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A strategic advisory group of student leaders, faculty and staff representing all university units will convene for the first time this month to begin the historic work of implementing the Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan, a campus blueprint for building a more diverse and inclusive ���ϳԹ�.

Council co-chairs will formally proceed with the IDEA Plan’s implementation phase during a meeting with authoring co-chairs at the end of August, a step that will enable the full council to begin rolling out the plan’s specific actions shortly thereafter.

Academic and administrative leaders nominated more than two dozen members of the campus community to serve on the foundational Council for Community and Inclusion, which is identified in the IDEA Plan as the entity charged with ensuring progress and accountability.

The council is critical to the plan’s implementation, said Vice Chancellor Bob Boswell, who oversees the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement (ODECE), and the group’s work will follow a deeply collaborative process involving every school, college, governance group and academic and administrative unit in order to reach consensus on the plan’s goals and recommendations.

“We are more than ready to fulfill our mission of creating a campus environment that enables all students, faculty and staff—regardless of their personal identities—to feel welcome at ���ϳԹ� as they pursue their academic and career goals,” Boswell said.

The council will work with ODECE to provide guidance on strategies to promote inclusion, diversity and equity at ���ϳԹ�, advise campus leadership on specific action plans, and will serve as the advisory group that assesses and monitors the implementation of the plan’s key components and objectives.

On June 18, Chancellor Phil DiStefano issued��eight immediate actions to enable change, and convening the council is among them. Boswell said he would update the campus on progress with all of the eight actions within the next two weeks.

Boswell commissioned��the IDEA Plan��at the behest of Chancellor Phil DiStefano, Provost Russell Moore and former Chief Operating Officer Kelly Fox. A diverse committee of students, faculty and staff delivered a final draft to Boswell last year.

Among the plan’s charges is a commitment to creating a ���ϳԹ� that is “a diverse, inclusive and equitable public research university for the 21st century” while building on the chancellor’s imperatives of shaping tomorrow’s leaders, being the top university for innovation and positively impacting humanity.

Boswell said the plan’s intent and core objectives are more relevant and necessary today than ever before.

“There is no doubt that we are living through a historic moment in time on so many levels, and we recognize that our campus community is asking for immediate action,” he said. “Future generations of ���ϳԹ� students, faculty, staff and alumni will judge how well we rose as a campus to address systemic racism and other barriers that have prohibited the success of individuals historically underrepresented in higher education.”

The following individuals were nominated by the campus’s deans and vice chancellors to serve on the council:

Council Members

Deborah Cantrell
Colorado Law

Lance Carl
Athletics

Pakou Cha
Office of Advancement

Kelsey Draper
Infrastructure and Sustainability

Jasimine Evans
Staff Council

Robert J. Ferry
Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA)

Lisa Flores (Co-Chair)
College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI)

Molly Frommelt
CU Student Government (CUSG)

David Hekman
Leeds School of Business

Teresa Hernández (Co-Chair)
Human Resources

Bronson Hilliard
Strategic Relations and Communications

Doreen Jokerst
Integrity, Safety and Compliance

Susan Jurow
School of Education

Xiang Li
University Libraries

Kevin Lee MacLennan
Enrollment Management

David Eric Meens
Continuing Education

Eduardo Montes Romero
Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG)

Hillary Potter
Arts & Sciences

Fernando Rosario-Ortiz
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Drew Smorul
Office of Information Technology (OIT)

Seth Spielman
Office of Data Analytics/Finance and Business Strategy

Susan Thomas
College of Music

Regina Tirella
Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC)

Konstantin Tovstiadi
Digital Accessibility

Julie Volckens
Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC)