afterward, students remarked on the experience.

“That was an amazing opportunity,” Sanchez said.

Five questions for James Hill

James O. Hill, Ph.D., has been at the forefront of understanding and combating obesity for decades. For the past year he’s led that charge from a new headquarters, the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center (AHWC) on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

While still serving as professor of pediatrics and medicine and current director of the Center for Human Nutrition, Hill is executive director of the center, which reached its first birthday on Tuesday.

“Nobody’s ever done anything like this,” he says of the center, which combines the exercise focus of a fitness club or gym with health, wellness and nutrition programs, all while maintaining a research mission. “So we’re out there on the bleeding edge, trying to figure out how we make wellness important, how we pay for it, how we reach out and touch people’s lives.”

The multiple hats he wears make each day interesting, Hill says: He’s a principal investigator on three major research grants, gives lectures on and off campus, mentors faculty and students, helps with fundraising and builds partnerships between the community and the AHWC.

“We see ourselves as knowledge agents: We understand health, wellness and obesity. We think in terms of strategy. We develop research and science-based programs here,” he says. “But ultimately, if we’re going to have an impact, we need to partner with people in the community. So we’re out in the schools – we have projects like 5th Gear Kids with Aurora and Cherry Creek schools – and we have worksite wellness programs. We’re very much interested in partnering with the private sector, so we work with restaurants and grocery stores.

“Through our science-based programs and initiatives, we want to infuse wellness where people live their lives. And to do that, we need to partner with people who are already touching people in the communities where they live.”

1.       When people first visit or use the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, what’s the reaction?

What I get most of the time is, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen anything like this.’ Many of the components you see here, you can see at other places. But no one has put it together like we have: a grocery laboratory, a traditional metabolic kitchen, a fitness center, a wellness clinic. What we think we’re doing is developing a prototype for wellness centers of the future.

There are places in most neighborhoods to get services like mindfulness, meditation and acupuncture.  There are health clubs, weight-loss programs, cooking classes and dietitians. But no one has effectively combined these services into a comprehensive approach to wellness provided by people who are the best in their fields. We give you a personalized plan incorporating the best wellness services available without worrying whether they’re traditional or nontraditional. If they’re science-based, we consider them.

I believe that in a few years we will see comprehensive wellness centers in the community. They’re not going to have all the research we have here but they may provide the services we offer. Maybe fitness centers will add the other services or maybe these wellness centers will develop independently. Some of the people who work here on campus aren’t necessarily comfortable going into a fitness center and working out on exercise equipment, but might seek out a wellness center to get a comprehensive plan that can include weight management, diet advice, exercise advice and help with sleep and stress.

2.       Has anything about the center’s first year surprised you?

Yes, it was my eureka.

When we started this, I was really focused on this idea of changing our focus from disease management to disease prevention. Great message, right?

I now think that even prevention is not the right message. The right message is to focus on accumulating wellness.

We talk to a lot of people who come to the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center about the importance of getting healthy to prevent the bad stuff, like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. We tell them that a healthy lifestyle can prevent these diseases. Interestingly, people want to be healthy but they  don’t really like to talk about their risks and what might negatively happen to them. It’s a short conversation.

Now we also talk with people about their non-health lifestyle goals and aspirations. They might want to compete in a 10K or bike race or they may just want to be able to take a healthy vacation with their family. Some want to climb a 14er or lose weight to feel better or just to get more energy to get through the day. These conversations that focus on the positives – accumulating wellness – are much longer. We often have trouble getting away. So, being smart people, we said, ‘Aha! We’re thinking about this totally wrong.’ The major reason people want a healthy lifestyle is not to prevent disease – yes, that’s part of it – but to be all they can be. It’s too bad that slogan’s been taken. That’s been my eureka. The reason you get people excited about a healthy lifestyle is not to prevent the bad stuff, it’s to accumulate good.

At the end of the day, why do people want to lose weight or get fit or manage stress? Because it enriches their quality of life. It makes them happy. And that is a huge driver.  Accumulating wellness leads to so many good things, it goes well beyond being healthy.

3.       What goals do you have in mind for the center as it begins its second year in operation?

We are conducting a lot of research and we have established many effective, science-based wellness programs in our first year. In our second year, we want to do more to let people know what we have and how we can help them accumulate wellness. We just want people to come and see what we have to offer. We have three target audiences: our employees, patients and the community. Our success is meeting the needs of all three of those groups.

We’re trying more to help people understand that being well is not something to do on the side – it can impact what’s most important in your life. We help people get in touch with what they most want to accomplish in life and show them how being well can make it easier to achieve their goals. This might be being the best parent possible, or becoming the CEO of your company, or changing the world.  Whatever your major purpose in life, being well can usually help you achieve it.

