Chancellor Bob Coombe is enthusiastic about the future.
At the Chancellor’s Roundtable last Thursday, Coombe was optimistic about his plans for DU’s future, specifically building diversity and a cohesive campus community.
About 30 students, faculty and community members came to voice concerns and ask questions, and Coombe shared his enthusiasm for the university.
The discussion centered on diversity issues, as students voiced their concern over not only the Princeton Review ranking DU as the least diverse school in the nation, but also the lack of cohesion of all groups in campus life.
Coombe stated that he is committed to building diversity among faculty, staff, and students, as he “personally believes that it is the most important factor for educational quality.
“Diversity is among the core values of the university and it needs to be better represented.”
“We are in the process of changing our image,” said Coombe.
“As in the past, we haven’t had an image as a very diverse campus,” he continued. “We are both recruiting students and building a relationship with communities within [Denver].”
Although he is dedicated to raising the number of minority students on campus, currently at 15 percent, he also stressed that the Princeton Review ranking can be misleading.
“We are by no means the least diverse university in the country and the Princeton Review by no means has concrete statistical analysis but rather feedback from students,” he said.
In addition to racial diversity, Coombe said that the university is committed to increasing the socio-economic diversity of the student body.
In order to increase both types of diversity, his plan is “to build the endowment in the next 10 years in a manner that promotes investment in people.”
The endowment will support scholarships and fellowships to attract qualified students and faculty to campus, which will both “push up the intellectual level to one more intense than we see now and bring capable people to campus.”
There will be a refocusing of fundraising in the near future, away from investments in construction, to fundraising for the endowment.
Coombe’s plan to create a larger endowment, which according to him, is ultimately the key to building the university in the coming years, is to foster a better relationship with the more than 110,000 living alumni of DU.
“DU needs to be able to offer greater amounts of financial aid, but we are unable to do that out of our operating budget,” said Coombe, and the endowment will help support financial aid and scholarships to bring students of high demand to campus.
Coombe was extremely optimistic about raising the endowment, as “if we can develop our financial roots, we can be one of the best universities in the country.”
In addition to racial and socio-economic diversity, the various students and faculty addressed Coombe about the campus community.
Coombe, and others present, felt the need for a greater campus conversation about such issues as diversity and a greater participation by students in the workings of the university.
“There needs to be a greater interaction between students and higher administration,” said Coombe, as ultimately, changes come from the student community.
“The strength of the university comes from the students and faculty,” said Coombe, emphasizing that it is the role of the administration to stimulate these strengths and organize the community.
A more centralized student center may take shape in the combination between Driscoll and Penrose. This potential student center could serve as a means to sustaining a campus-wide conversation among the diverse elements in the community, Coombe said.
Ultimately, said Coombe, “we are entering into an era where we are making this sweeping turn into investing in students and faculty.”
“We are in a really good position for the future. We are an institution that is of good yet ever increasing quality. DU is very open minded and receptive to change, as the university has change a lot in the past 10 years, [a fact which] gives us an enormous advantage.”
