Foundations of Excellence

Campus expanding First Year Experience program to increase accessibility of learning communities

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 12:30:45 +0000

Campus expanding First Year Experience program to increase accessibility of learning communities Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/05/2021 - 06:30

The First Year Experience (FYE) program is expanding its offerings through a new multiyear initiative that will increase the accessibility of learning communities to all incoming residential and commuting first year students.

“It is important for us to provide all first year students with an experience that promotes their engagement with campus and creates a sense of belonging for them,” said Mary Kraus, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education, who co-led this initiative with Ann Schmiesing, executive vice provost for academic resource management. “Building these connections to campus life increases the potential for students to remain at CU Boulder and complete their undergraduate degrees here,” Kraus said.

This FYE initiative follows substantial engagement with and input from stakeholders including faculty and staff committees, the Boulder Faculty Assembly, and deans. It also aligns with recommendations from several cross-campus committees, which include the RAP Task Force (2017), IDEA Plan (2019),and Foundations of Excellence (2019).

Existing residential academic programs (RAPs) and Living Learning Communities (LLCs) will reopen in fall 2021 at regular staffing levels. LLCs in Engineering and Student Affairs will continue in the 2021–22 academic year, and a new LLC for students in the Program in Exploratory Studies (PES) and A&S OPNO (open option) will be created.

“As part of this multiyear initiative, we plan to examine and, in some cases, shift existing program locations. We also plan to add additional LLCs, including learning communities for commuter students,” said Schmiesing. Additional LLCs will be phased in over several years to allow time for a proposal process and a funding model to be developed.

Student Affairs and the Office of Undergraduate Education have established a First Year Experience Advisory Board, with representatives from the schools and colleges, the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Division of Student Affairs, the Office of the Registrar, the Office of Admissions, and Budget and Fiscal Planning.

The advisory board is currently developing guidelines and procedures for the development of new LLCs. Equity of access and location will guide decisions made by the advisory board.

“The campus already has numerous RAPs, but only four LLCs. By building out LLCs while retaining RAPs, we will be able to offer students a robust and engaging menu of first year residential experiences,” Kraus said. “Creating additional LLCs addresses concerns regarding RAP equity and access by ensuring that all incoming first year students can participate in first year experience programs without financial barriers.”

A request to halve the RAP fee from $850 to $425 will be presented to the Board of Regents for approval in April.

For all incoming residential and commuting first-year students, access to CU Boulder’s learning communities will increase. Also, the campus’s Residential Academic Programs and Living Learning Communities will reopen this fall.

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Other Academic Futures project updates

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 21:22:52 +0000

Other Academic Futures project updates Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/03/2019 - 15:22

Throughout the year, we will continue to make progress on the other Academic Futures’ themes and projects:

Governance

The Academic Futures Report, reflecting a campus desire for stronger and more clearly defined governance structures, called for every school and college to review its governance structure to ensure that it was meeting the needs of faculty, staff and students.

To that end, over the 2019-20 academic year, Provost Russ Moore charged CU Boulder’s deans with developing more comprehensive governance structures in their schools and colleges. The goal is to develop more unified governance approaches at the college and school level, develop a governance ecosystem where units can learn from each other, and together find opportunities to support the important work of the Boulder Faculty Assembly.

Ensuring that campus maintains governance bodies that are recognized by faculty as representative of their ideas, concerns and input are touchstones of successful shared governance and work toward greater openness—values that serve the public good.

Campus success: physical resources

Strategic Facilities Visioning provides the foundation for physical infrastructure planning needed for CU Boulder to carry out its mission, serve its constituents, and successfully execute on all of the priority themes and projects from Academic Futures.

The work of the Strategic Facilities Visioning team over the past year is culminating this fall in the development and refinement of a data-rich planning tool that will help our campus leadership make the most meaningful and impactful infrastructure investment decisions in support of the campus mission and the strategic priorities emanating from Academic Futures.

This tool will also play a vital role in testing and evaluating different facilities scenarios as we embark on creation of the next Campus Master Plan over the next two years.

What it means to be a public university today

What it means to be a public university today is a question deeply embedded in Academic Futures and in our daily activities of research, scholarship, creative work, teaching and service.

It finds meaning in the questions of faculty surrounding shared governance, research, and outreach and engagement with the public. It is a core question for students, relating to affordability, and the value and utility of a public research university degree. It is found in the questions of staff regarding openness, transparency, partnership and fulfillment in daily work, and most certainly, in the questions of a skeptical public on affordability, purpose and return on investment.

Throughout the third year of Academic Futures, the campus will address this theme in its input to leadership on initiatives such as Interdisciplinary Teaching, Research, and Creative Work; in the faculty discussions and responses to re-envisioning governance; and in administrative statements on policy and programmatic directions.

Later this year, Academic Futures will submit to the campus a new proposal to revitalize and re-envision the engagement of faculty, staff and students with communities, demonstrating the values of the university community, the value of its people, and the potential of a public university in elevating the public good.

Sustaining, supporting and inspiring our community

Under the IDEA Plan, we are creating commitments to diversity, equity and inclusive excellence that will sustain, support, and inspire our research, scholarship, creative work, teaching and service.

These efforts will also have direct benefits for diverse communities and individuals outside the university, improving their access to CU Boulder resources, programs and communities of expertise and practice, furthering the public’s faith in the university, its engagement with the university, and its confidence that the university is representative of the public it represents.

For example, innovations such as the Center for Teaching and Learning, called for in Academic Futures, Foundations of Excellence, and the IDEA Plan, will support and inspire our community with resources and opportunities to hone teaching skills, practices and holistic growth.

Internationalizing our campus

Unifying the university’s efforts around international education, learning, research and scholarship is a recommended project of Academic Futures, with benefits for students, faculty, and local and international publics. Look for next steps on this project later this year.

Learn more about projects including governance; campus success; what it means to be a public university; sustaining, supporting and inspiring our community; and internationalizing the campus.

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Creating a common student-centered approach to teaching and learning

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 20:54:31 +0000

Creating a common student-centered approach to teaching and learning Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/03/2019 - 14:54

Striving to become a student-centered campus is a primary motivation and central project of Academic Futures, as well as a key focus of Foundations of Excellence and the IDEA Plan. The project calls for a coordinated and collective effort in undergraduate teaching and learning, including developing a common learning experience, establishing a teaching and learning center, and taking a unified approach to advising. These important ideas are supported by the work of both Financial Futures and Strategic Facilities Visioning, and are tied to a host of other ongoing strategic projects CU Boulder.

Later this month, the university will announce the structure of its Center for Teaching and Learning, which, under the direction of its new director, Kirk Ambrose, will be a combined resource for all who have a teaching role on campus – from tenured faculty to graduate students to adjunct instructors.

The Center for Teaching and Learning will also be a hub for professional development on teaching and learning best practices for faculty and graduate students. The new center will build assessment capacity for faculty and departments, provide resources on inclusive pedagogy, and develop an education community of practice that allows best practices and innovative ideas to flow across the university.

The Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee forwarded recommendations to the provost to improve the advising experience for CU Boulder students – projects that have been approved and funded.

The Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan, the campus’s blueprint for cultivating diversity, inclusion and equity and improving campus culture and climate, currently under review of campus leadership, will focus on a number of key provisions designed to improve the student experience in the classroom by creating an inclusive pedagogy community of practice for faculty facility via the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Together, these initiatives work to focus faculty and staff efforts on reimaging and revitalizing the student experience and integrate the campus’s strategic imperatives—lead, innovate, impact—by improving the experience of CU people—students, faculty and staff—and the quality of CU programs, and the positive outcomes that occur from the symbiosis of both and that serve the public good.

Later this month, the university will announce the structure of its Center for Teaching and Learning, which will be a combined resource for all who have a teaching role on campus.

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Academic Futures year-3 implementation: Enacting our commitment to furthering public good

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 20:02:37 +0000

Academic Futures year-3 implementation: Enacting our commitment to furthering public good Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/03/2019 - 14:02

As CU Boulder enters into year three of the Academic Futures initiative, our implementation begins in earnest. Campus will experience the integration of our strategic initiatives—Foundations of Excellence, IDEA Plan, Strategic Facilities Visioning—into Academic Futures’ projects and themes, driving toward the central theme of Enacting Our Commitment to Furthering the Public Good. 