If you look at CEOs, most of them are pretty lean and fit compared to anybody else. The reason is, that helps them do their job better. That’s why they get up at 4 or 5 in the morning and go work out. Because they’re so ambitious to succeed and they’ve figured out this helps them.

4.       How and where does that begin, that effort of engaging more people to change how they live?

It starts with our campus and our employees. We have a fabulous medical school here on campus and we think it should be the healthiest place in town – actually the universe. But our employees probably mirror the average Americans out there in terms of health and wellness. We think a medical school should be a place that’s enriched with employees who value wellness and serve as models for others. So we’re going to work with our employees to help them enhance their own wellness. We have the best fitness center in town available to our employees at a valued price. We have the healthiest restaurant on campus and we have great tips for eating healthy, getting more active and managing sleep and stress. We have a one-of-a-kind comprehensive wellness clinic where you can assess your wellness, get an individualized wellness plan and enjoy massage and acupuncture treatments, behavior change consultations and body composition testing, all in one place.

If our employees who work with patients value their own wellness, they will communicate this to their patients. If they are actively working on their own wellness, it will be easier for them to convince their patients of the value of healthy lifestyles. I feel so good when I see department chairs, center directors, deans and even the provost working out regularly at our center. If some of the busiest people on campus can find time for their own wellness, we can’t use being too busy as an excuse.

Over the next year, we are very excited to be able to work with our clinicians to develop wellness programs for our patients. Patients come to our clinics with many different health issues and we want to offer them the opportunity to work on what is right with them while they are dealing with various health issues. We are starting by offering a program called Exercise is Medicine – For Life to our diabetic patients, but we will soon develop wellness programs for cancer and fertility patients. We feel you can have cancer and still be well. Simultaneously, this provides us with a great opportunity to research whether the focus on wellness can help with management of the disease.

5.       There have been many findings in obesity research over the past year, including some from CU such as identifying a “fat gene” in mice that could lead to breakthroughs in human obesity. What trends do you see in obesity research and what can we expect in the months and years to come?

We have one of the best obesity research groups in the world. That new gene and the role it may play is exciting science. But genetics is only one piece of the puzzle. We have to understand other aspects of basic human biology, metabolism and behavior. The more we understand, the better we will be able to develop effective interventions to prevent and treat obesity. For example, we offer several different weight loss programs at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. Most places that offer obesity treatment have a single plan and advertise it as effective for everyone. We know that isn’t the case, so we have different programs to meet the needs of different people. We are also using our research to develop obesity prevention programs and even to affect societal change.

Obesity developed from so many little things that changed over time – on the food side, on the physical activity side. The problem is, we want to fix it with one big thing. So, ‘Let’s get rid of soda pop or fast food or cars or fill in the blank!’ I don’t believe this approach of focusing on single factors will move the needle in fighting obesity because there are so many other factors in play. We pioneered the small changes approach to lifestyle change where we focus on getting people to make small changes in what they eat and how they move. Once people start making some small changes, they tend to make more and more small changes and pretty soon we can move the needle. We are more likely going to be successful in reducing obesity in our society by concentrating on making small changes in many areas than in making one or two big changes.

Finally, we need to take advantage of being in one of the healthiest – and the leanest for adults – states.  We believe that Colorado is in the sweet spot in terms of leading the way toward reducing obesity and promoting wellness. Of all the states, we probably have the most residual culture of health. In the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, people moved here for quality of life. They didn’t say, ‘I want to move to Colorado and prevent obesity or diabetes.’ They said, ‘I want to move to Colorado because it’s the place I can live the lifestyle that makes me happy.’ I believe we can re-create that culture and we want to be part of doing just that.

With merit salary pool approved, what’s next?

With the University of Colorado Board of Regents having approved a merit salary pool of 3.1 percent for faculty and university staff (officers and exempt professionals), and a state-mandated increase of up to 3.6 percent expected, what’s next?

Employee Services notes that each campus controls how the merit pool is allocated for faculty and exempt professionals. For classified staff, the projected increases are pending legislative approval of the state budget, or Long Bill. For the first time, there is a matrix for merit pay that is dependent on the employee’s performance score and salary within the current (2012-13) pay range.

Increases for classified staff will be implemented as follows:

1. Any temporary pay differential is removed from base salary.
2.  A cost of living adjustment (COLA) of 2 percent is applied as a base-building increase. If the employee’s salary is at the range maximum, the cost of living increase will be a non-base-building, one-time payment.
3. Merit increases for employees hired before April 1, 2013, are determined by the following matrix:

4. After COLA and merit increases are calculated, if the Legislature approves the 2013-14 pay ranges, the employee’s new adjusted salary will be placed into new salary ranges. If the salary is below the new minimum, a base-building increase will be added to bring the employee’s salary to the minimum in the salary range. If the salary is above the new maximum, the employee’s pay will be in saved pay status for up to three years, which means the employee’s pay will remain the same for three years and then be reduced to the range maximum.
5. Temporary pay differentials are calculated and monthly salary is adjusted if necessary, using departmental funds.

