CU

The University of Colorado academic programs continue to shape tomorrow’s leaders and garner national attention, while groundbreaking faculty and student research opens new frontiers of knowledge.

I believe it is imperative that we build a CU environment to foster teaching and learning that will educate our students so they can learn for themselves.

Vision CU 2010 is a bold agenda intended to map the future of the university for the next decade. CU 2010 consists of five strategic areas: a university without walls, a culture of excellence, increasing resources and using them wisely, diversity and an integrated infrastructure.

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A university without walls: For CU to continue to be a research powerhouse, for the state and the nation, it is critical to marshal the intellectual resources of the entire university to address the important research questions of the future. It is increasingly the case that the research problems we tackle cross disciplinary boundaries – involving the collaboration of scientists, social scientists and humanists to address the most important problems and opportunities we are confronting.

The university of the 21st century must dismantle the walls that separate the disciplines, colleges and campuses within the system.

Consider the issue of cognitive disabilities, for example, and how to address the very real problem that 20 million Americans today suffer from cognitive disabilities. It becomes an extremely vital social issue, and it crosses multiple academic disciplines from genetics to special education to cognitive psychology to geriatrics to assistive technologies. The University of Colorado Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities is a multidisciplinary effort involving all four CU campuses – serving as a model for a 21st century university.

This model can be applied to many other societal problems. For instance, we stand on the verge of the next era of the genetics revolution. Biotechnology and genomics are prime examples of fields where CU’s strengths across all four of our campuses can work for one common outcome.

Research also must extend beyond the university. It is not simply the university teaching the community, but the community educating the university as well. We must keep building upon this integration so that the university partners with the community and enriches the community.

A culture of excellence: Each CU campus has targeted areas for national prominence. In 10 years or less, CU should be recognized as a top public research university.

We are already preeminent in some areas. Recently two CU professors won the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics, and CU’s Health Sciences Center continues to break new ground in medicine. The university was recently ranked fourth among public universities and eighth among all universities in federal research funds.

Increasing resources and using them wisely: Now, more than ever, CU needs to bolster its resources necessary to recruit and retain outstanding students, faculty and staff. The best strategy for addressing our limited resources and enabling CU to maintain its high level of excellence is to develop new and creative partnerships with individuals and industry.

CU will continue its close partnership with the state – recognizing that we are restricted by Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR), and by the many needs that the state faces — to receive its fair share of the annual state allocation.

We have set a goal of raising slightly more than a billion dollars by 2004. By the year 2010, we should be raising half a billion dollars annually with the goal of creating a $5 billion endowment for this institution.

Currently, CU tuition is a bargain for both in-state and out-of-state students. During the past decade, our tuition increases have been significantly lower than our competition. By 2010, CU should be in the position of having more flexibility in setting tuition, while continuing to maximize the leverage of state funding through private and federal funding.

Diversity: By mid-century there will be no majority population in the United States. It is a moral imperative of a university to adapt to and address population shifts. CU is developing aggressive recruitment and retention strategies for minority students, faculty and staff. In addition, CU must reflect the global community with international programs; expanded opportunities for student, faculty and staff exchanges; and jointly sponsor degrees with top universities around the world.

Integrated infrastructure: CU is creating an integrated student information system to allow students to easily transfer to or take courses on other campuses. At the same time, we are expanding CU-Online so that students can take a broader variety of courses and complete more majors and degrees online.

The year 2010 seems a long way off, but with the rapid pace of progress and change that defines our world, it will be here sooner than we think. We must set a goal of being one of the top public universities now, because now is the time for us to envision how we will perform as a leader of change in the next decade. Just keeping pace with progress will not put us at the top.

The decade that lies ahead is the most exciting one yet for the University of Colorado.Elizabeth Hoffman is the 20th president of University of Colorado system.