Financial Futures will continue to be a complementary initiative, as its purpose is to support the mission of CU Boulder through strategic financial alignment.

Our focus this year is on four priority projects: 

Creating a common student-centered approach to teaching and learning
Making excellence inclusive

Teaching and technology, online and distance education
Interdisciplinary teaching, research and creative works

We will also continue to make progress on the other themes and projects in the Academic Futures report, including how our Strategic Facilities Visioning initiative will provide the physical infrastructure support needed to successfully execute the priority themes and projects. 

As the third year of Academic Futures progresses, campus is encouraged to help rethink the future of learning and discovery:

Visit the Strategic Initiatives webpage  
Read updates on Academic Futures, Financial Futures and related strategic initiatives in CU Boulder Today
Watch for special events, town halls and other opportunities to engage in person

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Foundations of Excellence: Improving the first-year experience

Anonymous — Wed, 01 May 2019 22:14:06 +0000

Foundations of Excellence: Improving the first-year experience Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/01/2019 - 16:14

In the fall of 2017, the Office of Undergraduate Education partnered with the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management to embark on the Foundations of Excellence (FoE) initiative, a campuswide effort to evaluate the first-year undergraduate experience.

In the first phase of the initiative, a comprehensive self-study and improvement-planning process was guided by the Gardner Institute—a non-profit organization devoted to improving teaching, learning, retention and student success—and included partners from across campus. Over 100 faculty members, staff members and students served on nine committees led by a steering committee of 18 members.

Mary Kraus, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education, says first-year retention (the process of students returning for a second year) is one of the biggest issues CU Boulder faces and represents an opportunity for campus to create an improved first-year experience (FYE).

“We are asking ourselves why we are losing 13% of our first-year students and using this question as the impetus to work collaboratively and creatively to make the experience better for all our students,” Kraus said.

Pause and refocus

The FoE steering committee delivered a final report to Provost Russ Moore in May of 2018, shortly after which the steering committee decided to pause implementation.

“That pause reflected the fact that Academic Futures had not yet released its report and Financial Futures and Strategic Facilities Visioning were just gearing up,” Kraus said. “The committee decided that a period of quiescence to await results from these overlapping initiatives would ensure that all of our initiatives are aligned before we strike forward and risk duplicating efforts.”

Kraus explained that once that alignment occurred in September of 2018, the provost charged the committee to set up two key committees: the First-Year Experience Transition Committee and the Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee. Both have produced reports, which are in different stages of completion.

First-Year Experience Transition Committee

The First-Year Experience Transition Committee was co-chaired by Kraus and Kevin MacLennan, assistant vice chancellor of enrollment management. Kraus explained that this committee decided to group a number of recommendations from the FoE report and attempt to address all of them by re-envisioning the first year to include a residential experience for all students.

“Fifty percent of our students are able to experience a Residential Academic Program, or RAP,” Kraus said. “The committee decided that we will do everything we can to try to provide first-year learning communities at no additional cost for 100% of the entering class, including the commuter students.”

The committee submitted a draft report on expanding first-year academic experiences for undergraduate students, which is posted on the website for campus input; the final report with campus input will be submitted to the provost in early May.

Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee

The Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee was led by Assistant Vice Provost for Advising and Exploratory Studies Shelly Bacon and Associate Dean for Students in the College of Engineering & Applied Science Mary Steiner.

“The goal of that committee was to provide a more cohesive, consistent advising experience for all of our first-year students,” Bacon said. “In order to align with the Academic Futures report, we incorporated into our charge an overall review of advising services and structures across campus and development of a roadmap for empowering all advisors to serve as a source of holistic student support.”

After receiving extensive stakeholder feedback during a campus input period, the committee submitted its final report and key recommendations to Kraus and Moore. The report outlines recommended improvements to CU Boulder’s campuswide advising structure.

Next steps

The Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee has completed its work and submitted its final report. The First-Year Experience report is available for campus input until May 1. The resource needs related to both projects sit with the Financial Futures retention work stream.