Boulder campus HR has put together some FAQs that are helpful to any classified staff at CU. Employees are encouraged to contact their respective campus HR office with any questions.

Exceptional service earns honors for four staff members

From left: Jane Muller, Pam Shockley-Zalabak, Travis Chillemi, Bruce Benson, Michelle Medal and Don Elliman. Award recipient Sarah Douvres was unable to attend.

Four staff members of the University of Colorado received awards for service excellence at the annual All-Staff Council Conference on April 12 at the Lawrence Street Center on the University of Colorado Denver campus.

The honorees were selected from nominations from the university campuses and system administration. Awards honor outstanding volunteer service, and the employees’ efforts to enrich their campus, community, and the university as a whole.

The awards were presented by President Bruce D. Benson, CU Denver Chancellor Don Elliman and University of Colorado Colorado Springs Chancellor Pamela Shockley-Zalabak. Award-winners, who received a plaque and a $1,000 prize, are:

Jane Muller, UCCS, works in two half-time positions in Women’s and Ethnic Studies and the Center for the Study of Government and the Individual. She was a member of the University of Colorado Staff Council from 2006-2012, has served on a variety of university committees, and volunteered with the GSPA Leadership Conference, the Math Olympiad and UCCS commencements. She also is affiliated with the American Heart Association, the Relay for Life Rally, and is a member of the Limited Government Forum.

“Jane is deeply committed to serving CU and the community. Jane exemplifies the qualities that in our mind characterize the very spirit of this award: distinguished service and leadership. We also wish to add that Jane is an exceptional human being in every way. She is respected, universally, by faculty, students and staff, for she embodies the very best ideals that CU emulates: honesty, compassion, absolute professionalism and integrity, coupled with exceptional service,” wrote Muller’s nominators, Abby Ferber and Andrea Herrera, Women’s and Ethnic Studies, and Jim Null, Center for the Study of Government and the Individual.

Michelle Medal, CU Denver, is the program assistant for the Department of Communication. She serves on the CU Denver Staff Council and is an advocate for the “Healthy Moves” program sponsored by Metro State University. She serves as president of the Zonta Foothills Club of Boulder, an international volunteer organization whose mission is to improve the lives of women and girls locally and worldwide.

“Since joining our department several years ago, Michelle has proven to be a knowledgeable, resourceful, creative, hard-working, conscientious, professional and exemplary member of our staff. In short, our department – and CLAS – is lucky to have her,” said Lisa Keranen, associate professor and director of graduate studies. Medal was nominated by Stephen J. Hartnett, professor and chair of the Department of Communication.

Sarah Douvres (not pictured), University of Colorado Boulder, is a program assistant for Housing and Dining Services. She has served on the Boulder Campus Staff Council since 2007, and has served, including as chair, on a variety of university committees. She also participates in a variety of volunteer efforts, including her department’s County Road Pick-up twice a year, Habitat for Humanity and the annual Giving Tree for needy families.

“Sarah is a ‘positive’ person we should all be so lucky to encounter in life. She thrives for forward progress, is productive and active, always friendly and professional, truly goes out of her way to help those around her, presents great ideas and is certainly no slacker when it comes to follow-thorough. Sarah’s sense of humor is very welcoming: She’s the first to volunteer to wear a snowman costume, pose in the funny hat or to stand in front of a crowd to do a presentation that no one else would step up for. … Sarah is an outstanding person who demonstrates strong and consistent leadership. Her charm shines through in her dedication to making our world a better place,” said Lori Jackson, Boulder Staff Council Administrator. Douvres was nominated by Gregg Lundgren, Housting IT.

Travis Chillemi, system administration, is a communication technology manager in Finance and Procurement Business Services (FPBS), Office of University Controller. He has helped develop the system website and other communications development projects. He devotes time to the Justice Run, dedicated to raising money and awareness for the victims of trafficking; the Girl Scouts; Mothers of Pre-Schoolers; and several schools and churches.

“Many at CU system administration know Travis as a cheerful, competent professional who is always ready to lend a hand or make them laugh. What many do not necessarily know is how those traits and attitudes extend throughout Travis’ professional/personal life, prompting him again and again to reach out in service to a friend, a stranger, a school, a church, a professional association, or a community – including the community that is CU. It is his character, and how he translates his beliefs into action, that make him an ideal candidate for the UCSC 2013 Excellence in Service Award,” said Normandy Roden, director of FPBS, who also nominated Chillemi.

