Each week, Communique will be highlighting a series of campus wins, accomplishments and accolades. Please explore the list below to check out what other teams are up to, and help celebrate their good work!
Have something to add? Please reach out to University Communications with your submission!
Residence Life and Housing
Residence Life and Housing received 47 applications for the approximately ten open Resident Assistant (RA) positions for next year. First round interviews were conducted on Saturday morning in Summit Village for what will be a highly competitive process for this critical leadership role at UCCS. The RA staff is the lifeblood of the residential experience and we are thrilled to have outstanding returning staff members and a wonderful pool of motivated applicants!
College of Public Service
Interim Dean Jon Caudill brings a criminology perspective to his service on an Alternative Metrics Working Group for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice. This initiative aims to identify how personal, systemic, and environmental factors contribute to involvement in crime, involvement in the criminal justice system, and progression in rehabilitation rather than solely relying on recidivism as a measure of success. Among others also serving on the Working Group is Asst. Professor Katherine LeMasters from the CU School of Medicine, who represents a public health view on the group.
Congratulations to MPA students Emily Champion and Diana Starkus for a moderating the District 1 City Council forum on behalf of the College Public Service. They held the candidates to a strict timeline and weathered the variety of in-person, virtual, and UCCS community questions. Associate Dean Regina Winters commented, “I was extremely proud of their grace under pressure.” The forum was part of the League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak Region’s series of civic educational events before the upcoming April election. Like CPS, the League is committed to engaging the community in important conversations.
Campus Police / Department of Public Safety / Emergency Management
The Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management together had a successful Lockdown Drill which included collaboration with the Colorado Springs Police Department and Colorado Springs Fire Department. The lockdown drill was a success with strong participation from the campus community.
Congratulations to Sergeant Brown, who completed the FBI LEEDA Supervisory course.
Facilities and Planning, Design, and Construction
Received approval for approximately $480K in funding from the Office of the State Architect for the Main Hall Boiler replacement project.
Successfully supported the RMAC Track and Field championship. Andre Smith received kudos from RMAC leadership and Athletics for providing excellent support for track meet operations.
Facilities Strategic Plan: The final approval has been received from the CU Board of Regents for the facilities strategic plan.This plan outlines a comprehensive strategy to accommodate projected growth and campus capacity while ensuring responsible and sustainable development. You can find the plan here: https://pdc.uccs.edu/facilities-strategic-plan
The campus electric vehicle charges installed in November are increasing in popularity with campus users!
Institutional Research
Institutional Research continues to update data available to our campus community. They published a modernized Admissions Funnel visualization that was created for our university to monitor the application process, monitor trends, anticipate new student enrollment, and to see the demographics of our new students. A Grade DFW Rate dashboard was also recently published to provide faculty and staff insights into DFW grade rates and trends for courses. This dashboard was created for the administrators at UCCS to identify DFW rates for courses with letter grade basis and with minimum enrollment of 10 from 2014 to present. This allows administrators to compare DFW rates and student GPA for courses with campus-wide, college-wide, or department-wide results.
Held Data and Donuts and reviewed class/course data and different data elements associated with classes, fill rate calculations, waitlist information, and cost of instruction.
Office of Information Technology
Information Technology met with Microsoft and secured a commitment to provide Microsoft 365 Copilot training for campus leadership. They will be onsite on May 2 for a campus-wide Artificial Intelligence day.
Finalized the lab refresh requirements for this year’s project in Osborne and Columbine.
Controller’s Office
The new Bursar’s Office webpage went live and is now functional. Changes were made to make the webpage easier to navigate and to help students with access to the information they need regarding student finances.
Submitted student tuition and fees bills to the Department of Veteran’s Administration for over 1,000 students.
Human Resources
Kicked off the search for the next Vice Chancellor for University Advancement, Communications, and Engagement. Currently, Human Resources is responsible for three Dean searches as well as the VCUACE, saving the campus over $400k in executive-level search firm costs.