What concerns keep Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak awake at night?
This was among the questions she answered at a Nov. 4 question-and-answer session with PESA members.
Questions submitted anonymously by professional exempt staff members dealt with faculty salaries, the Be Colorado initiative and the campus budget. Some questions touched on strategic planning issues, even though the chancellor said she did not wish to repeat information she'd given earlier at the campus forum. But when she opened the floor to impromptu questions, Shockley-Zalabak revealed some personal frustration with partisan politics.
One audience member remarked on the chancellor's confidence in dealing with budget cuts and other adverse situations. Given that she is not fazed by such daunting challenges, what does cause the chancellor to lose sleep?
Shockley-Zalabak, her brow furrowed, paused briefly before responding that the lack of dialogue focused on actual problems that some government officials demonstrate keeps her awake at night. Some officials at both state and federal levels are more concerned with political rivalry than they are with cooperating, she said, and the polarized decisions they tend to make offer no solutions to real problems and their root causes.
She spoke of traveling through parts of Colorado where poverty is a significant obstacle and education is only part of the solution. If elected officials were more motivated to engage in non-partisan dialogue and work together, it would be easier to find solutions.
An issue the chancellor touched on briefly at the forum was parking. The PESA session was an opportunity for her to elaborate on her "no money for parking facilities" position. She said there were suggestions to include parking as a priority in the strategic plan, but said better utilization of existing facilities was a wiser use of campus resources. To that end, she said, scheduling classes at less popular times would help alleviate the overfilled lots during peak class times. She said she would reschedule the Monday evening class she teaches to Fridays to set the example for faculty who will be asked to make similar concessions.
"I won't ask faculty members to do anything I would not do myself," she said.
Other queries the chancellor answered involved budget planning. She said UCCS needs at least a two percent increase in enrollment numbers to remain viable, and she said $2 million reserved as a contingency for expected funding cuts will be used to meet one-time expenses.
When asked about aspects of UCCS' future, Shockley-Zalabak said she expects campus growth will continue and include a mix of on-line and on-campus programs. While online programs offer advantages and are growing more popular, they won't replace the classroom experience, she said. She also envisions an increase of international students among the out-of-state students, further enriching the campus with a diverse mix.
One PESA member brought up the salary inequity among university faculty, citing statistical evidence of the higher pay business and engineering professors receive compared to faculty in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The chancellor said university administrators would like nothing more than to address the inequity and show LAS faculty how valued they are, but UCCS has to accept the reality of competitive market wages. In a market economy, universities have to offer comparable compensation to engineers, MBAs and other professionals who are in demand in the private sector.
Shockley-Zalabak anticipates new directions and opportunities. The visual and performing arts center planned for a number of years is one reason, as is the plan for a health sciences building that will be a shared location for gerontology, nutrition and other UCCS health service programs. The next few years will present many reasons to be excited, she said.
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