At its regular meeting on Thursday, Feb. 13, at the CU Denver campus, the University of Colorado Board of Regents heard a presentation on a recently announced housing down payment assistance program for staff, approved four infrastructure improvements for the Boulder campus and approved a civics education resolution.
Third-party employee housing down payment assistance and education program
CU Treasurer Dan J. Wilson presented a plan to the board about a recently announced down payment assistance and financial wellness program. The program, offered through third-party vendor Landed, is intended to help university employees afford to buy homes in the communities where they work.
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Through , Landed will provide half of the down payment on a home, up to $120,000 per family, in exchange for a portion of the change in the value of the home when the home is sold. Landed’s down payment support will be available to all full-time staff and administrators who have worked in public education, either at CU or at another educational institution, for at least two years and who live in Boulder, Aurora, Denver or most other Front Range-metro areas.Ìý
The new program will not replace CU’s offered to tenured and tenure-track faculty.
Infrastructure improvements
Also at Thursday’s meeting, the Board of Regents approved four facility-related items on the ²ÊÃñ±¦µä campus:Ìý
- $32 million in spending authority for the renovation of the Engineering Center North Wing and North Tower spaces previously occupied by the aerospace engineering department. The project includes installing modern, high-performance research laboratories and office space to support multiple disciplines, including computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and the new biomedical engineering department approved by the regents in June 2019. The modernization project will also create space for student support services, as well as a new home for the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s BOLD Center.
- The conveyance to the City of Boulder of a 1,399-square-foot strip of land running along the east edge of the 30th Street right of way to facilitate construction of multi-modal improvements at the intersection of 30th Street and Colorado Avenue, including a pair of bike/pedestrian underpasses.
- The program plan for a $6 million renovation of the 1135 Broadway building in Boulder, which will become home to The Renee Crown Wellness Institute, established in July 2019 and supported by a generous gift by Patricia Crown.
- The renaming of the south plaza, or Outreach Plaza, of the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building to honor two generous longtime university donors, one of whom is also an alumna and the other an adjunct instructor.
CU announces new chief diversity officer
During the University of Colorado president report, President Mark Kennedy announced that the University of Colorado has for the four-campus university system. She begins her duties May 1.Ìý
Cook, now director of the campus climate and culture initiative at Dartmouth College, will help develop and implement system-wide policies and initiatives that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. She will also coordinate and collaborate with chief diversity officers, faculty and administrators on each of the campuses. The position leads efforts to ensure diversity is effectively represented in CU’s strategic and annual planning. Diversity and Inclusion is one of the pillars of CU’s system-wide strategic planning process, Leaning Into the Future, which is in process.
In other board news
- By a 7-2 vote, the board voted to approve a resolution requiring the administration to present an annual report on civics literacy on the three general campuses. The report is due June 30 of each year, starting June 30, 2021.
- The board approved by consent agenda a rollover of men’s basketball head coach Tad Boyle’s current contract, extending the agreement for one additional year through June 30, 2025. No other terms of the deal changed.
Full details on all presentations are available on .
