Overall Rating Platinum - expired
Overall Score 85.56
Liaison Tonie Miyamoto
Submission Date Feb. 7, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Colorado State University
PA-3: Participatory Governance

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.75 / 3.00 Nik Olsen
Assistant Director of Administrative Communications
Office of the President
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1

Do the institution’s students have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a student council)? :
Yes

Do the institution’s students have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body?:
Yes

If yes to either of the above, provide:

A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which students are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
Through the Associated Students of CSU (ASCSU), CSU's student government, students have access to all levels of the administration including the Board of Governors, CSU's highest governing body (per Article III of the constitution linked below). The President of ASCSU is an official member of the Board of Governors and is an elected position. ASCSU conducts a general election of its President each spring. All current full-time students are eligible to run for the election and all current full-time students are eligible to vote in the election. http://ascsurecords.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ASCSU-Constitution2.pdf ASCSU also has access to the Board of Governors via the annual Fall Forum, the annual strategic planning and goal-setting multi-day session that brings together the Board of Governors, the employee councils, student government, and the President's Cabinet, as well as academic leadership. A key purpose of the forum is to review ongoing and emerging issues of the institution, and to strengthen connections among leaders in all areas of the institution.

Do the institution’s staff members have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a staff council)?:
Yes

Do the institution’s non-supervisory staff members have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body?:
No

If yes to either of the above, provide:

A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which staff are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
The university has a practice of shared governance through a strong network between the Faculty Council, Administrative Professional Council and State Classified Personnel Council. All three employee councils are comprised of representatives elected by their peers. All three councils have access to the Board of Governors, CSU's highest governing body, through the Fall Forum, the annual strategic planning and goal-setting multi-day session that brings together the Board of Governors, the employee councils, student government, and the President's Cabinet, as well as academic leadership. A key purpose of the forum is to review ongoing and emerging issues of the institution, and to strengthen connections among leaders in all areas of the institution. The Faculty Council elects a faculty member to serve as a member of the Board of Governors. The election for this Faculty Council representative to the Board occurs at the regularly scheduled March meeting. Each candidate for election to this Faculty Representative position shall be a current or former elected member of the Faculty Council, shall be an associate professor or professor, and shall meet the eligibility requirements for elected membership on Faculty Council (http://facultycouncil.colostate.edu/faculty-manual-section-c/#C.2.1.). To ensure that this representative shares information and can effectively bring forward issues for all three employee councils, the chairs of each council meet monthly. Each of the three councils also meets monthly with a liaison from the other two councils in attendance to ensure collaboration and open lines of communication. Finally, the chairs of the three councils also have a monthly meeting with a designee from the President's Office, the Vice President of University Operations, and the Executive Director of Human Resources to ensure that perspectives and initiatives are heard and implemented at the highest levels of campus leadership.

Do the institution’s teaching and research faculty have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a faculty senate)?:
Yes

Do the institution’s teaching and research faculty have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body? :
Yes

If yes to either of the above, provide:

A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which teaching and research faculty are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
The university has a practice of shared governance through a strong network between the Faculty Council, Administrative Professional Council and State Classified Personnel Council. All three employee councils are comprised of representatives elected by their peers and the Faculty Council elects a member to serve on the Board of Governors. All three councils have access to the Board of Governors, CSU's highest governing body, through the Fall Forum, the annual strategic planning and goal-setting multi-day session that brings together the Board of Governors, the employee councils, student government, and the President's Cabinet, as well as academic leadership. A key purpose of the forum is to review ongoing and emerging issues of the institution, and to strengthen connections among leaders in all areas of the institution. Throughout the year, the employee councils can bring agenda items forward to Board of Governors meetings as needed. The election for the Faculty Council representative to the Board occurs at the regularly scheduled March meeting. Each candidate for election to this Faculty Representative position shall be a current or former elected member of the Faculty Council, shall be an associate professor or professor, and shall meet the eligibility requirements for elected membership on Faculty Council (http://facultycouncil.colostate.edu/faculty-manual-section-c/#C.2.1.). To ensure that this representative shares information and can effectively bring forward issues for all three employee councils, the chairs of each council meet monthly. Each of the three councils also meets monthly with a liaison from the other two councils in attendance to ensure collaboration and open lines of communication. Finally, the chairs of the three councils also have a monthly meeting with a designee from the President's Office, the Vice President of University Operations, and the Executive Director of Human Resources to ensure that perspectives and initiatives are heard and implemented at the highest levels of campus leadership.

Part 2

Does the institution have written policies and procedures to identify and engage external stakeholders (i.e. local residents) in land use planning, capital investment projects, and other institutional decisions that affect the community?:
Yes

A copy of the written policies and procedures:
Policy Library - Office of Policy & Compliance - Colorado State University.pdf

The policies and procedures:
The Center for Public Deliberation (CPD) serves as an impartial resource to the northern Colorado community. It is based on the belief that democracy requires high quality communication, but unfortunately such communication is rare. Working with students trained in small group facilitation, the CPD assists local government, schools boards, and community organizations by researching issues and developing useful background material, and then designs, facilitates, and reports on innovative public events.

Does the institution have formal participatory or shared governance bodies through which community members representing the interests of the following stakeholder groups can regularly participate in institutional governance?:
Yes or No
Local government and/or educational organizations Yes
Private sector organizations Yes
Civil society (e.g. NGOs, NPOs) Yes

If yes to one or more of the above, provide:

A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which external stakeholders are engaged in institutional governance (including information about each stakeholder group selected above):
The Board of Governors, which has oversight authority for the University System, is appointed by the Governor of Colorado, who is an elected official. At each Board of Governors meeting (every other month) there is opportunity for public comment open to any constituency. In addition, Board of Governors members represent a wide array of external stakeholders that any given time may represent educational organizations, private sector organizations, and/or non-profit entities. The CSU Center for Public Deliberation has also facilitated discussions around a number of initiatives that impact both campus and the local community. Current initiatives include affordable housing, Larimer County waste removal, age-friendly communities, United Way collective impact, neighborhoods, and K-12 education. President Frank also regularly holds open forums that are open to the public.

Optional Fields 

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
http://www.accreditation.colostate.edu/criterion05b.pdf

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
http://ap.colostate.edu - Administrative Professional Council http://cpc.colostate.edu/ - Classified Personnel Council http://facultycouncil.colostate.edu/ - Faculty Council http://cpd.colostate.edu/about-us/

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.