Committee for CU Presidential Search will Include Student Voices For First Time
The Board of Regents and the Intercampus Student Forum are in the process of searching for one undergraduate and one graduate student from each of the four University of Colorado campuses to sit on the search committee for CU’s next president.
By Eden Villalovas and Claire Cecere
After former CU President Mark Kennedy’s July 1 resignation, the CU Board of Regents and a search committee have been looking for a replacement. Since Kennedy’s term began and ended with controversy, this time, the search will be modified in benefit for the students at each of CU’s four campuses.
Policy changes have been made to the system that selects CU Boulder’s president, one of the most radical differences is that two students, an undergraduate and graduate student, will have a role in the search committee.
The search committee will be composed of a diverse mix of members, including one Dean of a school, college and/or library, at least two Regents, four faculty who are members of the Faculty Senate, two alumni, one staff, four community members, one member of the University of Colorado Foundation Board of Directors, and the two chosen students.
Any undergraduate or graduate student from CU Boulder is eligible to apply for this position—with an Oct. 21, 2021 deadline—where they would participate in conversations with Regents to be a finalist.
Each of CU’s four campuses, CU Boulder, CU Denver, CU Anschutz Medical and University of Colorado Colorado Springs, are electing two students and the Intercampus Student Forum (ICSF), a student governing body between campuses, will decide on one undergraduate and one graduate student to participate in the search and selection process. Nominations will then be finalized, bringing the number from eight down to two students, by the regents and the makeup of the presidential search committee is expected to be announced mid-November.
Applications can be submitted through the CU Presidential Search website and CU Student Government Tri-Executive Student Body President Taylor Weinsz will make final selections for Boulder’s student representatives.
“While they do want the diversity of views that the student body has to offer, one of the main requirements that they’re looking for in the undergraduate student is someone who’s not a senior, someone that’s going to be here to hold the next CU president accountable because, ultimately, they’re the ones who are going to be impacted by that administration,” said Garrett Wilbanks, Weinsz’s External Aid.
CU Boulder’s Interim President Todd Saliman informed the Denver Post in September that aside from funding, the diversification of CU’s campus would need to be a priority for the incoming president.
“These are complicated times. The next president needs to have the skills to be able to balance all the priorities and know it is not a matter of prioritizing one over the other,” Saliman said.
Contributing reporting by Lauren Irwin.
