Read the message from the Board of Regents to the CU community

This message was sent Wednesday from the Board of Regents to the CU community after the board elected President Saliman.

Dear CU Community,

We are honored to announce that the Board of Regents has elected Todd Saliman as the University of Colorado’s 24th president. The board voted unanimously on this decision.

President Saliman has been serving as the university’s president on an interim basis since July and will assume the post immediately.

We ask the university community to join us in our support for President Saliman. The challenges we face as a university, state and community demand our collective commitment to progress.

When the board set out to elect a president last summer, we were clear that CU needed a respected leader who could work collaboratively with the board, shared governance leaders and our campus administrators. We also recognized that CU deserves someone who could uphold the university’s values and advance CU as a leading public research university with a diverse and inclusive community.

We found that and more in President Saliman, who emerged from a highly competitive field of candidates with an impressive background and a clear vision for CU’s future.

President Saliman has the experience in higher education and government to lead our institution.

Prior to his role as president, he served as a member of the state legislature, as a cabinet officer for two governors and as CU’s chief financial officer and senior vice president. He has more than 30 years of experience and a track record of results that made him stand out during the search process. He is a trusted leader who is respected across the institution and state. He has a deep love for the university and for Colorado.

He also has some big challenges ahead of him. We heard about a number of those last week during the campus forums.

CU’s president must work with the regents and campuses to balance efforts to keep tuition in check while making sure faculty and staff are compensated fairly. That’s becoming increasingly difficult with the rising cost of inflation and limited state funds.

Our president must work collaboratively across our campuses to create a culture at CU, which reflects the diversity of our state and where everyone feels they belong. We still have a long way to go.

Our president must advocate on behalf of our students, faculty and staff, so they have the resources and facilities to learn, innovate and discover. At the same time, our president must build partnerships across the state with community groups, elected officials, employers and donors so that CU continues to provide value to Colorado.

President Saliman has the ability and experience to meet these and the many other challenges that await.

We had a lot of help along the way. The board is grateful for the more than 40 community groups that met with us in the fall to provide input early in the process. We also want to thank the 19 individuals who served on the search committee this winter. They deserve a lot of praise and respect for making the time to vet the pool of candidates, interview the top prospects and forward five highly qualified candidates to the board. Finally, we greatly appreciate the time everyone took over the past two weeks to meet with President Saliman when he was a finalist and provide feedback. The board considered all input before today’s vote and will continue to listen to the CU community as we evaluate President Saliman’s work to advance the university.

Selecting a president is a heavy responsibility entrusted to the board by the citizens of Colorado who elect their regents. We have a constitutional duty to serve as stewards of this great university, which for generations has served as a beacon of hope and knowledge for our state, nation, and world. We are honored to carry this responsibility and have great faith in Todd Saliman as our next president.

Please join us in congratulating President Saliman and wishing him great success in his new role. As he succeeds, so will our great university.

Sincerely,

Regent Jack Kroll, chair
Regent Sue Sharkey, vice chair
Regent Nolbert Chavez
Regent Glen Gallegos
Regent Heidi Ganahl
Regent Ken Montera
Regent Callie Rennison
Regent Lesley Smith
Regent Ilana Dubin Spiegel