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!
MOSAIC
On Saturday, March 8, the MOSAIC hosted several UCCS student leaders for a panel at the 33rd annual African American Youth Leadership Conference (AAYLC). This is the third year the MOSAIC has been selected to host a college student panel for the AAYLC! Since 1993, the AAYLC has delivered innovative programs and experiences that empower youth in grades 6 – 12 to lead change in their communities and beyond.
Campus Police/Department of Public Safety/Emergency Management
The police department is working to collaborate with the Anschutz and Boulder police departments on ways to assist one another and make resources more effective. Positive conversations around shared challenges and support occurred this week.
Facilities and Planning, Design, and Construction
Annual completed facilities work orders have increased dramatically. We are already at 9,625 with 3.5 months to go for the year. Last year’s total was 9,903. This points to the improvements in our TMA cloud-based work order system. Customer satisfaction, measured by a random survey of every 15 work orders, is also up!
Watch for our amazing Grounds team as we prepare for spring! We are out cutting ornamental grasses, applying preemergent, readying planting beds, and cleaning up winter debris from roadways, parking lots and garages, and all around campus. Welcome, spring!
Institutional Research
Institutional Research published the Grad Student Cohort viz this week. This visualization is on the Tableau server so users need to be physically on campus or logged on to vpn to access this important resource. It provides an idea of graduate student persistence and the size of the cohorts, and we can use this data to track how long it typically takes for students to complete degree programs.
The team started a How-To page on our website to provide directions on customizing our Tableau Visualizations. Since the documents are linked, IR can share those links within visualizations or when reports are distributed and they will continue to add to this documentation as our audience becomes more savvy or asks more questions!
IR published an FCQ Report viz for faculty to access FCQ results. Much of this is available on the Public FCQ site, but this viz allows filtering to see averages by semester, college, department, course type, course level, etc. Several faculty have used it already.
Controller’s Office
The Controller’s Office invoiced the federal Department of Veteran’s Affairs for tuition and fees for almost 500 Chapter 31 Veteran students.
They also worked with OIT to install and test new mobile ID scanners at the Cashier’s Office windows.
Finally, the office worked closely with OSPRI and Booz Allen Hamilton to resolve administrative burdens around an important $500k award. This included working with the sponsor to change the award type to one based on actual costs, a huge win for UCCS!
Cybersecurity
UCCS is partnering with the National Cybersecurity Center in the Summer of 2025 to offer three bi-lingual cybersecurity camps for middle school students in the Colorado Springs area. Camps will be offered in English with simultaneous Spanish translation and offer hands-on, experiential learning – the best way to discover a STEM field. All teachers are fluent in both Spanish and English. UCCS has arranged sponsors for the camps so that not only are the camps affordable ($25/student), but lunch is provided. The camps run Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. to align with the workday for working parents. Cybersecurity is one of the most in-demand careers out there today, so it is imperative that we expose younger generations to this critical national skillset. This is UCCS’s sixth year of offering weeklong cybersecurity camps for K-12 students.
College of Business
The College of Business has introduced a successful new undergraduate course, BUAD 3600 AI Advantage: Elevating Your Career Path and is working on developing a full certificate in AI for Business. The COB is also expanding the use of AI across a variety of courses, hosting an AI summit this spring, and have completed two pilot programs on improving class integration and productivity using AI.
The College of Business provides ‘Professional Pathways’, which are non-credit micro-credentials, courses, and certificates designed to help business professionals elevate their careers. These pathways encompass stackable credentials that not only support professional’s ability to up skill or re-skill, but also provide a pathway to complete a bachelor’s degree, or embark on a MBA or other graduate studies.
The D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University has expanded its Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV) consortium by adding the El Pomar Institute for Innovation and Commercialization (EPIIC) at UCCS. This program, designed for post-9/11 veterans, offers advanced business education, hands-on training, and ongoing support at no cost. With UCCS joining, the consortium now includes nine academic institutions. Dr. Larry Plummer, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and El Pomar Chair of Business & Entrepreneurship at the UCCS College of Business, played a key role in this collaboration. The EBV training will be held in August 2025 with more info to come.
College of Public Service
The Social Work Department is facilitating new student support and peer to peer groups:
- The Take Care Committee: A brand-new group open to anyone pursuing a BSW or MSW aimed at cultivating a space where students can come together to practice self-care, debrief, connect, and participate in activities unrelated to school!
- Peer-to-Peer Social Work Collaborative:An interpersonal, socio-emotional, group-centered space for practicum students to gather, engage in meaningful dialogue, and share resources!
The Criminal Justice Department had a strong showing at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) conference in Denver last week. We are so proud of students Greg, Sana, Danna, Jaryn, Anika, and Galilea for their excellent panel and poster presentations. Their faculty mentors, Henriikka Weir, Katherine Bright, Katrina Hudson, and Patrick Brady did excellent jobs in preparing the students to share their research. A big shout out to Katrina Hudson, Kate Quintana, Patrick Brady, Katherine Bright, Henriikka Weir (all Criminal Justice), Robin Kempf (Public Administration) and Stephanie Gangemi (Social Work) for sharing their cross-discipline research at ACJS.