Bacon explained that once the provost has had the opportunity to review both reports and request any clarifications, she expects he will establish an implementation committee to sharpen the charge for both efforts.

“Once we get feedback from the provost and campus leadership, as well as from the leadership of other initiatives (such as Financial Futures), we will convene a diverse group of stakeholders, advisors and students to move toward implementation,” Bacon said. “With clear direction, the people closest to the current advising structures are the very people we want to involve in the conversation.”

Kraus expressed similar expectations about next steps for the First-Year Experience Committee.

“What the FYE report does is set out a broad picture of what this should look like,” Kraus explained. “The committee has recommended that the provost set up an implementation committee to further define the details of the vision.”

Visit the strategic initiatives webpage to learn more about each of the initiatives and to see schedules for town halls, meetings and other engagement opportunities. You can provide feedback on the strategic initiatives to the provost and senior vice chancellor by sending an email to vcaa@colorado.edu.

The campuswide effort to evaluate the first-year undergraduate experience has recently made progress on efforts to re-envision the first-year student residential experience as well as to provide a more cohesive, consistent advising experience for all of our first-year students.

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Strategic initiatives in high gear with semester’s end in sight

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 15:37:23 +0000

Strategic initiatives in high gear with semester’s end in sight Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/02/2019 - 09:37

CU Boulder’s strategic initiatives continue to move ahead, integrate and come together. Read below for the monthly update, including information on Academic Futures, Financial Futures, the IDEA Plan, Foundations of Excellence and more.

Academic Futures

The Academic Futures-Financial Futures Online Strategy Working Group is developing a digital education roadmap that integrates recommendations from the Academic Futures and Financial Futures strategic initiatives. The Interdisciplinary Teaching, Research and Creative Working Group is exploring how the campus can effectively embrace interdisciplinarity in both education and scholarship.

The campus community is encouraged to attend one of the four remaining town halls of the semester for updates and progress and an opportunity to share your input and have your questions answered.

Financial Futures

Financial Futures continues to identify opportunities to increase CU Boulder’s financial resiliency and align our resources to our mission. Workstreams focused on research and portfolio review are launching. Faculty, staff and students interested in contributing ideas to these and other areas are encouraged to attend upcoming town halls on April 29 and May 2 and to submit ideas online.

Foundations of Excellence

After receiving extensive stakeholder feedback, the Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee submitted the final report and key recommendations to Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Mary Kraus. The report outlines recommended improvements to CU Boulder’s campuswide advising structure.

The First-Year Transition Committee submitted a draft report on expanding first-year academic experiences for undergraduate students to Provost Russ Moore. That report is on the website for campus input; the final report will be submitted to Provost Moore by May 7.

IDEA Plan

The spring Diversity and Inclusion Summit drew more than 150 people to two sessions that discussed the Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan; more engagement opportunities related to the plan will be scheduled in April.

The revision committee delivered the final draft of the IDEA Plan to Vice Chancellor Robert Boswell on Friday, March 1. Boswell is expected to submit the IDEA Plan to the chancellor’s cabinet in early to mid-April.

Strategic Facilities Visioning, master planning projects

Strategic Facilities Visioning is halfway through the scenario planning phase, as interdisciplinary groups of visionaries continue to develop and test future facilities and infrastructure scenarios, with a forward-looking approach to the changing education and research landscape. Town halls on April 4 and April 10 offer in-person updates on the SFV process from the project leads.

Separately, the Housing Master Plan and Transportation Master Plan initiatives continue to engage the campus through upcoming surveys and in-person engagement opportunities.

Complementary campus- and unit-based initiatives, committees and projects

Academic re-organization

CU Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore announced on March 22 that he intends to form, by next week, three working groups of campus subject matter experts to examine the structural, budgetary and governance challenges of reorganizing the College of Arts and Sciences, per the recommendations of the Provost’s Committee on Academic Reorganization.

The working groups will deliver their analyses at the close of the 2019 calendar year and determine, in Moore’s words, “what it will take to move forward with a proposed new structure for the college.”

