A Letter from Dr. Karen Riley

Good afternoon Regis,

I hope that you are all doing well and that you are staying warm on these very cold days.

I wanted to update you on the January Board of Trustees meeting. Due to the weather the meeting was held virtually. For the MASA meeting, which includes Mission, Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, we had a typical packed agenda. We sent one-page summaries to the Board members updating them on HSI, Faculty Senate, Admissions, Student Satisfaction Survey, HLC, Project Revitalize, and the Parent and Family Liaison position. Thank you to Drs. Senthil Kumar, Nicki Gonzales, Barbara Wilcots, Heidi Blair and Kristi Gonsalves-McCabe for your work on these initiatives as well as for your work on ensuring that our Board was updated on our progress. We also had a few brief presentations.

Mission

Fr. Kevin Burke, S.J., Vice President for Mission, presented on the Laudato Si pledge which is a seven-year process coming out of the Vatican. This pledge requires Regis to commit to raising awareness of the encyclical’s message and to act with the urgency required by the climate crisis. Fr. Burke stated that the request for more action on issues related to climate change was very clear in the listening sessions conducted for the 2021 Mission Priority Examen (MPE).

Academics

Dr. Shari Plantz-Masters, Academic Dean, Anderson College of Business and Computing, introduced Dr. Hugo Bergier, Assistant Professor and Dr. Ken Thibodeau, retired, National Archives, to discuss an exciting five-year international collaboration among 200 researchers to use logic based Artificial Intelligence at the service of Archives. This project will have a global impact. Dr. Plantz-Masters pointed out how important this kind of work is, not only for our reputation at Regis, but for our students who have opportunities to be involved in the research and scholarship.

Student Affairs

Mr. Fletcher Brown, Director, Military and Veterans Services, and Ms. Sarah Smith, Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, presented their vision of expanding the existing Regis Cupboard both in size and scope. The demand for food has increased over 300% in the last two years. They would like to see a larger space for this pantry that is more assessible to the community and ADA compliant. In addition to the food pantry, their vision is to add a professional dress closet to help prepare students for internship and job interviews.

Athletics

Ms. Molly Marrin, Head Coach, Women’s Basketball, gave a presentation to the committee on her hopes for the program. She highlighted that the average GPA in her program is 3.5 and the women complete over 2000 hours of community service in an academic year. They recently had their first win vs. a top 10 nationally ranked team since 2015. Her team is comprised of both undergraduate and graduate students. In 2016 they hosted a Top Colorado High School and out-of-state Team camp and had 20 teams attend. In 2022 this increased to 92 teams, one of the largest team camps in Colorado.

We continue to move forward with the search for the Dean of the Library. Please look for invitations to participate in the process in the next few weeks. 

Dr. Kari Kloos, Associate Vice Provost for Mission, will chair the search for Regis’ next provost with the goal of having a new provost start July 1, 2023.

In the next Digest we will provide some updates on research and scholarship. 

Thank you all for supporting our students as well as one another.

Karen