State’s flagship university charts a course with input from many

By G.P. “Bud” Peterson

During the next several weeks, the University of Colorado at Boulder will welcome the class of 2011, one which will rival last year’s as one of the largest, best-qualified and most diverse classes in the history of CU-Boulder and one that will help us build on the tremendous momentum established this past year.

However, as delighted as we are about the current state of things, great universities must always set their sights on tomorrow. At CU-Boulder, that is exactly what we are doing.

Next week, I will present a draft of our strategic plan, a plan that will carry our university forward 25 years and ensure that we are serving Colorado’s needs now, and in the future. We call this plan “Flagship 2030.”

I’m pleased to report that this effort has not been an internal exercise, but one that has been led by a Steering Committee of 60 stakeholders from inside and outside the university.

We have added to this group the perspectives of other “core contributors” — people with an interest in the planning process who are supplementing the ideas of the Steering Committee — and this summer we have reached out to 15 communities across the state of Colorado to solicit their thoughts, ideas and visions of how CU-Boulder can better serve the needs of their communities and of the state. We have done this by interviewing the people who help to shape these communities and their futures.

These “thought leaders” include economic development leaders, school superintendents and parent-teacher organization presidents, newspaper editors and publishers (including John Temple, editor of the Rocky Mountain News), community service leaders and government officials from communities such as Steamboat Springs, Grand Junction, Vail, Durango, Alamosa, Pueblo, Longmont, Fort Collins, Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Greeley, Limon, Lamar, La Junta and Sterling.

Our interviewers are professor Margaret Moritz and assistant professor Elizabeth Skewes of CU-Boulder’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication; professor Kenneth Strzepek of our College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Dr. Anne Heinz, dean of Continuing Education at CU-Boulder.
I believe that this effort will lead to great things for CU-Boulder and the state precisely because it is not just a “self-assessment” exercise, but rather is an inside-out reshaping of the university.

It is clear that as the state’s flagship university, we must maintain the public’s confidence and trust, but more importantly, we must engage the public in full partnership to shape who we are and what we become.
In Flagship 2030 we are not just identifying goals, we are developing “transformational concepts” — strategies and action plans that will help us prepare our students for the world of tomorrow.

One of these concepts requires each of our students to participate in two experiential learning opportunities before graduation.

These could be study-abroad, service-learning or internship experiences, or other programs designed to help students see and better understand the world around them.

With global communications making Beijing as close as Fort Collins, this requirement will position our graduates to enter the “real world” prepared to assume their role as global citizens and leaders in business, government, education or any other field they choose to pursue.
So, when I present the first working draft of the Flagship 2030 plan to President Hank Brown and the CU Board of Regents on Aug. 15, our university will be setting sail toward the broadest horizons it has ever envisioned.

And best of all, you as citizens of the state of Colorado will be helping to guide the ship, which is how it should be.

G.P. “Bud” Peterson is the chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

READER COMMENTS

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Once you dispense with the empty rhetoric, Bud has nothing to say. He should say it more often.

It looks like Flagship 2030 inspired as much attention as it deserves. Judging by the conspicuous absence of posts, It appears that Bud's underwhelming, "feel good," PR effort failed to generate any support and confidence throughout the state. Maybe folks are still gaging after that Vice-Chancellor of Diversity piece.

Bud needs to tap into a Fortune 500 pool of real 21st century "thought leaders," not his tired and old pool of cronies from academia. I suggest that he learn a little more about the needs of his market and the needs of his customers. The successful academic institutions of tomorrow will be those that are focused on both veritas and relevancy, rapid and deepening globalization will ensure that this happens. There is no going back.

Bud's also feeding at the wrong end of the food chain, a guaranteed "dead-ender" on Darwin's "tree of evolution." Again, this is a failure to understand the needs of both customers and markets.

CU Boulder seems to be as adrift as ever without anyone in the wheelhouse. Unless new leadership emerges, it won't be long before this flagship is on the rocks. As Alice once said while on her fabulous journey, "I don't think that we are in Kansas any more." Neither is CU.

"Thought leaders include..."

A bunch of community activists, progressives, newspaper folks, professors, school superintendents and parent-teacher representatives? You gotta be kidding me, that crowd is largely a bunch of academics from your own campus community. What about the rest of the real-world that provides your Bolder graduates with jobs, incomes and prosperity?

What happened to "thought leaders" from our medical, legal, financial, economic, industrial, trade, commerce, legal and scientific communities? Did you interview anyone from GE, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Merck, Citibank, Union Pacific or Toyota? How about United Technologies, Google, Amgen, Merrill Lynch, Exxon, AIG, Caterpillar Tractor and Boeing?

You completely neglected representatives from America's leading companies, industries and activities and totally missed those right in the middle of the planet's rapid globalization and free markets. You missed the leaders of the 21st century. In contrast, your inputs came from a very narrow sample largely within your own very narrow community. A very myopic input at best.

Sorry "Bud," but I have to give you a "D" and a "needs improvement" for effort. You could have done a lot better and produced more relevant results if you understood your market better. You are feeding at the wrong end of the food chain. Your inability to get past sentence #1 without using the word "diversity" was as far as I had to go.

All sail, no wind.

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