Help write specs for faculty & staff Web site
(July 16, 2009) Whole Foods opened a huge store in my neighborhood recently and I went to check it out. Even though I shop at Whole Foods frequently, I couldn’t find a darned thing. This store was laid out differently than all the others. I’ll get used to it and will probably learn to love it.
So I sympathize with many of you who recently found yourself at UCDenver.edu instead of your familiar university home page. You might not have loved that old home page, but you knew how to find things. So along comes progress and tears up all those well-worn paths. I’m sorry. But I think you will learn to love the new site.
I think so because this site is being built to user specifications. A thousand of you filled out a survey last fall and hundreds more continue to provide feedback. The site you see today represents a starting point in an ever-evolving site that aims to serve ever-evolving user needs. That’s what sets this “reconstruction” apart from the typical “redesign.” This site promotes continuous improvement. It can accommodate new technology as it happens and it can be maintained without need for highly trained webmasters in each school, college and department.
Still, I recognize that the loss of the familiar home pages has been disorienting for many of you. I urge you to give the new site a workout and then let us know what needs to be fixed or improved. May I suggest that when you start on the UCDenver.edu main page that you try the search function. Looking for someone’s phone number? Choose “people” in the drop-down menu, type in the name and see how that works for you. Better yet, click on “directories” at the bottom of the lower-left list to get a page that has directories for all University of Colorado campuses.
Click on the “Faculty & Staff” button in the black bar at the top of the page. We built this page to be the new home page for staff and faculty. I urge you to make this the default home page in your browser. How well does this resource page work for you? Check out the “policy search” feature under the “employee” tab.
One feature I know our staff, faculty and students are interested in is a better calendar. The folks in University Web Services are working on that as we speak, with hopes we’ll have a great feature available at the end of the year. Once you start digging into the calendar issue, it is amazing how complex it gets. Do you want to see each and every event, deadline and lecture happening on this campus? Or are you interested only in seeing the deadlines that apply to you? Or do you just want to see a list of public events? Maybe your answer to those questions changes depending on the day. The calendar feature we are working on allows for different views of the calendar and also allows easy submissions and updates.
As we progress further in this reconstruction, we may develop different resource pages for different roles at the university so that clinical staff members do not have to wade through information of importance only to non-clinical staff members, and vice versa. Or faculty can have quicker access to the information of particular interest to them. We will develop a new entry point for prospective students and for current students, tailoring differently for undergrads, graduates and professionals.
To return to my analogy, the first page people come to at our site is like the entryway at Whole Foods. Whole Foods has a customer entryway and an employee entryway, each providing a customized window onto all that the store contains. And here’s where the analogy stops. A university is much more complex, so there must be several entryways to accommodate potential funders, faculty members, employees, patients, alumni and students. Our Web site reconstruction began with a focus on the potential students and potential supporters. Now the focus is on building better entryways for staff, faculty, patients and students.
Faculty, students share stories of consolidation
(May 18, 2009) Students and faculty have been sharing stories in recent weeks about the benefits of collaboration across the two UC Denver campuses. My team and I are compiling them to help with the assessment of consolidation. You may find the current compilation here. Please let me know if there are other stories.
The stories that struck me the most involved faculty and students who have chosen UC Denver because this newly consolidated university provides them a unique opportunity for collaborative research, study, and teaching. The College of Arts & Media is poised to land an international expert in medical illustration. Health sciences faculty have helped College of Liberal Arts and Sciences land new faculty members who will collaborate with them in such areas as evolutionary genetics and pharmacology. More and more, Anschutz research faculty members are asking Downtown faculty members to help them construct and operate complex instruments and computer environments for their research projects.
Students who aspire to health care or health research careers told us they chose UC Denver precisely because of consolidation. Emily Lich is one of the 37 undergrad students who will get hands-on lab experience through the LAB COATS program launched by School of Medicine faculty members Sonia Flores and Karen Jonscher. “I chose to do my undergrad through UC Denver based purely on the fact it is in association with the medical campus,” Lich said. “I plan on going to medical school when I graduate.”
Students themselves are building cross-campus networks. Pharmacy students have taken under their wing Nicole Tamburelli, an undergrad on the Downtown Campus. “They have given me advice on the application process and talked to me about their experiences in pharmacy school. I have also been able to attend some health fairs. This is undoubtedly valuable to my education and helps me set and achieve new goals.”
