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Academic Futures: Notes from a great conversation, Feb. 7 edition

Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs Jeff Cox

Vice Provost and AVC for Faculty Affairs and Convener of the Academic Futures Campus Conversation Jeff Cox

Grand Challenge Director of Strategic Projects Emily Cobabe-Ammann

RIO Director of Strategic Projects and Facilitator of the Academic Futures Campus Conversation Emily CoBabe-Ammann

The Academic Futures Committee has started its work for the spring, sorting through the many ideas generated by our campus community during the fall semester—ideas such as implementing a campus core curriculum and creating a global campus, to name only two. Building on our internal campus conversations and upon the thoughts and deliberations of its members, the committee is now looking outward, as well. 

For Academic Futures to be truly focused on “what’s next” for our campus, it is critical the committee’s work is informed by all the expertise we can find—from campus thought leaders to higher education research to model programs that other universities have developed and successfully implemented. 

We will be drawing upon content experts here at CU Boulder in areas such as graduate education, undergraduate research and student advising to support the committee in its work, taking advantage of the world-class research and many years of experience the campus has assembled to ensure our visions can be harnessed into exciting new realities.

We are also drawing upon the energy and talents of graduate and undergraduate students to help us assemble and focus the best thinking outside the university, found in scholarly research as well as popular articles, essays and op-eds. We are also examining documented records of achievement at other universities to give us yardsticks by which to measure our visions.

The research is being organized around key issues and questions. For example, what could service/experiential learning look like at CU Boulder? What is the potential for our engaging globally? How do we build on our successes to create universal undergraduate research opportunities for CU students?

By integrating all of these conversations, research and models, we will chart a path for CU Boulder that is uniquely ours—one that fits our values, draws upon the best of what we are, who we are, and on what we can find within our community and outside of it. 

Jeff Cox,
Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs
Convener of the Academic Futures Campus Conversation

Emily CoBabe-Ammann,
Director of Strategic Projects for the Research & Innovation Office
Facilitator of the Academic Futures Campus Conversation