June

A look inside the President’s Cabinet

Jordan’s final farewell, changes to the Handbook and a new IT security policy in the June 12 meeting recap.

June 13, 2017

Couldn’t make it to the June 12 President’s Cabinet meeting? The Early Bird has you covered. Below are the highlights.

All’s well that ends about as well as it could

With President Jordan’s June 30 retirement fast approaching, the Cabinet spent the first half of its session saying farewell to their fearless leader. Members shared stories and jokes, presented gifts and celebrated Jordan’s many achievements.

The College of Business presented Jordan with a framed proclamation, naming him a distinguished professor of business for life. The School of Education gave him an inscribed golden apple. From Athletics, he received a set of MSU-Denver-branded golf balls and the Office of Marketing and Communications gave him a shirt which read: “It’s a great day to be a retired Roadrunner.”

Jordan thanked the large crowd that had come to wish him well and shared some thoughts about his time at the helm. “If I can take credit for anything, it’s a change in culture,” he said, “the understanding that we can be the best, that we can transform students’ lives like nobody else can. When you believe that, there are no limits to what you can achieve.”

Ch-ch-changes (to the handbook)

The Cabinet approved five changes to Handbook for Professional Personnel:

• To add language stating that any faculty members granted credit toward tenure for prior service must include, in their evaluation portfolio and narrative, materials documenting their accomplishments in the areas of teaching, scholarship and service during those years for which they are receiving credit.
• To remove any reference to “early tenure” from the Handbook, and to clarify that all tenure candidates, whether they apply in the fourth, fifth or sixth probationary year, are to be evaluated by the same procedures and criteria.
• To address inconsistency in language in two sections of the Handbook pertaining to granting of rank/tenure upon appointment of a faculty member.
• To remove any requirement for summative peer observations from the Handbook; number and type of peer observations required for faculty evaluation will be specified in departmental guidelines.
• To modify Handbook language to include the School of Education where appropriate.

They said “yes” to ITS

Information Technology Services’ new security policy was approved with one amendment. The Cabinet requested a change be made to the notification process in the event of a security breach. As revised, both the chief information security officer and the University president must be notified of such an incident in a timely manner.

The draft of the new policy was presented in full at a previous meeting. It was created by the ITS Strategic Oversight Committee and reviewed by the University’s Policy Advisory Committee, per the new standardized policy review process.

And other updates

• President Jordan thanked Loretta Martinez for her service to the University. Martinez is leaving MSU Denver to take a job with the City University of New York. Jordan noted that when senior leadership move on to prominent roles in major cities, it is a compliment to the work happening here.
• The Council of Chairs and Directors elected a new president: Layton Curl, Ph.D., from the Department of Psychology.
• The Office of Marketing and Communications shared a new progress report, which documents the University’s achievements over the last 12 years. Hard copies are available in the marketing/communications suite.
• Data from this year’s Campus Climate Survey will be released in two weeks. The survey had a 72 percent return rate from full-time employees. Town hall meetings will be scheduled for the fall to share the results with the community.
• The Council of Administrators elected a new president in May: Evan Bowles from Information Technology Services. The full cabinet will be announced later this summer.
• Classified Staff Council will hold its annual picnic tomorrow from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., where it will announce the results of its recent elections.

The full minutes from the June 12 meeting will be available online this Friday. The next gathering of the President’s Cabinet is scheduled for June 26 from 9-11:30 a.m. in SSB 400. All members of the campus community are welcome.