Collaboration among all 13 schools and colleges also has helped UC Denver to broaden its impact on the community. For example, Paula Espinoza, assistant professor in ethnic studies, has partnered with researchers at the Anschutz Medical Campus on a research program that aims to improve prevention and treatment of the five most common cancers among Latinos: breast, cervical, prostate, colorectal, and lung. “We are helping the Latino community understand that early screening saves lives, and teaching them how to communicate with their doctors,” she said.
Some programs that were encouraged through consolidation are just beginning to show their promise. The creation of the Colorado School of Public Health has opened up cross-campus collaboration that includes geography, architecture, public policy, business and behavioral sciences. Study in urban sustainability and translational research all engage students and faculty at schools and colleges on both campuses.
I welcome you to let me know of other examples of the benefits of consolidation. These stories bring the concept of consolidation to life and help all university stakeholders understand what we are striving toward.
Big changes to Web site over the summer
(May 11, 2009) Sometime this summer, the main entry pages at CUDenver.edu and UCHSC.edu will disappear. If you type in those addresses, you will land on the new UCDenver.edu main entry page. That new entry page has been fully operational since February and connects users to all the UC Denver sites, whether or not they have been redesigned. It has been well-received (steadily increasing to about 7,000 unique visitors each day last week) and it is continually updated to reflect feedback we have received.
When the CUDenver.edu and UCHSC.edu sites go away, many staff and faculty who use them as their home pages will find themselves landing on the new entry page. I suggest that you change your browser home page to the Staff and Faculty gateway, which is designed to serve as the launching pad for staff and faculty.
What you will see on that gateway today is a first draft. We know there is room for improvement, but we started with the things staff and faculty told us they need most from the Web. There are a few of the most common links under "Quick Links" and the blue bar across the top has drop down menus to other frequently used sites. Check out the nifty "policy search" button on the blue bar. Also, try the "How can I ..." feature, which aims to help you more easily navigate our 25,000-page Web site. All this was created based on our survey of staff and faculty, but we know that we'll get better information when the university community begins to use the page. Please use the "give us your feedback" button on the right side of the page.
You can find the new gateway page by clicking on this link, by clicking on the "Faculty & Staff" button at the top of the UCDenver.edu page, and by typing in the url, www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff. Over the summer, we will improve the news and events portion of the site, another need described in the faculty/staff survey.
An English class transforms a life
(April 27, 2009) In 1969, when English professor Dick Dillon began to teach opera as literature, he ignited a passion that would transform the Denver cultural scene. In his classroom was Ellie Caulkins, who would go on to lead Opera Colorado as Board Chairwoman and serve on the Metropolitan Opera National Council, and who would occasionally perform in the Opera Colorado chorus.
“He played a few selections and I was hooked forever,” said Caulkins, for whom the Denver opera house is named. Truly great cities need the depth, richness and excitement of a strong arts scene, Caulkins told UC Denver students and faculty at the Research and Creative Activities Symposium April 24.
Dillon was among a handful of English professors in the country who were teaching opera as literature in 1969. The class became so popular that he opened the regular credit course to non-credit continuing education auditors. “I began to see more and more of my students in the audience of opera performances,” Dillon said. “Now we hold mini-reunions in the lobby.”
Caulkins, whose husband George founded Vail, was the mother of five children when she finished her bachelor’s in English and participated at the first graduation ceremony held at the University of Colorado Denver. Dillon’s class introduced her to stories sung with passion, a passion enhanced in live performance.
“I’m sure opera helped to grow our friendship, which included our families,” Dillon recalled. “My wife Margaret was an opera lover, her husband George not so much.” In 1980, Dillon and Dan Fallon, then dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, started a friends of opera organization that would become part of Opera Colorado. Caulkins was invited to sit on the steering committee, and she later served several terms as chairwoman of the Opera Colorado board. She remains the board’s lifetime honorary chair.
The Caulkins and Dillon 40-year friendship and collaboration are testament to the potential that is seeded in UC Denver classrooms.
Life lessons in professor's film on death
(April 20, 2009) Assistant Professor David Liban went looking for experts on death, and he found Carole Hammett, an expert on life.
