March Town Hall: College name change, a new VCAF, Fall Break approved and more

In March’s virtual Town Hall, Chancellor Venkat Reddy and a panel of campus leaders shared thoughts and updates on current campus events.

Take a look at the key takeaways below.

Recognitions

Congratulations to Dean George Reed and the faculty, staff and students on their name change from the School of Public Affairs to their new name as the College of Public Service. On another good news note, the College of Public Service Bachelor and Master of Social Work programs received accreditation last week. Thanks to all of those who helped with the accreditation process.

Sixty Thirty-Five recently recognized their annual Rising Stars. Rame Hanna and Jesse Perez were recognized as two of our community’s Rising Stars.

UCCS recently hosted a “Cybersecurity Across the Government” event, with participants from agencies such as the CIA, FEMA, and NSA. All of the panelists left very excited about a continuing relationship with UCCS and its faculty and students. I want to acknowledge the leadership of Gretchen Bliss for putting this successful event together.

Kathy Kaoudis will join the Mountain Lion family as our next Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance, starting on Monday, April 3. Kathy is a Certified Public Accountant and an attorney. She brings almost two decades of experience in higher education finance and accounting, as well as a decade of classroom and online teaching of accounting and business law courses as an adjunct instructor.

Thank you to our relentless VCAF search committee lead by Dr. Kelli Klebe, and to Carlos Garcia for filling this role as acting VCAF in the interim.

During the last Board of Regents meeting, we shared a presentation about retention. Our fall 2022 retention rate was 66.7 percent. Our goal for 2026 is to increase retention to 73.5 percent. Some of the major reasons students leave UCCS include financial, challenges in academic preparedness and progression, health and mental wellbeing, and student engagement and belonging. We shared several strategies in each category that will help move the needle.

While the Student Government Association elections were held recently, we don’t have an announcement about the results quite yet. They are still working through the process.

The proposal to adjust the fall academic calendar to include a fall break has been approved. Our students will be happy to know that Monday through Wednesday of the week of Thanksgiving, there will be no classes, but the campus will be open. Of course, we will close for Thanksgiving and the following Friday as we have traditionally done. Both semesters will now have a full week without classes – Thanksgiving week in fall and spring break in spring.

The Chancellor recently went through his five-year comprehensive review. He is reflecting on the feedback he received, and will continue to meet informally with groups across campus. He also plans to be even more visible and more available across the campus. While forums like the Town Hall are great for sharing information, he wants to have conversations about the things that are important to campus. He will be holding several listening sessions over the next few weeks across the campus. We’ll be sending out the invites for the sessions this week.

The Budget Redesign Task Force, led by Provost Nancy Marchand-Martella and Suzanne Scott, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Budget, will present the status of the redesigned budget model and to campus on April 17, 1 – 2:30 p.m., in Berger Hall.