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The tragedy that took place in Las Vegas on Sunday evening is absolutely devastating. Not only is it difficult to process the actions someone took on innocent people, but tragedies like these leave us with more questions than answers. Over the last month my thoughts have been with flood victims and now those impacted by this senseless shooting.  Please make it a priority to take care of our students, each other and yourself, and utilize available campus resources.

Senior Executive Aide
I recently shared a job posting for a Senior Executive Aide and am delighted to announce that Leslie Kavanaugh has been selected.  As the Director of the Office of Assessment and Planning, Leslie has been instrumental in creating a strategic plan and transforming assessment across the Division, so we are able to make meaningful changes in the work we do.  In her new role, Leslie will serve as a strategic partner for me and will manage projects across the Division and collaborations across campus. Please join me in congratulating Leslie on her new position!

Town Hall Recap

A big thank you to everyone who participated in our recent Student Affairs Town Hall - what an amazing and inspiring experience! I hope the time spent with Terri Fiez and Sarabeth Berk gave a better understanding of our campus and division-wide initiatives on innovation, and why CU Boulder is in such a prime position for innovation. As our division moves toward becoming a campus leader in innovative practices, I truly look forward to future collaborations with the Research & Innovation Office.

As we work to develop our divergent thinking skills and “re-thinking the box”, I hope you will remember the takeaways from the Town Hall’s activities to help us be more innovative:

• Sometimes it’s not always best to “divide and conquer” when problem-solving, because this allows silos to form.
• We have a tendency to go immediately to our comfort zones, and we have to remember to go outside of those comfort zones and challenge ourselves.
• It’s important to ask questions and make sure we understand the overall goal when we’re given directions.
• Find new and more efficient ways to accomplish tasks – we shouldn’t do things a certain way just because it’s expected or always been done.
• Collaborating with people outside of our regular teams or offices can be extremely beneficial.

Advancement

You may notice I’ll be away from campus more than usual this semester.  An important part my role as Vice Chancellor is traveling and supporting advancement efforts to ensure we maintain high quality offerings, even as other sources of revenue stay stagnant or decline. Less than 5% of CU Boulder’s revenue comes from the state of Colorado, making revenue from tuition and fees, grants and fundraising more critical than ever.

One of the key ways we support advancement efforts is cultivating relationships with donors, especially through the Chancellor’s and building relationships with parents all over the country. With Family Weekend just around the corner, I encourage you to join me in strengthening these important relationships with our Buff families by welcoming them to our campus.

Sincerely,

Christina Gonzales