David, who teaches in the College of Arts and Media, first met Carole last summer while working on his new film, Mortal Lessons. Carole, terminally ill with cancer and the film’s center of gravity, reminds us that we all are dying and should make good use of the time left to us. You have three opportunities to see this film this week, including an airing on Sunday on Rocky Mountain PBS (Channel 6 in Denver).
David asked funeral directors, terminal patients and clergy to talk about their personal views on death. He let the camera roll to capture authentic reflection and poignant personal insight. He admits that once he met Carole, the course of the film was set.
You see Carole joyfully filling her days and expanding her boundaries as she faces imminent death – she jokes that she was well past her “expiration date.” Carole’s goal last summer was to live long enough to vote for Barack Obama. When David and his camera visited her the day after the election, she had set her next goal: to live until the inauguration. Carole lived to see the premier of David’s film in late February, but died a week later.
David has screened the film on the Anschutz Medical Campus for a geriatrics symposium and is looking for other opportunities to share Mortal Lessons with health care professionals. David’s film airs Sunday, April 26, on Rocky Mountain PBS (10:30 p.m., Channel 6). It also will be screened this week at Starz Film Center on the Downtown Campus: at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, and 1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25.
You can hear David talk about the film in an interview conducted with Colorado Public Radio.
Check out two new Web sites
(March 9, 2009) Please take a look at two newly redesigned UC Denver Web sites: Admissions and School of Education and Human Development. Both are excellent examples of sites that were carefully created to meet the needs of their audiences.
The Education school knew from research that its audience of potential and current students are not big on technology. They are busy and not prone to wade through a lot of Web content. Like most of us, the SEHD audience members value advice from their peers. So you will see on the SEHD site that information is provided via videos of students and faculty. The site is organized to help direct prospective students and current students to the information, forms, and action steps they need to take.
The Admissions site benefits from a survey of several hundred prospective students. It simplifies the application process and includes background information that students typically want as they are making their college choice. I like that it offers something for every prospective student, from entering freshman through post-grads. A tuition calculator and strong calendar and faculty bio features soon will be added.
More sites are on the verge of unveiling, including a new Registrar site. The true value of this redesign project will be realized in the months and years ahead. By using a common content management system across the university, improvements can be easily installed. Maintenance of content will be easier, ensuring that this round of redesign will not quickly become obsolete.
Oh, the humanities
(Feb. 9, 2009) As the brand team recently discussed the critical need to demonstrate the University of Colorado's value and impact, UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak did some wordsmithing. "We must not talk about impact only in terms of dollars," she said. "We need to say that we build economic, social and cultural vitality."
The added phrase makes a world of difference. To rise out of 46th place in the country in higher education funding, we do have to help Coloradans see that higher education is a smart investment. But as with any big investment decision, there's a strong emotional component, and that is where our social and cultural impact comes in.
First the pitch to the head: For every unrestricted dollar of state funds, the University of Colorado returns $26 to the state economy in the form of direct spending, research grants, clinical income, technology transfer, indigent care, etc. (see the system brochure on economic impact).
Now the pitch to the heart: The University of Colorado inspires the kind of creative thinking that makes Colorado the special place it is. The University takes ownership of its place in this great state and helps cities map their carbon footprint, advocates for domestic violence victims, improves our public schools, and captures in art the unique personality of the state's culture.
I watched students participate in last week's 10-year anniversary program for the College of Arts and Media and could not help but feel that lives were forever shaped by the event and the creative juices poured into it. The "CAM Slam" visual and performance art explored topics as varied as mortality, politics and sustainability. The social and cultural impact extends outward: For example, the "Good Grief" TV mini-series brought smart, topical programming to often vacuous TV-land. Talk all you want about the number of dead trees in the mountains, but nothing like a macro video shot of a chewing, spewing pine beetle to get your attention.
Chancellor Schockley-Zalabak's comment was a timely reminder that this serious business of winning taxpayer and donor support requires appeals to the head and the heart.
A Web site for two campuses
(Feb. 2, 2009) At long last, the University of Colorado Denver has an entry page to serve both campuses. Go to www.UCDenver.edu and you will find a site designed to attract students, staff, faculty and supporters to our 13 schools and colleges. In a few months, it also will better serve our patients.
