Election-season resources and graduate tuition benefit headline August President’s Cabinet meeting

During the first President’s Cabinet meeting of the fall semester on Aug. 22, Metropolitan State University of Denver President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., focused on cultivating healthy and productive civic engagement. She thanked the many Roadrunners who participated in Listening Sessions and shared feedback following the spring-semester protests.

Based on MSU Denver’s after-action review of the protests, the Auraria Higher Education Center is updating relevant policies, including improving Emergency Notification language and processes. MSU Denver’s student-conduct review resulted in academic probation for some students found in violation of the code of conduct.

“The health and safety of MSU Denver students, employees and visitors continues to be our top priority and is always the first consideration when we’re making decisions, followed by the ability to fulfill the University’s academic mission,” Davidson said. “MSU Denver strongly supports civic engagement and peaceable assembly, balanced with our priorities to keep campus safe and to fulfill our academic mission.”

Check out the Civic Guide to help Roadrunners navigate the election season soon.

Strategic plan achieves 70% progress on AY 23-24 goals

Meredith Jeffers, Ph.D., director of Strategy, provided an update on the implementation of the 2030 Strategic Plan, including establishing an online dashboard, identifying key priorities for all pillars (with metrics) and tracking throughout the spring semester. Jeffers said the University achieved about 70% of all academic year 23-24 goals.

Jeffers and collaborators also worked to better align objective statements with 2030 Strategic Plan language and identified the need for consistency, communication and centralized access to information and resources. Other improvements include:

Reframing priorities against day-to-day University operations.
Revising due dates.
Revamping the Strategic Plan website and implementing a new SharePoint.
Recognizing strategy superstars.

Partial graduate tuition-benefit proposal

Inge Wefes, Ph.D., associate vice president for Graduate Studies, presented on the proposal, which would allocate 450 total graduate credits per academic year, with a maximum of nine credits per employee (not available to spouses or dependents). The proposed benefit would be available to all benefit-eligible, full-time employees after six months of employment. Half of the tuition would be paid by the University while the student would pay the other 50% in addition to fees. The proposal will now move to President Davidson for review.

Decision memo proposes pushing withdrawal date to 85% of term

MSU Denver’s withdrawal deadline is currently calculated at 67% of term (Week 10 of the semester). Based on research and surveys, the Student Success Launch implementation team proposed potential withdrawal dates at 80%, 85%, 90% and 95% of term. Pushing back the deadline would provide students with more time to succeed in the course while allowing faculty members more time to provide feedback. The change would have no financial impact. Faculty members who were surveyed largely supported the 80% option, while staff members supported 90% and students supported 95%. The SSL team recommended changing the withdrawal-date calculation to 85%, effective in spring 2025. The decision will move to President Davidson for final action.

Academic Policy Enactment Policy – first read

As part of a regular five-year review, substantive changes to the policy include clarifications of roles, responsibilities and definitions, and better aligning processes. Changes to procedures include clarifying responsibilities to manage and share the process for academic policy and clarifying that nothing “dies” in committee, and everything moves forward to the full Faculty Senate. Changes passed through the Faculty Senate on Feb. 14 and through the University Policy Advisory Committee on May 21.

Faculty Employment Handbook Committee – first read

The committee proposed adding two voting members: the Faculty Federation representative and an additional chair. The change has been reviewed by faculty leadership bodies and the University Policy Advisory Committee. The Faculty Senate and chairs supported the proposal, while deans expressed concern that the change might cause duplicative representation. See meeting notes for details on support and opposition.

Survey Management Policy VII – first read

The proposed policy sponsored by the Data Integrity and Governance Team would ensure that surveys of students are conducted in a manner that minimizes redundancy and frequency and follows standard procedures for survey deployment. A broader previous version was not adopted; however, the new version is more limited in scope and applies only to Universitywide student surveys. While the University Policy Advisory Committee voted in favor of the policy, Cabinet members advocated for the development of a survey calendar and review process as opposed to a formal policy. The policy will undergo a second read in September. See meeting minutes for more details.

See meeting minutes for more details.

Kudos, updates and reminders

Full-time undergraduate enrollment is up nearly 3%, and head count is up about 1% compared with the same time last year.
While new-undergrad applications are down about 5%, new-student enrollment is up 4.47%.
Homecoming festivities are Sept. 23-28. Join the fun!
Registration is open for Grow, Launch and Lead professional-development programs.
The MSU Denver Board of Trustees has opposed ballot Initiative 108 and Amendment 50. Learn more in RED.
A thank-you and congratulations to all who contributed to Welcome Week festivities.
Cheers to MSU Denver’s National Club Baseball Association team! The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champions finished the season ranked fourth in their division nationally and secured their bid to move up to the NCBA Division I league.