Colorado State University
PA-3: Participatory Governance

Through the Associated Students of CSU (ASCSU), CSU's student government, students have access to all levels of the administration including the Board of Governors, CSU's highest governing body (per Article III of the constitution linked below). The President of ASCSU, an elected position, is an official member of the Board of Governors. ASCSU conducts a general election of its President each spring. All current full-time students are eligible to run for the election and all current full-time students are eligible to vote in the election.

http://ascsurecords.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ASCSU-Constitution2.pdf

ASCSU also has access to the Board of Governors via the annual Fall Forum, the annual strategic planning and goal-setting multi-day session that brings together the Board of Governors, the employee councils, student government, and the President's Executive Leadership Team, as well as academic leadership. A key purpose of the forum is to review ongoing and emerging issues of the institution, and to strengthen connections among leaders in all areas of the institution.

The university has a practice of shared governance through a strong network between the Faculty Council, Administrative Professional Council and State Classified Personnel Council. All three employee councils are comprised of representatives elected by their peers. All three councils have access to the Board of Governors, CSU's highest governing body, through the Fall Forum, the annual strategic planning and goal-setting multi-day session that brings together the Board of Governors, the employee councils, student government, and the President's Cabinet, as well as academic leadership. A key purpose of the forum is to review ongoing and emerging issues of the institution, and to strengthen connections among leaders in all areas of the institution.

The Faculty Council elects a faculty member to serve as a member of the Board of Governors. The election for this Faculty Council representative to the Board occurs at the regularly scheduled March meeting. Each candidate for election to this Faculty Representative position shall be a current or former elected member of the Faculty Council, shall be an associate professor or professor, and shall meet the eligibility requirements for elected membership on Faculty Council (http://facultycouncil.colostate.edu/faculty-manual-section-c/#C.2.1.). To ensure that this representative shares information and can effectively bring forward issues for all three employee councils, the chairs of each council meet monthly. Each of the three councils also meets monthly with a liaison from the other two councils in attendance to ensure collaboration and open lines of communication. Finally, the chairs of the three councils also have a monthly meeting with a designee from the President's Office, the Vice President of University Operations, and the Executive Director of Human Resources to ensure that perspectives and initiatives are heard and implemented at the highest levels of campus leadership.

The university has a practice of shared governance through a strong network between the Faculty Council, Administrative Professional Council and State Classified Personnel Council. All three employee councils are comprised of representatives elected by their peers and the Faculty Council elects a member to serve on the Board of Governors. All three councils have access to the Board of Governors, CSU's highest governing body, through the Fall Forum, the annual strategic planning and goal-setting multi-day session that brings together the Board of Governors, the employee councils, student government, and the President's Cabinet, as well as academic leadership. A key purpose of the forum is to review ongoing and emerging issues of the institution, and to strengthen connections among leaders in all areas of the institution. Throughout the year, the employee councils can bring agenda items forward to the Board of Governors meetings as needed.

The election for the Faculty Council representative to the Board occurs at the regularly scheduled March meeting. Each candidate for election to this Faculty Representative position shall be a current or former elected member of the Faculty Council, shall be an associate professor or professor, and shall meet the eligibility requirements for elected membership on Faculty Council (http://facultycouncil.colostate.edu/faculty-manual-section-c/#C.2.1.). To ensure that this representative shares information and can effectively bring forward issues for all three employee councils, the chairs of each council meet monthly. Each of the three councils also meets monthly with a liaison from the other two councils in attendance to ensure collaboration and open lines of communication. Finally, the chairs of the three councils also have a monthly meeting with a designee from the President's Office, the Vice President of University Operations, and the Executive Director of Human Resources to ensure that perspectives and initiatives are heard and implemented at the highest levels of campus leadership.

There are a couple of applicable CSU policies for this credit. The first is the Open Meetings policy linked above, which is in support of and in compliance with the Colorado Open Meetings Law (CRS 24-6-401) and the Colorado State University System Open Meetings Policy which ensures that all Board of Governors meetings, as well as its committees, are open. This allows external stakeholders (i.e. local residents, business owners, etc.) to attend meetings where land use planning, capital investment projects, and other institutional decisions that affect the community are made. In addition, each Board of Governors meeting has a public comment opportunity for stakeholder voices and perspectives to be heard and shared.

