Office of the President

Statements from the President

Statement on CU Treasury Issue

Dear Members of the CU Community,

I want to update you on an issue I communicated about before the holiday break, funding for accelerating the systemwide strategic plan and related matters in the University Treasury. As I outlined in December, declines in the market, combined with a disconnect in information provided to administration (detailed in my previous communication), meant we had to delay, pause or stop accelerating elements of the plans across the campuses.

A team of campus and system CFOs, treasury representatives and other CU financial professionals spent considerable time urgently assessing the impact. In December we estimated the gap between what we planned to do and what we could do (between FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23) at $120 million. The team’s continued work recently led to the conclusion that the actual gap is around $69 million. They arrived at that figure by determining what plans had already been funded (from realized market gains), as well as what commitments had to be paused or stopped. Additionally, they took steps to close the gap by capturing investment gains from an end of 2022 market uptick, as well as revenue from dividends, capital gains and interest earnings in the treasury pool. While the gap in FY 2021-22 and 23 is now smaller, it is still unlikely this revenue source will be available to fund these efforts in future fiscal years.

While the Accelerating the Strategic Plan funds are different from the regular campus operating budgets, and the primary effects will be on strategic plan-related items, each of the campuses is evaluating the impact and their upcoming investments. Campuses will share more specific detail with members of their communities soon.

In addition to the work of determining the extent of the issue, the regents and administration convened a Treasury Investment Process Review Committee to detail lessons learned and to determine what policies and controls need to be restored, refined or added to guard against this type of situation reoccurring. The committee, which comprises campus and system CFOs, the interim treasurer, the associate vice president for internal audit and regent representatives, had its initial meetings over the past two weeks and will continue in the weeks ahead. It is engaging the services of an independent, external investment advisor to collaborate on assessment of the issues and recommendations. We expect its report, which we will share with the university community, will be complete in March.

Additionally, the Board of Regents has started the process to search for a new university treasurer (who reports to the regents), which will be informed by the Treasury Investment Process Review Committee’s recommendations.

Our strategic plan remains a sound roadmap for what we need to do to meet our mission of serving our students and our state. We recognize the valid concerns around the system regarding not having the funds we expected and the impact on our plans. However, the regents, campus leadership and I are committed to working with the CU community to continue to focus and make progress on our critical priorities outlined in the strategic plan.

Sincerely,

Todd Saliman
President

Additional Statements

 

Message from University of Colorado President and Chancellors Regarding Michigan State University Shooting

The University of Colorado community offers our deepest condolences to our friends and colleagues at Michigan State University in light of the terrible tragedy that happened on their campus on Monday. The families and friends of those directly affected are foremost in our minds. Todd Saliman
 

Statement from CU President and Chancellors on Colorado Springs Tragedy

The University of Colorado community abhors the horrific and senseless violence that struck Colorado Springs in the early morning hours. Just as we grieve with our family, friends and neighbors, we also stand resolute that violence and hate will not prevail, including hate directed at the LGBTQ+ community. Significantly, as we recognize Transgender Day of Remembrance, we are sadly reminded of how much work remains.
 

Statement from President Saliman and CU Chancellors on the Supreme Court’s Deliberations on Affirmative Action

The University of Colorado remains strongly committed to fostering a student body, faculty and staff that reflects the diversity of Colorado and makes our institution a better place.