We had three criteria for this new site: It had to support university strategic goals, it had to meet user needs and expectations, and it had to be easy to maintain and to improve.
Strategic: The elements on the front page are selected and positioned to put our best foot forward, to highlight the benefits of our university, and to make it easy for visitors to find out about us, to apply and to donate. The front page accommodates the wide end of several funnels that guide people to action. We can monitor action steps to determine the effectiveness of the site and to modify it to make it more effective. You can find out more about the redesign strategy here.
User-centered: To be honest, the new site is just adequate in this regard. We plan to regularly add new features to meet more of the user requests we have received. We have a good idea what students, prospective students and staff and faculty want – 1,000 users told us in a survey conducted over the last several weeks. Students want tuition calculators, faculty bios and better course descriptions. Staff and faculty want to find things more easily – whether it’s an event, a deadline, a policy document, development resources, an IRB form, or a phone number. We are working on search and calendar features that will make the site more useful to staff and faculty. In the meantime, I urge you to use www.ucdenver.edu/network as your home page. There, most of the common employee Web tasks are a click or two away.
Easy maintenance: This is one of the first large-scale Internet sites built on Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). We chose this content management system because you do not need a webmaster in each school, college and department to upload articles, photographs and videos. Data can be centrally maintained so, for example, if a phone number changes in admissions, it changes wherever that phone number appears on the Web site. A faculty member’s bio can appear on her own page, in conjunction with her courses, on her department page, and in the media experts list. An update of her bio is automatically updated wherever it appears on the site.
I invite you take UCDenver.edu for a spin. If you delve a layer or two into the site, you will land on pages in the old design. Over the next year, schools, colleges and departments will redesign their sites, using the same methods we used to develop the new entry page. A schedule can be found here. In addition, we will build a “gateway” page for students and another for staff and faculty. These gateways will bundle your frequently used links and tasks and I hope they become your home page.
We have left alone CUDenver.edu and UCHSC.edu for now. You may continue to use them if you wish. They will be turned off by August 2010, when we lose those domain names. But I’m guessing you will convert to the new site well before then because it will offer you much more.
You may send comments and suggestions directly to me, or use the “Web site feedback” button on the main page.
National Day of Listening
(Nov. 24, 2008) When we think about communicating, we think most often about what we say or write. We don't think enough about listening.
My grandmother used to say: "You have two ears and one mouth. Use them in that proportion." I have to remind myself of that often, because I am more inclined to talk than to listen. And when I do follow grandma's advice -- when I really listen without thinking about my next debate point -- I am almost always rewarded with new insight.
This topic came to mind when I heard that National Public Radio has declared Friday a National Day of Listening. As many of us will be with friends and family this weekend, it is an excellent opportunity to practice listening. What will I learn about my spouse that I didn't already know? I guess it depends on the questions I ask (an often neglected precursor to effective listening).
If you're interested, check out the National Day of Listening Web site. You'll find tips put together by the people who produce NPR's StoryCorps.
Your opinion needed
(Nov. 10, 2008) I encourage you to participate in the image/branding survey being conducted across the University of Colorado system. It is an opportunity for you to tell President Benson and the Chancellors what the university means to you.
All faculty, staff, students and alumni -- and many friends of the university -- will receive an e-mail starting Nov. 13 directing them to an online survey. Respondents will be asked the name or abbreviations they use when referring to their institution. They will be asked to rank words that may describe the traits of their institution. Later this fall, similar questions will be asked of people outside the university so we may determine how closely our hopes and dreams for the university match with public perception.
In a perfect world, this university-wide research would have been conducted before we at the University of Colorado Denver conducted similar research. But that was not the hand we were dealt. Last year, as we settled on a permanent name for the university and as we neared completion of our move to the Anschutz Medical Campus, we were in dire need of a clear story to tell. In one week last year, nine national media outlets credited us with major discoveries -- and referred to us by seven different names. We were developing a long-term strategic plan, but we were presenting ourselves to the public with more than 40 different logos. From August 2007 to April 2008, we held scores of discussions and several open forums as the university community developed a "brand promise" and the messages and visual identity that go with it.