Accreditation

Since the accreditation process was announced, working groups made up of faculty, staff and graduate and undergraduate students have been meeting to discuss how CU Boulder fulfills the five criteria by which the university is accredited.

In late May, the steering committee will submit a report that will be made available to the campus community for feedback and suggestions through the end of August. The office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Assessment will facilitate input to the report throughout the summer, so look for future announcements on how this process will work.

Get involved

For a list of the initiatives and to pinpoint ways you can become engaged, via town halls and open forums or in other ways, visit the initiatives webpage.

CU Boulder’s strategic initiatives continue to move ahead, integrate and come together. Read the monthly update, including information on Academic Futures, Financial Futures, the IDEA Plan and more.

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First-year experience committee report seeks community input

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 16:22:42 +0000

First-year experience committee report seeks community input Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/22/2019 - 10:22

A report calling for the expansion of residential academic experiences for all incoming first-year students and making that experience financially accessible to all students has been posted for a 30-day community review.

The report of the First-Year Experience Transition Committee, chaired by Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education Mary Kraus, provides a comprehensive analysis of first-year experiences at CU Boulder. It looks carefully at the costs and benefits of such programs, and makes recommendations for a new first-year experience for CU Boulder.

“We’re recommending that all incoming first-year students, whether in residence halls or commuting to campus, participate in a living-learning community, or what we’re calling a first-year academic experience.

“The report details data from peer institutions and higher education organizations, as well as focus group input that we gathered, all of which indicate a strong correlation between residential living-learning communities and improved student learning and sense of community for first-year students,” Kraus said.

The report recommends that, to make such experiences more affordable and accessible, CU Boulder end the current RAP fee of $850 and modestly increase the current housing confirmation fee to help extend the programs to all students and allow them to participate in the community of their choice.

“We are interested in hearing from the campus community about these and other recommendations in the report,” Kraus said.

For the next 30 days, the community can provide input on the report via the First-Year Experience Transition Committee’s webpage in the form of comments or the submission of response papers of no more than two pages. Individuals, groups and academic units can also request an input session from April 5 through May 1 with Kraus; committee co-chair Kevin MacLennan, assistant vice chancellor for Enrollment Management; and select members of the committee by emailing Kraus at mary.kraus@colorado.edu.

Following the review and input period, the committee will make necessary additions and modifications and submit the final report to Provost Russ Moore by May 7. The report also requests that Moore, upon acceptance of the final report, appoint an implementation committee to begin designing the new First-Year Academic Experience program for CU Boulder.

A report calling for the expansion of residential academic experiences for all incoming first-year students and making that experience financially accessible has been posted for a 30-day review.

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Strategic initiatives moving ahead

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 17:59:57 +0000

Strategic initiatives moving ahead Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:59

What’s happening with our strategic initiatives? Read below for the monthly update, including information on Academic Futures, Financial Futures, the IDEA Plan, Foundations of Excellence and more.

Academic Futures town halls

Thursday, March 14
1:30–3 p.m. UMC 384

Thursday, March 21
2:30–4 p.m. UMC 386

Thursday, April 4
12:30–2 p.m. UMC 247

Wednesday, April 10
10–11:30 a.m. ECAD 109

Wednesday, April 17
11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. UMC 386

Monday, April 22
9:30–11 a.m. Hellems 196

Monday, April 29
9:30–11 a.m. UMC 245

Financial Futures town halls

Monday, April 1
1–2 p.m. Rec Center, Ice Overlook Large Meeting Room

Tuesday, April 2
8:30–9:30 a.m. UMC 247

Academic Futures

The Interdisciplinary Teaching, Research and Creative Working Group was named on Feb. 26, and this week added two new members of our arts and humanities faculty. It will explore what the campus needs in order to effectively embrace interdisciplinarity in both education and scholarship.

Town halls for the remainder of the semester have also been posted.

Financial Futures

Projects focusing on enrollment, summer and evening programs, procurement and gift funds are being reviewed with potential for implementation as early as summer 2019. A second wave of initiative priorities, or workstreams, including research and portfolio review, launches this month.

Learn more online and at town halls April 1 and April 2.

