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The author argues that more specific attention is needed to help students from low-income backgrounds overcome adversity in their unique positions at CU Boulder.

The authors propose CU Boulder make the on-campus job experience a stronger learning experience, so that students develop the technical and soft skills that are in high demand in the job market.

The authors argue that undergraduate research is a primary avenue for students to excel, with proven positive outcomes for their education and career trajectories. Added to a commitment that ensures that underserved 
students are involved, it also goes hand-in-hand with inclusive excellence.

The author holds that Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) allow educators to match the structure and the substance of their courses to the needs of the learning experience, and should be an increasingly relied upon tool for course delivery.

The authors suggest that CU Boulder create a centralized academic support center with academic coaching at its heart.

The authors call for a streamlining and more effective communication of academic policies and procedures that impact students in order to promote consistency, fairness, clarity and reasonable expectations.

The author suggests ways to increase the percentage of women faculty in the sciences as one example of how the campus might approach cultivating diversity within its community. Some recommended methods include enlarging search pools and engaging in broad searches; ensure that shortlists have female candidates; and require search committees to take classes on unconscious bias.

The authors propose involving student voices in shaping the Academic Futures process by means of online surveys, flash surveys and informal focus groups.

The authors argue that the campus should align additional financial resources (funding the administration wishes to supply to departments) more closely to departments that bring in more revenue. They suggest several models of professional masters programs at other universities that provide departments with more revenue that facilitates improvements within those departments.

The authors advance a suggestion to enable instructors to change a classroom’s configuration from week to week, varying furniture layout based upon lesson planning, and incorporating the functionality of the space into the way students interact and learn.