We pushed the envelope. With Boulder and Colorado Springs poised to engage in similar identity-clarification programs, President Benson asked us to put our visual identity ideas on hold so that a brand identity could be developed system-wide. President Benson told Landor, the company helping us in this branding effort, that a key outcome of this project is how we raise the profile of the campuses in Denver and Colorado Springs. He said his interaction with the public since becoming president has made it clear to him the public thinks mainly of the Boulder campus as the University of Colorado.
I do not believe the time and resources we spent on our brand identity work last year was wasted. We have made new personal and professional connections across the schools and colleges. We are more disciplined in the PR and marketing that we do. More and more, people refer to us by one name, the University of Colorado Denver. The number of logos is fewer than 40.
That said, I have no doubt that when the system-wide branding project is completed, there will be changes in the strategy, language, and visual identity that we developed in April. It is only natural that an identity we forged in isolation will look different than the one we will forge in cooperation with our sister institutions.
So the survey you fill out this fall will be only part of the input I will ask of you. Early next semester, as the system-wide brand strategy becomes clearer, I will come back and ask that we refine the work we did last year so that it fits into the new system identity. Because the work we did togther last school year was so thorough, this next phase should be more a refinement than a total overhaul.
I invite you to view the overview of the UC Denver brand identity work that I put together for the Landor team.
How you get a reputation
(Oct. 20, 2008) We have a rule of thumb in media relations: It takes 10 positive stories to overcome one negative story. I don't think there is proof of this rule, but it accurately reflects the human tendency to remember and pass on negative stories more often than positive ones.
The University of Colorado Denver is currently well into positive media territory (knock on wood). Our problem is that readers and viewers know so little about us (see my Sept. 15 column, "Keep it simple," below) that the good vibes do not necessarily accrue to us as a unique entity within the University of Colorado System. The good vibes roll up to the system and/or to the Boulder campus (on account of many people thinking we're an extension of the Boulder campus). This isn't all bad -- we benefit from being linked to Boulder and the system, because both are generally well-regarded.
But there is lost opportunity. The University of Colorado image and reputation would only be stronger if its full breadth were better known. We need to broaden and deepen our reservoir of goodwill so that our overall reputation and that of each campus is more resilient when bad news hits one campus or another.
I bring this up because the President and chancellors have recognized the need to address this lost opportunity. They have asked Landor Associates, one of the best branding firms in the country, to help us tell a coherent, comprehensive story across the system. With a full-picture story to tell, all campuses within the system will be better positioned to attract the best and brightest, to tap into philanthropic dollars, and to build support among the citizens of Colorado.
In early November, Landor will poll the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of all campuses to get their opinions on what sets their campus apart, what moved them to choose University of Colorado to work and learn. Landor also will survey the marketplace to assess what people know about us. Late this year, Landor will discuss its findings with the President and chancellors. Early next year, we should begin honing in on a strategy for telling each campus' story in context with the system as a whole. After that, the University of Colorado Denver will be able to complete the brand work begun in 2007. I do not know what kinds of changes we will need to make to the current iterations of the UC Denver brand promise, messaging, and design, but I look forward to continuing this image and reputation work in concert with the other campuses.
Landor will seek your engagement in this process. The students, faculty, and staff were essential to the work we did on the University of Colorado Denver brand in 2007 and early 2008. Look for the details of the November survey on Network and in other leadership communication pieces later this month. I also will use this column and face-to-face meetings over the next several months to keep the UC Denver community informed and engaged in this process.
My fantasy
(Oct. 5, 2008) "What is wrong with this autopsy?" Henry Claman, MD, asked the boy who could not have been more than 12. The kid looked at the Rembrandt painting The Anatomy Lesson and said, "they shouldn't start at the arm. Probably the abdomen because of the body gasses."
"Are you Doogie Howser?" I asked. The kid looked at me a bit puzzled. Get this: his name is Andrew Hauser and he's never heard of the old TV series Doogie Howser, MD. "Oh, one of those Stone Age shows," he said.
Why I otta ...
The precocious Andrew was among hundreds of middle school and high school students who toured the Fantasy MD exhibits on Oct. 3, put on by the School of Medicine. I had 90 minutes to tour the place, and I only scratched the surface. I guess I shouldn't be surprised when our 
teachers make cutting-edge science accessible to teens. But for this show they were brilliant. Come on, use a foot pedal to pump up a healthy lung, then to wheeze-up a nicotine-scarred one? Smash cantaloups to demonstrate the benefits of bike helmets? Genetic poker to demonstrate we live with the hand we're dealt? A Rembrandt oil as a forensic tool?
