May

A look inside the President’s Cabinet

A ULO sighting, the countdown to commencement and so much more in the May 1 meeting recap.

By Dan Vaccaro

May 2, 2017

Couldn’t make it to the May 1 President’s Cabinet meeting? The Early Bird has you covered. Here are the highlights:

A ULO sighting

Faculty Senate approved the work recently completed by the Undergraduate Learning Outcome Task Force, which developed a set of standardized learning outcomes for MSU Denver students.

“These are the skills that our students should possess by the time they’re done with their work here,” said Andrew Bonham, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry.

The nine key outcomes are: critical thinking, creative thinking, quantitative reasoning, qualitative reasoning, professional behavior, oral communication, written communication, collaboration and intercultural/global awareness.

Bonham said the next step is to work with people and departments from across the University to figure out how the standardized outcomes can be used to meaningfully assess students by the proposed launch date of fall 2019.

President Jordan also expressed his appreciation for the leadership shown by the ULO task force and Faculty Senate.

The final countdown … to commencement

With less than two weeks until graduation, University Events Specialist Tiffany Snell gave an update on the semester’s culminating event.

Spring 2017 Commencement is scheduled for Friday, May 12, at the Denver Coliseum. The morning ceremony will feature graduates from the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the School of Education, and starts at 9 a.m. Graduates from the College of Professional Studies and the College of Business will be honored in the afternoon ceremony, which starts at 2:30 p.m.

All told, 2,400 students applied for commencement this spring. The event planners expect about 1,800 to walk. Snell suggested attendees arrive a little earlier this year as there is construction closing Brighton Boulevard that may cause delays.

And other updates

• The Board of Trustees will meet on Thursday and Friday of this week to discuss potential tuition increases, faculty tenure and the creation of a School of Hospitality, Events and Tourism. See the full agenda on the BOT website. 
• Faculty and staff can get discounted tickets for the second annual Summer Soirée, June 10.
• MSU Denver will cut the ribbon on the new AES Building on June 22, boldly going where no University has gone before.
• The academic webpage update project, which launched in November, is on schedule. The goal is to have all webpages completed by June 30. Thanks to all the departments who’ve collaborated on this important project.
• In case you haven’t heard, Cathy Lucas, the chief of staff and associate to the president for marketing and communications, was named the “Public Relations Person of the Year,” by the Public Relations Society of America, Colorado Chapter. She’ll be recognized at an event on May 4.
• The American Council on Education announced that Loretta P. Martinez, general counsel and secretary to the Board of Trustees, and Zsuzsu Balogh, Ph.D., professor and program coordinator in civil engineering technology, were named ACE Fellows for the 2017-18 academic year.
• The Budget Task Force held its final meeting of the year last week and will be recommending a 7 percent tuition increase to the board.
• President Jordan gave an update on his recent trip to Scotland and Sheffield in the U.K. He and the MSU Denver contingent met with partner school, the University of Western Scotland, and signed a new agreement that should lead to additional student and faculty exchanges in the future. The MSU Denver team also met with the University of Sheffield to learn more about its advanced manufacturing program. Jordan sees the wildly successful Sheffield model as a potential roadmap for MSU Denver.
• The Council of Administrators is taking nominations for its leadership team.
• Classified Staff Council is also working on elections and will send out an announcement soon.

The full minutes from the May 1 meeting will be available online this Friday. The next gathering of the President’s Cabinet is scheduled for May 15 from 9-11:30 a.m. in SSB 400. All members of the campus community are welcome.