The CSU Board of Governors met Friday in the Lory Student Center, and received several reports from CSU Fort Collins, CSU Global and CSU Pueblo.
CSU Report: Stadium update, ASCSU plans health, textbook initiatives
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Executive Vice Chancellor Amy Parsons briefed the board on the stadium.
Parsons said that as of Friday, the stadium had sold out every luxury option, including suites, indoor clubs, boxes and outdoor clubs.
“A lot of these alums haven’t been on campus for a long time,” Parsons said. “I can’t wait to be here next year celebrating homecoming in the new stadium.”
Parson said that the game day committee is in the process of gathering input from the community regarding operations on and off campus for game day, but did not provide any details. She said the board would receive a more detailed plan about game day in December.
During the CSU Fort Collins report, Faculty Council representative Paul Doherty briefly spoke about non-tenure track faculty.
“(We are) thinking about how they can fit into our system a little better here,” Doherty said.
ASCSU plans to expand health services on campus, works towards open source textbooks
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ASCSU President Daniela Pineda Soraca reported working towards open source textbooks and access to feminine care products on campus during her report to the Board of Governors Friday afternoon.
Pineda Soraca said the student organization, which manages roughly $2.5 million in student fees, is working to bring more political attention the expense of textbooks.
“This is a matter that we plan to take to the Colorado Student Government Coalition,” Pineda Soraca said.
Pineda Soraca also told the board about ASCSU’s initiative to expand health services on campus, specifically access to feminine care products.
“There are not as accessible on campus as we would like them to be,” Pineda Soraca said.
Pineda Soraca said she hopes the organization can help to address needs for health services on campus and in Fort Collins.
The ASCSU president briefly spoke about the organization’s plans to host a discrimination in the workplace forum with faculty, community members and law enforcement. Pineda Soraca said this was a response to recent events in the community.
By the Numbers: Crime at CSU in 2015
As part of the morning discussion, pieces of CSU’s annual safety reported were addressed. Each October CSU releases a summary of safety information regarding the past year, as part of the Clery Act.
In 2015, there were 46 reported cases of sexual assault and 23 reported rapes. In 2015
- Rape and Sexual Assault: 23
- Dating and Domestic Violence: 20
- Stalking: 12
- Arrests for Liquor Law Violations: 91
- Alcohol Disciplinary Referrals: 1,072
- Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations: 63
- Drug Disciplinary Referrals: 392
By the Numbers: CSU Research Expenditures
CSU Vice President for Research Alan Rudolph presented CSU research expenditures in 2016 to the Board of Governors.
- 2,211 grant proposals sent
- $332 million in expenditures
- Overall awards: $282 million
- Federal awards: $214 million
- Industry awards: $14 million
- Non-federal: $54 million, 18.3 increase from last year
Rudolph explained the two components of research at the institutional level. He said the first component is faculty, staff and students conducting the research. The second component is infrastructural support, which Rudolph said is a challenging component.
“Doing research like this requires a lot of resource investment to make it work, to make it work well,” Rudolph said. ” … Part of that investment is really what is sometimes the uglier stuff like the information systems, the IT.”
Rudolph believes the infrastructural support needs an upgrade. He talked about the research and scholarship success initiative, which is a plan to improve research infrastructure in the future. Features of this initiative include facility renovations and improving research administration processes such as IT.
“Great people and great ideas need great facilities in order to continue this kind of impact,” Rudolph said.
CSU Pueblo focuses on donations, student enrollment
CSU Pueblo is struggling with retention and student enrollment, and has begun to focus on more donations.
President Lesley Di Mare said that the campus hoped to receive $25 million to fund scholarships, the Occhiato University Center, and the athletics department. The campaign received $28.4 million, in addition to $6 million in grants received over the last two weeks, which will fund students with disciplines in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and will fund grants for first-generation and Hispanic students.
Antonio Huerta, president of the Associated Student Government, reported to the board that he hopes to host more events for prospective students by having at least two different organizations host a weekly event.
“Right now, we are struggling with retention and student enrollment,” Huerta said, “So, planning events when students come, to see that there are things to do and that our campus is pretty great, is my ultimate goal.”
Following Huerta, Professor of Music and Department of Music Chair David Volk stated that he is proud of the accomplishments the Pueblo campus has made, especially in the music department.
Volk described his experience at the most recent Colorado Music Educators Association where the jazz ensemble performed.
“We knew we were going to greatly exceed expectations among our state peers, but also among music educators across the 12 schools in Colorado,” Volk said of the performance, which included several freshman in an 18-person ensemble.
CSU Global Campus works to reduce class size, improve student performance
CSU Global Campus has experienced improvements in retention rates, professional development programs and class sizes.
CSU Global Campus President Becky Takeda-Tinker said that retention rates for the global campus are between 80 and 85 percent, higher than they were two years ago. Takeda-Tinker attributed this to the adaptation of new learning technology tools.
Technological advancements have also led to the creation of customizable learning resources so that students will not have to go through remedial courses, Takeda-Tinker said
Jon Bellum, provost of CSU Global, said that university faculty members are working to enhance professional development opportunities.
Bellum said that funds have been allotted to pay for professional development training for students and faculty that takes place outside of the university.
Bellum also said that funds have also been allotted for students and faculty members that present at conferences and submit written works for publication. Bellum said that these individuals receive a stipend if a paper that they present at a conference is accepted for publication.
Graduate class sizes for the online program have also decreased. “In July we dropped our max numbers in any graduate class to eighteen.”
Bellum stated, “The intent being that we want smaller classes so that our faculty can have even more engagement with individual students.”
Overall, Bellum said that faculty expectations for the global campus have increased in order to have a tighter relationship between students and faculty members. Bellum said that the intent behind improving these relationships was to increase the humanity of the faculty members, a difficult task in an online setting.
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