The Fantasy MD exhibit stayed up through Saturday for the School of Medicine's 125th Gala. An older audience was no less enthralled.
Folks, this is the best way to tell our story. The hands-on experience is far more influential than a newspaper article, alumni magazine, radio ad, or brochure. I have to think some kids are now giving science a closer look, some alums are a bit more proud of their alma mater, some potential donors have a better grasp of the frontiers we are exploring.
We should do this every year. Not just the School of Medicine, but all the schools and colleges. University of Maryland has its "Maryland Days" in the spring, inviting the community onto campus to see, hear, taste, smell and touch the fruits of higher education. Last year, 75,000 people visited 400 exhibits in one weekend. My counterpart there says the event has done wonders to strengthen the ties between town and gown. It's a recruiting bonanza and an alumni opportunity.
We don't have a homecoming. This could be a signature event for us, made all the more relevant to our community because of our engagement in health, sustainability, business, education, culture, and the arts.
What do you think?
Photo: As dozens of students stand by, a nursing volunteer nurtures a ‘baby’ after Noelle, the computerized birth mother, gave birth.
Dream big
(Sept. 25, 2008) Leslie Leinwand, a molecular cellular developmental biologist on the Boulder campus, was up to her ears in work when she was asked four years ago to help launch an institute for treatment and care of people with Down syndrome. She was prepared to say thanks, but no thanks, "and then I was smitten" by little Sophia Whitten, whose mother Michele Sie Whitten is the driving force behind creation of the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, announced Sept. 22 on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
I also was smitten by Sophia and the dozens of other kids with Down syndrome who attended the announcement of a $22 million gift from the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation (see news release and my video report). I admit I walked into the announcement believing the dream of the institute is nearly impossible: to eradicate the ill effects of Down syndrome in 10 years.
But Leslie described a recent turning point in research and thinking about Down syndrome. UC Denver's latest prize catch, neurologist William Mobley, who will head our new institute, outlined the advances in genetic research that give real reason for hope. And the parents in the room are like the thousands of others who will make use of every scrap of discovery the institute serves up.
I can relate to these parents. I know that because of my daughter's cognitive problems, she will reach her full potential only if she receives more than a conventional, linear education. These parents of Down kids are no doubt ready to blow past conventional thinking and do whatever it takes to help their children reach their full potential.
Chancellor M. Roy Wilson told the audience that John Sie's lofty goal was a personal reminder that we do not achieve our own potential unless we shoot for the big goals. I also came away re-energized. People across this university are striving for audacious goals and I should expect no less of myself. Linda Crnic, the School of Medicine professor who initially dreamed of this Down institute, died in a bicycle accident in 2004. She did not live to see her dream realized, but it would not have happened without her vision and effort.
I walked the now-quiet floors of Research 2 and imagined that soon the machinery will be plugged in, the rooms buzzing with cross-talk between investigators, the vacation photos taped to work stations. Goosebumps. This is where miracles happen.
On the second floor of R2, the kids were releasing the pent-up energy stored during the grown-ups' event, and merrily griniding cookie crumbs into the new carpeting. They are why miracles happen.
Keep it simple
(Sept. 15, 2008) What people don’t know about the University of Colorado Denver could fill a book the size of the Oxford English Dictionary.
We recently conducted focus groups of parents of high school students and of well-informed Denver metro citizens. “University of Colorado Denver” drew a blank. We provided examples of the things our faculty and students do, such as help plan the future of Union Station and cure cancer. “But do you also teach English and biology and things like that?” one asked.
This lack of knowledge is not tremendously surprising, especially for those of you who have tried to explain where you work to acquaintances, and have gotten the usual “great hockey team,” or “do you work in Boulder?” But my team and I came away with a few insights.
We have to keep our story simple. We are a full-spectrum university, offering 115 degree programs in 13 schools and colleges. We are the only school in Colorado that trains doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and architects. We have the only School of Public Affairs and the only College of Arts and Media. Our 15,700 students range from traditional college students, to professionals expanding their careers, to researchers, to health care professionals.
