A Letter from Dr. Jake Bucher

“Into the Chrysalis”

There is a tension across campus, and a tension in the nature and tone of this letter. I often employ humor, or at least embrace a holy laughter, in difficult times – yet, there is the reality of significant changes to Regis operations that makes joy and hope seem elusive if not impossible. For myself, the many sleepless nights, caused either by being up all hours of the night trying to will the numbers into a better outcome, or just feeling heavy with the weight of the impact on our colleagues, my inner Pollyanna is feeling pretty weak.

Still, I am filled with confidence in Regis’ future as an institution true to our mission and committed to transformational Jesuit education. While our operations may indeed look very different moving forward, our culture and experiences will remain strong. We are able to make these changes based on strategic efforts that build and enhance our key values, our responsibilities, and our community. Here again we feel the tension of what is being lost for the sake of what will be gained, and I in no way dismiss the pain of the transformation, but I do need to keep a focus on what is on the other side.

While different changes will be shared at different times through different channels, I would like to share a couple of changes here as examples of the strategic approach to transforming Regis’ structural operations. First, we will be reimagining the approach to Instructional Design and Technology (ID&T). We will not be providing those services as we have historically done. We will be transitioning that expertise into our new Community for Cura Facultas to help lead and train best practices for online (fully online and online supports for ground classes) teaching and learning, and we will be partnering with external resources for specific initiatives. Our colleagues in ID&T have done incredible work, not just in supporting online classes, but a variety of other online resources and features. I am grateful for their many contributions to Regis, and am excited for the new dynamic as we continue our work towards a consistent and high-quality online learning environment.

Second, we will be establishing a new culture and community of student success and engagement. Along with the integration of Academic and Student Affairs, we will be moving away from a professional advising model. Our professional advisors have been amazing supports and advocates for our students, but a culture of developed and accountable faculty advising, and robust coordinated student success efforts, provides a distinctive Regis experience and one that leans into our commitment to retaining, transforming, and graduating students who have grown as we have accompanied them. Nicki Gonzales, Erica Ingalls, and I are looking forward to working with an identified team of advising and student support experts in building and delivering this new community.

The above examples are not exhaustive of the changes that are happening. Others have not been shared because they are not final at this time, or are of an individual nature that would make it inappropriate to share in this format. Their exclusion is not due to administrative secrecy, we will discuss the operational changes and details of implications at future opportunities. The above examples do capture the strategic spirit driving all operational changes, as both align with two articulated efforts in the Academic Plan. They also exhibit that every decision has been informed with, and weighed by, our mission, our quality, and the values that we hold most dear.

I shared at the recent budget forum this paradox that hangs over Regis right now, that it is simultaneously true that it is suffocating and painful in this chrysalis we are in, and true that Regis will not only come through it, but emerge from it differently better.