Foundations of Excellence

Last month, Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education Mary Kraus announced the Foundations of Excellence (FoE) Advising Committee had produced a draft report outlining recommended improvements to CU Boulder’s campuswide advising structure. The draft executive summary of the report is available for campus review until Thursday, March 7.

IDEA Plan

The spring Diversity and Inclusion Summit drew more than 150 people to two sessions that discussed the Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan, and more engagement opportunities related to the plan will be scheduled in April.

Strategic Facilities Visioning, master planning projects

Strategic Facilities Visioning phase two work is underway, with the six Scenario Planning teams convening for the first time in late February. The teams will continue to meet in March and April as they work to develop and test future facilities and infrastructure options for leadership consideration.

In preparation for the Campus Master Plan update due in 2021, the university has also launched housing and transportation master plan initiatives. The Housing Master Plan and Transportation Master Plan will culminate in overarching guiding principles for how the university approaches housing and transportation, as well as recommended options to be integrated into the Campus Master Plan.

What’s happening with our strategic initiatives? Get the monthly update, including information on Academic Futures, Financial Futures, the IDEA Plan, Foundations of Excellence and more.

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Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee report available for public comment

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 18:29:08 +0000

Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee report available for public comment Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/19/2019 - 11:29

On Tuesday, Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education Mary Kraus announced that the Foundations of Excellence (FoE) Advising Committee has produced a draft report outlining recommended improvements to CU Boulder’s campuswide advising structure.

Seeking Student Feedback

CUSG President Olivia Wittenberg will host a student event to gather feedback and respond to questions.

When: Feb. 27, 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Where: UMC 384

Details: Refreshments will be provided.

Additional: On March 1, students are invited to join faculty and staff for an open forum from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Center for Community (C4C) S350.

“The report contains a host of recommendations representing opportunities to establish advisors as a first-point-of-contact and source of holistic student support, and we believe the recommendations, once implemented, will contribute significantly to increased student retention and graduation rates.

“We invite feedback from all campus constituencies as we endeavor to enhance and streamline the delivery of advising services to CU Boulder students,” Kraus said.

The draft executive summary of the report is available for campus review until March 7 on the FoE Advising Committee website. In addition, the committee will host two events for faculty and staff to gather feedback and respond to questions.

Advisors and advising-related staff are welcome to attend a forum from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 in UMC 386.
On March 1, all campus constituents are invited to attend an open forum from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Center for Community (C4C), room S350.

All are encouraged to review the report and provide feedback to the committee. The report’s findings will ultimately be integrated into Academic Futures and Financial Futures final recommendations to campus.

The FoE Advising Committee is co-chaired by Shelly Bacon, assistant vice provost for advising and academic services, and Mary Steiner, associate dean for students in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

The committee was convened as part of the FoE initiative, a collaborative effort to remove institutional barriers to student progress and improve outcomes in the first-year undergraduate experience.

Mary Kraus has announced a draft report outlining recommended improvements to CU Boulder’s campuswide advising structure.

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Foundations of Excellence: Promoting successful pathways for first-year students

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 19:10:33 +0000

Foundations of Excellence: Promoting successful pathways for first-year students Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/13/2018 - 12:10

In fall of 2017, CU Boulder embarked on the Foundations of Excellence (FoE) initiative in order to improve the campus experience for all first-year students by creating cross-campus programs that promote successful curricular and co-curricular pathways.

Earlier this semester, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Mary Kraus explained the campus had decided to place a slight pause on the implementation of these recommendations “in order to allow our campus leaders and collaborators to ensure there is a complete alignment with other campus initiatives before striking forward.” Primarily, campus leaders wanted to ensure the recommendations from Foundations of Excellence are aligned with and not duplicative of the recommendations of the Academic Futures initiative.

This fall, two separate committees were formed to advance the work of this initiative: the First-Year Experience Transition Committee and the Foundations of Excellence Advising Committee. Kraus says the campus has chosen to focus on the work of these two committees because both received strong support from both the Foundations of Excellence and Academic Futures initiatives. They will produce their reports in the spring of 2019.

For more, visit the Foundations of Excellence page.

This fall, there was a slight pause while campus leaders ensured alignment among this and the Academic Futures initiative, and two committees formed.

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