We have what many people prize. We have an average class size of 15. Professors with real-world experience are accessible. Practical experience is easily available due to the university’s location in a thriving metropolitan area.
We have to frame our health care excellence in a way that will entice patients to Anschutz Medical Campus (we need the clinical revenue to pay the rent there). People proudly point to cutting-edge cancer treatment, but are not inclined to choose University of Colorado Hospital.
A University of Colorado degree is highly valued, but not as much as one from the University of Denver. DU’s marketing of its business school has made a tremendous impact on people’s perceptions. And its price tag is seen as evidence of its excellence.
The University of Colorado’s image and reputation is built entirely on Boulder’s image and reputation. The university is described as being excellent academically, but too liberal and too disconnected from the real world.
I will share this information with Landor Associates, the firm selected to recommend a system-wide strategy for strengthening the University of Colorado image and reputation. By spring, we hope to have settled on a way to tell the full University of Colorado story, stacking the traits of UC Denver onto those of the Boulder and Colorado Springs institutions. In an environment where financial survival increasingly depends on donations and grants, the University of Colorado must broaden its portfolio and better describe the value it brings to the state and the region.
Solar demonstration during DNC 
(Aug. 20, 2008) The all-solar home that was entered into the national Solar Decathlon contest in 2007 has been erected on the lawn in front of the Denver Performing Arts Complex (in the shadow of the dancing stick people). Students from the Engineering School in Boulder have been assisted by students from the College of Architecture and Planning in re-erecting the structure this week. It will be open for tours Aug. 24 through Aug. 28. It will be part of the Green Frontier Festival to be held the week of the Democratic National Convention.
The University of Colorado Denver will co-sponsor the Green Constitutional Congress, an interactive summit on climate change, at the Buelle Theater, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday. UC Denver also will co-sponsor a panel discussion on politics and the media at the Denver Art Museum 2 p.m. Tuesday. Both events are open to the public. For more information, go to Green Constitutional Congress and Politics & the Media.
A weekend for dreams
(Aug. 10, 2008) This weekend, I saw where biomedical engineers come from.
Somewhere among the giggling, sliding, hopping and swinging children in General’s Park at Anschutz Medical Campus (AMC) there might have been a future University of Colorado Denver student. Kids and parents from Paris and Montview Elementary Schools came to the park Sunday afternoon to accept school supplies donated by the AMC employees to their neighborhood Aurora schools.
Chancellor M. Roy Wilson urged the kids to set their sights on college. Starting with this school year, UC Denver and our hospital partners at AMC will take the students at Paris and Montview under their wings. Our clinicians will visit the schools for screenings and health fairs. The youngsters will take field trips to the gleaming health care city that has sprung up in their neighborhood. Montview Elementary has long benefitted from a teacher training program operated by our School of Education and Human Development.
One fifth grader recently returned from a visit to AMC, and when asked what he learned, he replied, “I learned that I want to be a biomedical engineer.” Chancellor Wilson told the kids that to be a biomedical engineer, a pharmacist, dentist, nurse, or doctor they have to go to college. “And if you want to be something else, you can go to college at our Downtown Campus. Or you might choose another college. The important thing is that you go to college. And we will help you.”
The day before, I had met Brooke, who had driven 14 hours straight from her home in Iowa to continue her journey to becoming a physical therapist. She and 684 other students moved into Campus Village Apartments adjacent to the Downtown Campus over the weekend. UC Denver was her choice because of its clear path to the excellent physical therapy department at AMC. And, well, because of the snowboarding.
I met Molly who begins her second year in our renowned criminal justice program. Samantha plans to study psychology. Nathan is starting the College of Arts and Media program and already is shooting on-site video for the Broncos and Rockies.
This weekend I saw dreams beginning, dreams continuing and dreams coming true. Is this a great place to work or what?
A historic hassle
(Aug. 3, 2008) Pope John Paul II went off the script while visiting Camp Saint Malo near Estes Park in 1993. He strolled to the barricade that blocked traffic on Highway 7 and chatted with a few dozen locals about the beauty of the Colorado Rockies. Several such moments come to mind when I think back to the Pope’s historic visit to Colorado for World Youth Day. Like watching a phalanx of Papal helicopters droning over the Mile High City, on their way to deposit JP II at Mile High Stadium for a Mass said before 100,000.
