Staff Council takes on slate of topics

During their first meeting of the academic year, University of Colorado Staff Council members heard updates on a variety of issues, including the search for the university president, CU Denver campus goals and the formation of a new inclusivity committee for the CU Denver l Anschutz campuses.

The group met Sept. 20 on the CU Denver campus. Meeting highlights were:

CU Denver – Chancellor Dorothy Horrell told council members about happenings on campus, including the successful opening of the Lola & Rob Salazar Student Wellness Center. She also noted that, as part of a campus master plan, the university is working to develop a dedicated engineering building and a dining facility for first-year students.

Presidential search – The process to replace President Bruce D. Benson, who announced he would retire in July 2019, has begun. A search committee will be formed, and, according to university policy, the committee includes one staff member. Individual campus councils will reach out to staff members to find people who might be interested in serving on the presidential search committee. UCSC will collect the names of interested staff members and forward the names to the team heading the committee. 

Staff members also may nominate themselves by filling out a form at https://www.cu.edu/presidential-search/forms/search-committee-nomination

The composition of the committee is two regents, one dean, four faculty members (one from each campus), one student, one staff member, two alumni and four community members.

Staff Inclusive Excellence Committee (SIEC) -- Peter Crosier-Cajina and Karissa Stolen, co-chairs of the just-formed ad hoc committee of the Staff Council for the CU Denver l Anschutz campuses, detailed organizational plans to help develop leaders who reflect the people they serve. About 40 people are participating in groundwork of setting goals.

Online training report – Staff Council member Annie Meltzer, a training coordinator with Employee Services, discussed a recently released annual report that details the number of people on each campus who use Skillsoft, an online learning system. Included in the online library are 111 customized courses for specific CU career advancement or training purposes. Some of the courses have been translated into several languages.

In fiscal year 2018, some 73,757 courses were completed, up from 63,784 in 2017. 

Employee Services also is assessing the use of Lynda.com, another online space that houses thousands of video courses. The contract with the vendor runs through June 2019. Training and other courses were initially available only on the Boulder campus, but the benefit expanded in 2017 to all faculty and staff.