The second applicable policy is outlined in the CSU Master Plan document (page 58 at https://www.fm.colostate.edu/sites/default/files/2014_Masterplan.pdf ) and states: "Some main campus projects are required to go through a Site Plan Advisory Review (SPAR) with the City of Fort Collins Planning and Zoning Board. This process allows the city to review the location, character and extent of the project to determine if it conforms with City Planning Guidelines. A neighborhood meeting is also required. This process is mandated by CRS 31-23-209 which states 'When the commission has adopted the master plan of the municipality or of one or more major sections or districts thereof, no street, square, park or other public way, ground or open space, public building or structure, or publicly or privately owned public utility shall be constructed or authorized in the municipality or in such planned section or district until the location, character, and extent thereof has been submitted for approval by the commission.' The neighborhood meeting allows external stakeholders, including local residents and business owners, to share their concerns, questions, and perspectives. Feedback from external stakeholders is also accepted via email and phone call and for major capital projects, a public website with a feedback form is created.

A recent example of these policies at work is the redevelopment of the Hughes site (the old CSU stadium, located three miles West of main campus, www.hughes.colostate.edu). In 2017, the Board of Governors heard public comment before voting on redeveloping university-owned land into mixed use development to include affordable housing, open space, and community buffers. The Site Plan Advisory Review process with the City of Fort Collins for this project included neighborhood meetings (https://www.fcgov.com/drg/pdf/development-review-flowchart.pdf?1539187141) Both the CSU and City meetings related to this project were open to the public and involved multiple opportunities for public comment. As stated in the CSU Master Plan, "CSU planners meet regularly with City of Fort Collins staff to exchange information on upcoming projects, whether or not a SPAR is required. These meetings identify traffic, parking, bicycle, student housing and utility issues. CSU is committed to mitigating the negative impact of its activities and preserving the quality of life in surrounding neighborhoods.”

The CSU System engaged CAA ICON to facilitate the gathering of community feedback to help inform potential developers during the RFQ/RFP process. CAA ICON facilitated three community listening sessions – one in September 2017 and two in October 2017 – to collect feedback that will be provided to developers to help them understand the community’s concerns and values.

Community members provided hundreds of comments reflecting a diversity of ideas and competing community values. Preserving trails and natural space, either in whole or as part of a mixed-use option for the land, was the most common theme. Other suggestions included creating attainable/affordable housing, avoiding high-density housing, establishing/not establishing a music venue, building a recreation and art center, constructing a public pool, and other ideas for what should be or should not be done with the property. Many people also expressed concerns over traffic, transit and noise impacts of development to be taken into consideration.

The Off Campus Life Office on campus has a Community Liaison position shared with Neighborhood Services at the City of Fort Collins. This position is dedicated to ensuring that local residents and the university can effectively communicate and collaborate on important issues like parking, tailgating, construction, neighbor mediation between residents and students, and student roles in the community like registering parties, snow removal, and being good neighbors.

The CSU Center for Public Deliberation (CPD) serves as an impartial resource to the northern Colorado community. It is based on the belief that democracy requires high-quality communication, but unfortunately, such communication is rare. Working with students trained in small group facilitation, the CPD assists local government, school boards, and community organizations by researching issues and developing useful background material, and then designs, facilitates, and reports on innovative public events to encourage community participation.

The Board of Governors, which has oversight authority for the University System, is appointed by the Governor of Colorado, who is an elected official. At each Board of Governors meeting (every other month) there is opportunity for public comment open to any constituency. In addition, the Board of Governors members represents a wide array of external stakeholders that at any given time may represent educational organizations, private sector organizations, and/or non-profit entities.

The CSU Center for Public Deliberation has also facilitated discussions around a number of initiatives that impact both campus and the local community. Current initiatives include affordable housing, Larimer County waste removal, age-friendly communities, United Way collective impact, neighborhoods, and K-12 education.

President McConnell also regularly holds open forums that are open to the public.

http://ap.colostate.edu - Administrative Professional Council
http://cpc.colostate.edu/ - Classified Personnel Council
http://facultycouncil.colostate.edu/ - Faculty Council
http://cpd.colostate.edu/about-us/ - Center for Public Deliberation
https://ascsu.colostate.edu/ - ASCSU (Associated Students of Colorado State University)