That first World Youth Day in North America was much anticipated or much dreaded, depending on your outlook. The multi-level parking garage on the Auraria Campus was commandeered to serve as al fresco lodging for hundreds of teens who came to Denver from all over the world. Streets were closed and security was tight. It was tough getting to my desk in the Rocky Mountain News newsroom, and the hours were long as we covered every angle of the Pope’s visit. But I remember the thrill and excitement more than I remember the hassle.
The Democratic National Convention lands on our doorstep Aug. 25 through 28, and it brings with it a heap of hassle. Buildings on the Auraria Campus will be locked up. Classes will be suspended just two weeks after the semester begins. Southbound Speer will be closed during the daily protest parades. Downtown faculty and staff will have to wear their ID badges just like health sciences faculty and staff have done for years. Parking spots on Auraria will not be available.
If all the hubbub surrounding the historic nomination of Barak Obama doesn’t float your boat, maybe the related events that UC Denver has signed on to will. On the first day of the Convention, Monday, Aug. 25, the university will co-sponsor a symposium on climate change at the Boettcher Theater. The School of Public Affairs’ Presidential Climate Action Project team will be joined by climate and policy experts from around the country. Panelists will use storytelling and multi-media techniques to bring the issue to a human scale (see TED talks for examples). The audience will be invited to engage in small-group discussions in the Denver Center Galleria. Last I heard, Ann Hamilton plans to lead Denver choirs in performance art along the 16th Street Mall in advance of the climate change symposium, which begins at 6 p.m. The event is part of Denver’s Dialog: City project, an arts and cultural event aimed at stimulating civic discourse.
On Tuesday, Aug. 26, UC Denver's School of Public Affairs will co-sponsor a discussion of the role of media in politics. Leading journalists and strategists from the Democratic party will lead the discussion. RSVP through co-sponsor USC Annenberg School for Communication. The program will be held at 2 p.m. in the Denver Art Museum Sharp Auditorium.
One not so fond memory of World Youth Day: As a throng of 500,000 attended Mass at Cherry Creek State Park on the final day, hundreds succumbed to the heat. This time around, the UC Denver Altitude Research Center will be handing out water bottles to DNC attendees and visitors.
Dumpster dentistry
(July 22, 2008) When Patricia McKinney donned gloves and surgical mask, it almost always was in preparation to treat a patient in her faculty dental practice.
So how did she find herself one day in rubber boots, gloves and face mask, standing knee-deep in garbage?
I heard her story of uncommon dedication while sharing a table of long-serving School of Dental Medicine staff at the annual AMC employee recognition ceremony last week. McKinney, recently retired, had the table laughing with the story, but it wasn't a laughing matter eight or nine years ago.
A computer failure caused loss of patient records and Patricia diligently plugged away at rebuilding the computer record from paper files. A box of them by her desk was whisked away by the janitorial crew one night. A search party rounded up by Patricia pinpointed the likely trash truck and where it was headed. The search party thinned out when she suggested a trip to the dump.
So there she was, suited up in the noisesome refuse, watching as a truck disgorged its load. She spotted the box and dove into the pile to rescue the files. She reported that she found all but a couple.
That's dedication.
Seal Tricks
(July 15, 2008) If you aren't among the more than 700 UC Denverites who have ordered new business cards in the past few weeks, you might be among those who have given me an earful about the design.
A few points I would like to make:
No, it isn't a mistake. The seal "bleeds" off the card on purpose. A somewhat common design trick.
The card design is a placeholder, utilitizing two or all of the colors that ultimately will be included in our UC Denver logo (black, gold and blue).
Business cards and stationery are boring without a logo. A hint of the University of Colorado seal provides an art element without staking our claim to the seal as our logo. It is, after all, a system-wide mark.
That said, you don't have to like it. It's only temporary. Over the next several months I hope we retire the more than 40 logos currently in use at UC Denver. In their place will be a common type treatment of our name, the names of the schools and colleges, and of the other units that make up this single university. It then will be a simpler matter of adding a new logo to that common typography.
Why do we not have a logo? University of Colorado President Bruce Benson asked us to hold off on introducing a new logo while the system takes stock of its image, reputation and visual identity across its three institutions. The result will be a system-wide sense of order. The way I figure it, we don't have to wait until that process is completed to bring our house in order.