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The importance of shared governance, the chancellor’s listening tour this fall and free expression were among the topics addressed during Chancellor Justin Schwartz’s first address to the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) on Thursday, Oct. 3.

“Thank you all for the warm welcome. I want to start by expressing my warm gratitude to all the faculty for the work that they do every day, but also for the warm welcome I’ve received in my first three months,” Schwartz opened to the group, which met both online and in-person. “I’m really looking forward to getting to know more and more of you in various venues as this year rolls forward.”

Schwartz began by reiterating his support for shared governance.

“Shared governance is important and particularly relevant today,” Schwartz said. “I say that because of the significant challenges that higher ed, as an industry, faces nationwide. Some of the issues that have hit our peer institutions in different forms have not hit Boulder, and we should be thankful for that in many ways, but simply because we haven’t been hit doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be proactive in thinking ahead. It means we should still be a leader for higher ed across the country through these turbulent times.”

“For that to happen,” he continued, “we have to have a strong, collaborative, shared governance system and a shared commitment to each other and a shared commitment to the mission and vision of the university.”

During his remarks, Schwartz briefly mentioned his welcome event last week outlining his two priorities—diversity, equity and inclusion and sustainability—and the listening tour currently underway. He’s using this event to get to know each unit and their particular needs so that they can be addressed.

“The commitment here is to both hearing and doing,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz also reminded faculty they are required to work with disability services for any students needing accommodations and touched on the ongoing searches, including the faculty athletic representative search and the provost’s search. More information on the latter can be found in this CU Boulder Today article. A webpage with information about how to nominate someone to join the search committee is also now available.

He also thanked the faculty who provided their feedback regarding the now tabled Board of Regents’ free expression resolution that was brought up during the previous BFA meeting.

“I also have some serious concerns about the resolution,” Schwartz said. He reminded the group that, “We are committed to free expression at CU Boulder. It is a cornerstone of higher ed. It is critical to our success, it’s critical to our students’ experience, and so we are working to make sure we are coming out of this with the absolute best situation for CU Boulder.” 

Schwartz closed his remarks with a reminder for faculty to take care of themselves.

“Often this gets talked about near the end of the semester, but your mental health is a priority. Don’t wait until you’re feeling burnt out to take time to disconnect and recharge.”

In other BFA action 

Artificial intelligence

The BFA heard from Marin Stanek, vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer, about what the university is doing regarding AI.

Stanek outlined the different ways that CU Boulder is currently coordinating its response to AI so that it can not only educate and provide best practices to faculty but also ensure responsible use and data stewardship.

“My public service announcement is that we need not take naive risks,” Stanek said. “We need to be coordinated, we need to be informed, and we need to be deliberate in what we’re doing.”

The group was also briefly reminded that there is an AI community of practice hosted monthly by the Center for Teaching & Learning, in partnership with BFA. Those events are listed on .

This year’s priorities

After a survey distributed to all of the members, which had a 74% completion rate, the BFA determined that the priorities this year are as follows:

• Faculty pay equity
• Regenerative AI
• The climate crisis 
• The campus budget

BFA Director Shelly Miller ended the meeting asking everyone to consider attending Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 14 and 16, adding, “I’m proud that our campus is doing this.”

Learn more about the BFA and previous actions on the BFA website.