(May 19, 2009) Several UC Denver staff and faculty members addressed the Board of Regents this week and asked the board to reverse or delay President Benson's decision to close the Silver & Gold Record. Resolutions by faculty governance groups declared that the decision was made without collaboration between the administration and faculty as called for in the Regent Laws.
Roxanne Byrne, Chairwoman of the Downtown Campus Faculty Assembly, read resolutions that called the elimination of Silver & Gold "unsatisfactory," and requested delay in implementation of system-level restructuring and budget cuts until the Faculty Council is consulted.
Leslie Jameson, Chairwoman of the Anschutz Medical Campus Faculty Assembly, read a statement vetted by assembly members. "The failure to exhibit mutual collaborative respect is troubling, disheartening and disregards the enormous capacity faculty has for credible outside the box solutions." Jameson suggested the Regents, who were meeting on the Anschutz campus, look out the window for evidence of the faculty’s ability to find creative solutions.
Other UC Denver faculty members addressing the Regents were John McDowell, who spoke on behalf of the system-wide Faculty Council, and Nancy Ciccone, chairwoman of the Silver & Gold Editorial Board. UC Denver Staff Council member Pereze Banks read a poem written by an anonymous member of the council. Judy Igoe, professor emeritus in Nursing and former Faculty Assembly chairwoman, also called for a reversal of the decision.
Photo: Faculty Council Chair John McDowell, standing at right, a professor of oral medicine and forensic sciences at the University of Colorado Denver School of Dental Medicine, speaks with Regents Michael Carrigan, Joseph Neguse and Monisha Merchant and members of the Silver and Gold news team following the Boards split decision of a resolution to allow Silver and Gold time to find other funding sources that would allow it to stay in operation. The resolution failed 5–4.