Besides the awards presentations, about 40 members from the different campus, system and university councils listened to presentations that centered around the conference theme of communication.

Jay Dedrick, internal communications manager, and Cathy Beuten, multimedia editor, from the Office of University Relations, discussed efforts to inform university employees as well as the outside community about CU issues.

Dedrick discussed CU Connections, the weekly online staff and faculty newsletter, and took questions from the audience about the newsletter’s mission. He also discussed the CU Advocates program, which encourages employees, alumni and community members to share the word about the university’s value. Beuten gave the audience a preview of the new system website, scheduled to launch this summer, and talked about social media platforms and the efforts to improve outreach to a variety of constituent bases.

An afternoon presentation and mini-workshop was presented by John McDermott, senior instructor at the School of Education and Human Development at CU Denver, and centered on motivating and engaging people in the workplace. McDermott has taught for more than 40 years and is the co-author of “Clock Watchers” (2009) and “Just Right Challenge,” which will be published this year. McDermott discussed the six C’s of motivation and engagement: Caring Community, Challenge, Choice, Checking in/Checking out, Collaboration and Celebration.

President’s town halls continue next week

CU President Bruce D. Benson speaks Monday during a town hall visit at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

CU President Bruce D. Benson’s spring series of town hall meetings is under way, with two complete and three remaining.

At each event, Benson is delivering an update on the state of the university, followed by a question-and-answer session with audience members. The meetings are open to all campus community members; faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.

Click here to read about Friday’s town hall at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus; click here for a video of the event.

The remaining schedule for this spring’s town halls:

• University of Colorado Boulder, Wednesday, April 24
  Old Main
  2:30-3:30 p.m.

• University of Colorado Denver, Thursday, April 25
  Lawrence Street Center, Terrace Room
  3:30-4:30 p.m.

• System Administration, Wednesday, May 8
  1770 Sherman Street Events Center
  7:30-8:15 a.m.: Bagels and coffee
  8:15-9 a.m.: Town hall

Regents approve 3.1 percent salary pool for faculty, exempt professionals

The CU Board of Regents on Tuesday agreed that keeping employees happy and keeping them, period, are necessary for the university’s continued success. After hearing from campus leaders, the regents unanimously voted to approve a 3.1 percent meritorious salary pool for faculty and exempt professionals, as well as a state mandated increase of up to 3.6 percent for classified staff.

“We are no longer cutting fat, we’re cutting muscle and bone,” said Board Chair Michael Carrigan. “We are losing our talent; we are losing the competition to bring the best generation of teachers and researchers to this university. It’s a difficult decision. Because the state is not doing what it needs to be doing to invest in its flagship university system, we have to look somewhere else for the revenue to try to protect and invest in our faculty leadership and our staff leadership.”

Carla Ho-a, vice chair of the University Staff Council, told the board that voting for the pool would be “an important signal (of) how the Board of Regents feels about our staff and our faculty and the value they bring to this university.”

Campus leadership stressed salary increases were necessary to retain the university’s best and brightest.

“My top priority as chancellor is compensation for faculty and staff,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano. “We’ve taken $11.5 million in cuts this year. With those kinds of cuts, we want to reward the faculty and staff who are here, who are working harder than ever before, with some sort of compensation.”

CU Denver Chancellor Don Elliman said if salaries are increased, employees would be more willing to implement necessary cuts. “We believe a 3.1 salary pool is important to retain the quality of faculty we have and the quality of personnel we have. These people feel like they gave at the office and didn’t get much back for themselves. And they didn’t. If we go back to them and say we really do value what you’re doing, then we can ask them to take some more cuts than they’ve already been willing to take, which is substantial.”

UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak said the past four years have been difficult, and that top talent have received competitive offers from other institutions.

“It’s not just salary and adequately rewarding people who are doing excellent jobs for our students,” she said, “it’s also staying competitive so we can continue this into the future.”

Lilly Marks, CU vice president for health affairs and executive vice chancellor at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, said without adequate compensation, the loss of faculty and staff could get worse.

“As our economy starts to rebound, as other institutions with better funding start poaching for talent, we are one of the great poaching grounds,” she said.

President Bruce Benson also spoke in support of the compensation pool.

“Folks, you have got to think about what the cost is of replacing good people,” Benson said. “I think it’s terribly important that we continue to work to keep the people here. If I were doing this, I would be proposing 3.6 percent instead of 3.1 percent. We are doing a heck of a job here and I couldn’t be more proud of our faculty and staff.”