The Colorado Trustee Network: Advocacy, Relationship Building, and Collective Impact in Colorado
By Alison Griffin, Whiteboard Advisors
While much has been studied and written about college and university trustees and regents—and postsecondary education governance—the role of the higher education trustee as policy advocate is relatively new. Not new as an advocate for the institution they govern, but new as an advocate for the whole of public postsecondary education.
In Colorado, public colleges and university trustees and regents have come together to form the Colorado Trustee Network (CTN), a coalition of appointed and elected leaders who are working together to elevate the issues of greatest impact to the students and institutions in Colorado: affordability, equity, and the alignment between education and the workforce. Few efforts nationwide have been able to create a collective approach to advocacy that involves individuals who, by nature, are positioned to work independently of one another.
CTN was formed in early 2021 by cochairs Elaine Gantz Berman and Sarah Kendall Hughes, two education advocates who have spent years in the K-12 education space and observed the power of independent advocacy groups. Berman and Hughes have seen that independent advocacy groups are often perceived as a ”thorn in the side” of the same groups they are advocating for, but they have also been enormously successful in bringing about the needed reforms and increased funding for public education. They further observed that while there was a strong advocacy voice for K-12 education in Colorado, the state lacked a collective voice for higher education. Thus the creation of a coalition of public college and university trustees was a logical starting point. CTN is the foundation for building a unified voice on issues that impact the state’s public higher education system and Colorado’s learners who desire to pursue a postsecondary education in the state.
Investing in Higher Education and Equity for Colorado
By Martha Snyder, HCM Strategists
In Colorado, eleven companies land on the Fortune 500 list of the most valuable companies, nationally - companies like Arrow Electronics, DaVita and Dish Network. That is why when the terms equity and finance are co-mingled, the first thing one conjures is “assets” or shares held in a company.
On the other hand, in the sphere of your role as trustees of Colorado’s public colleges and universities, equity usually means impartial or fair. You apply these terms to oversight for the institutions’ policies, approval of tenure and promote policies, and the annual review of your college president.
I suggest that the triple pandemics this state and nation face - racism, the economy and public health - necessitate thinking about postsecondary finance from a student-centered equity lens. This means committing and targeting resources in ways that support more equitable access and success for populations traditionally underserved by postsecondary education.