Making progress on campus priorities—a Q&A with the chancellor
As the fall 2025 semester concludes, Boulder Today interviewed Chancellor Justin Schwartz about the accomplishments of the academic year and where the university is headed. In the coming weeks, watch Boulder Today for additional Q&As and perspectives from other campus leaders.
What three adjectives would you use to describe the fall 2025 semester?
Dynamic. Purposeful. Transformational.
Last spring, you announced four institutional priorities for the campus. Can you tell us about some of the key accomplishments achieved so far?
I can’t cover all of our progress in great detail here, but I will mention a few things I think are notable signals and early successes regarding our strategic priorities.
Under the leadership of Sona Dimidjian, D’Andra Mull and Ann Schmiesing, theStudent Flourishing Initiative kicked off in earnest to strengthen mental health programs that mitigate risk and promote students’ thriving. We formed anadvisory council and aStudent Voice and Leadership Council to center student voices and worked with the JED Foundation to assess our campus strengths and opportunities. The four-year process will include strategic recommendations for implementation and a collaborative plan for assessing impact over time.
Since securing housing close to campus is a key driver of student success, retention and graduation, we continued work on Code Talker Hall, a332-bed residence hall north of Boulder Creek slated to open in fall 2026. With collaboration from the Division of Student Life and Business, Finance & Infrastructure, we also advanced plans for a newstudent housing project on Colorado Avenue, which is targeted to begin construction in summer 2026 for a fall 2028 opening.
Under the leadership of Jess Doty, we launched anEmployee Health and Well-Being department to help faculty and staff thrive professionally and personally and started the Well-being Innovators Network to champion wellness initiatives across campus ( by Jan. 22). This kicked off with a hugely successful Health and Wellness Summit on Nov. 12–13.
Campus leaders also worked closely with the Boulder Faculty Assembly on a Faculty Salary Task Force, which will soon issue a report of recommendations regarding compensation enhancement strategies.
Under the guidance of Sonia DeLuca Fernández and Jon Leslie, the campus embarked on acollaborative project to define our shared values to help shape campus culture. I hope everyone will participate!
Boulder celebrated astrong year of impactful research and creative work, earning $766.7 million in research funding in fiscal year 2025, despite federal uncertainty, guided by Massimo Ruzzene and the Research & Innovation Office. Recognition and visibility of innovative Buffs is also a critical component of this work, and Athletics introduced theEnd Zone Innovators award to honor outstanding faculty innovators at home football games.
We continued to grow Colorado’s quantum ecosystem, particularly byadvancing the Colorado Quantum Incubator’s strength and scope, and boosted research and creative impacts across aerospace, climate, health and bioscience, and the humanities. Boulder earned numerous distinctions across arts and humanities, including three Fulbright scholars and five Fulbright students for the 2024–25 year. We continued to support our Colorado delegates in working with the entire legislature in D.C. to advocate for federally funded research.
Under the leadership of Bryn Rees and Venture Partners at Boulder, we leaned into efforts to translate our discoveries into marketable and impactful products and solutions and celebrated theinitial public offering of Infleqtion, Boulder’s 10th “unicorn” spinout (companies valued over $1 billion).
With the leadership of our inaugural vice chancellor for sustainability, Andrew Mayock, we launched the newBuckley Center for Sustainability Education thanks to a generous $10 million gift, and the campus announcednew master’s degree programs in sustainable engineering and business. Boulder also launchedBoulder Climate Ventures, becoming the first U.S. public university to join the University Climate Ventures Network, alongside Stanford and MIT.
On campus, we partnered with PepsiCo toeliminate single-use beverage plastics on campus, signed theGreen Chemistry Commitment Իmade strides toward achieving our Climate Action Plan.
Boulder also was selected to host theCarnegie Foundation’s new national elective classification for sustainability in higher education, which will grow and evolve over the coming year.
Boulder celebrated arecord fundraising year thanks to outstanding efforts from Katy Kotlarczyk and Advancement, connecting with more than 44,000 philanthropists to transform lives at Boulder.
We also set the stage for expansion and improvement in other key areas, including a newvisioning process for online education. We embarked on anew strategy for global engagement and launched anew strategy for campuswide outreach efforts.
On campus, under the leadership of Marlon Lynch and new Police Chief Ashley Griffin, we began modernizing our safety infrastructure,launched the Boulder Safe app, and welcomed twoexplosive-detection dogs to our team. The Infrastructure & Resilience team also led an effort toimprove campus wayfinding, a continuing process that will improve both safety and belonging.
