Internal Challenges

  1. Learning to work together
    • A new administration brings change - and the opportunity to look at challenges with fresh eyes. We must create a shared vision of the 21st century land-grant university with new processes and procedures for collaborative decision-making.
  2. Mentality of scarcity
    • Colorado State is under-funded. It has operated from the “scarcity” model for a long time and relied on reallocations to balance the budget. Financial stability in the future requires that we work together to “grow the pie” and overcome the mentality of scarcity.
  3. Loss of faculty
    • Since 1990, 80 faculty positions at CSU have gone unfilled as enrollment has grown 20 percent.
    • Declining numbers of tenure-track faculty due to inadequate compensation/benefit packages and an increasing number of retirements have resulted in higher student/tenured faculty ratios and increasing workloads.
    • The most productive faculty are also the most marketable and Colorado State is vulnerable to losing even more highly talented faculty to other universities with the resources to compete successfully.
    • New reward systems are needed that allow more flexibility in workload allocation, promotion and tenure decisions, merit raises and innovative approaches to compensation.
  4. Self deprecating attitude
    • History, traditions and current successes go largely uncelebrated.
    • CSU must develop and implement a strong, comprehensive marketing program that shortens the gap between the public’s perception of Colorado State and reality.
  5. Enrollment management
    • Existing approaches to enrollment management may not be well-suited to the challenges we face from increasing competition and the changing demographics of our state and nation.
    • Colorado State needs to continue to grow the diversity of its students, faculty and staff to better reflect the society we serve.
  6. Physical facilities
    • Loss of capital funding and maintenance funding from the state present serious challenges to providing a high quality research/instruction infrastructure.
External Challenges | External Opportunities | Internal Challenges | Internal Opportunities