State Higher Education Funding Highlights:

• Operating: A statewide $66.6 million increase for operating expenditures at public colleges and universities in FY 15-16. CU’s portion is $17.5 million. 
• Financial Aid: $15.2 million increase for need-based aid and $5 million for the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative for next fiscal year. CU campuses will have access to $3.9 million from the need-based aid increase. 
• Alzheimer’s Research: $250,000 was appropriated to the CU Anschutz Medical Campus Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
• Capital Construction: CU has two campus projects that will receive significant capital construction funding including: $15 million for CU-Boulder Systems Biotechnology Building, Academic Wing; and $9.6 million for UCCS Visual and Performing Arts Complex. CU's campuses also received $2.6 million total in controlled maintenance funding.

CU-Boulder Brings Drones to the State Capitol

On April 20, Dr. Brian Agrow, Director of the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles at CU-Boulder, along with one of his drones, came to the state capitol and gave a lunchtime presentation to legislators and legislative aides on Unmanned Aircraft Systems and the work being done by his department across the state and nation.

Dr. Brian Agrow, Director of the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles at CU-Boulder

 

Congresswoman Diana DeGette Visits CU-Boulder to Promote 21st Century Cures

On May 4, Congresswoman Diana DeGette attended a roundtable discussion hosted by the CU-Boulder BioFrontiers Institute on the 21st Century Cures Initiative, which is being co-led by the Congresswoman. The 21st Century Cures Initiative is a bipartisan effort to take a comprehensive look at steps that can be taken to accelerate the pace of cures in America from basic science and streamlining the drug and device development process, to unleashing the power of digital medicine and social media at the treatment level. During the discussion, Congresswoman DeGette was able to share her work on the Initiative as well as hear from local leaders from industry, academia and research on ways to further streamline healthy outcomes.

More information, including the discussion overview, can be found here.

 

Congressional Delegation Expresses Support for CU's Federal Priorities

This spring, the CU Office of Government Relations submitted programmatic requests to members of Colorado’s congressional delegation outlining the University’s federal priorities for Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16). The primary goal of this effort is to encourage our congressional delegation to support these programs by joining other Members of Congress in sending letters urging House and Senate appropriators to fund these programs for the upcoming fiscal year.  This year, we received a lot of support from our delegation, who joined in signing letters of support of many of these agencies/programs, including:

• National Institutes of Health
• National Science Foundation
• Department of Energy (Office of Science)
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Education Research Centers (ERCs) and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Programs
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (Office of Atmospheric Research)
• Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Title VII (Health Workforce)
• Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education
• National Endowment for the Humanities