Under the leadership of Marin Stanek and the Office of Information Technology, we have begun rolling out, strengthened and provided.
Meanwhile, we continued supporting Athletics in a time of immense change nationally, including, while Buffs student athletes earned acclaim across all sports. In cross country, the men finished 10th and women 13th in the, while women’s soccer competed in the Sweet 16 Ի. No. 24-ranked and has already won its first game in the NCAA Tournament. Women’s basketball, and the men’s basketball team this season, their first 8-0 start in 76 years.
I also want to celebrate some of the important groundwork that got us here and sets us up for future success: building a strongleadership team that includes new Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Ann Huff Stevens, new Senior Vice Chancellor for Operations Janel Forde, new Vice Chancellor for Sustainability Andrew Mayock; Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing; new Vice Chancellor and Managing Associate University Counsel Esther Henry, alongside an excellent group of existing leaders and shared governance groups.
What is one leadership habit or mindset you strengthened this year—and one you still want to improve going forward?
I have been inspired this year by John Doerr’s books, “Measure What Matters” and “Speed & Scale.” Doerr outlines five questions that individuals or teams can ask that tend to predict performance:
- Structure and clarity: Are goals, roles and execution plans on our team clear?
- Psychological safety: Can we take risks on this team without feeling insecure or embarrassed?
- Meaning of work: Are we working on something that is personally important for each of us?
- Dependability: Can we count on each other to do high-quality work on time?
- Impact of work: Do we fundamentally believe that the work we’re doing matters?
In the year ahead, I hope everyone who works at Boulder—myself included—can answer “yes” more vehemently to all five.
Another concept the book discusses is a quote by entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki: “Ideas are easy; implementation is hard.” With so much happening at Boulder, it will be critical to ensure we have an implementation mindset in the year ahead.
What obstacles or legacy challenges have you uncovered that will require longer-term solutions, and how are you planning for them?
One of the strengths of our university culture is its deep commitment to harmony. Building on that strength, I would love to see us also lean into constructive open dialogue; the kind of collaborative spirit that welcomes diverse viewpoints and sparks bold, imaginative thinking. By making more space for thoughtful disagreement, we will explore more possibilities and reach even more inspiring outcomes together.
I also want to affirm that advancing inclusion remains a core institutional priority. We recognize that not all students, faculty or staff experience Boulder in the same ways. This means we need to be intentional about creating environments where everyone knows they matter and building support structures that allow everyone to access the resources they need to be successful.
Another expectation I have shared with my direct reports is that Boulder must work seamlessly across the organizational chart, focusing on excellent “customer service” and accountability. In the year ahead, I would like to see us develop a stronger sense of inter-reliance and trust.
Achieving ambitious, campuswide goals is often a matter of delegation, but there are some tasks best accomplished by the chancellor directly. Where do you plan to focus your personal efforts next semester?
Big, campuswide goals are not achieved by finding the single best person for a task—or even an entire committee of all-stars—and handing it off. Our university will make its biggest strides when we focus on aligning our leadership team and every member of our community toward shared, strategic goals; when we define specific objectives to help us get there; and when we measure progress against the outcomes we want to achieve.
As chancellor, my role is to encourage and expect this kind of unified and targeted planning and help create a culture where all of our units recognize their interdependence. With this mindset, whether we are working on retention and graduation rates or student housing or athletics or quantum science or water quality or public safety, we are all rowing in the same direction.
What are you most looking forward to in the spring semester?
I am looking forward to so much in 2026, but top of my list is launching Boulder’s 150th anniversary year celebration. We’ll have several events to celebrate the university’s incredible legacy, and we will honor notable Buffs who have shaped this campus into the place it is today—including with the naming of in January. You can submit suggestions for Buffs worth honoring online at.
I am also eagerly anticipating another great season of academic successes, research and creative work, innovation and Buffs athletics—and seeing ideas we have developed this semester transform into reality thanks to the hard work of faculty, staff and campus leaders. The year ahead will also bring planning and preparation for the arrival of the Sundance Film Festival to Boulder in January 2027!
I hope everyone will join me on Feb. 10 at the UMC Glenn Miller Ballroom for the annual State of the Campus address, where we’ll enjoy a meal together, and I will share more about my vision for the university.