Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Mark Kennedy answers audience questions April 24, 2019 at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Kennedy was the only finalist for the position of president at the University of Colorado when he was appointed in 2019.
The University of Colorado Board of Regents Wednesday approved a $1.3 million departure payment for President Mark Kennedy, who announced earlier this month that he was leaving after two years on the job. His departure date is July 1.
The “transition agreement” passed on an 8-1 vote.
The buyout covers the remainder of Kennedy’s contract, which began on June 15, 2019, and was set to run through June 30, 2022. Kennedy’s starting salary was $650,000, and it rose to $850,000 in subsequent years.
The 2021 Solar Decathlon house entry for the University of Colorado Boulder being built in Fraser, CO.
Without a well-timed bit of eavesdropping, Hannah Blake and Gabi Abello may have never built a home in Fraser, Colo., a mountain town just a few miles from the Winter Park Ski Area.
The moment came as the pair toured a traveling village from the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon in 2018. The competition challenges college students to build solar-powered houses. Inside the first building, the University of Colorado Boulder sophomores wondered aloud why no one from their school had organized a team.
Kristen Taddonio and Joe Smyth, a young couple from Fraser, overheard the students talking. It had always been their dream to live in a solar decathlon home.
Institutions will still have to raise tuition
Higher education leaders have praised lawmakers for helping to restore the budget, but in some cases, it still isn’t enough. While scholarship funds have increased, some students will still have to pay higher tuition.
Public universities are permitted to raise tuition by three percent for the next school year. The University of Colorado system voted to take advantage of that allowance, but used federal stimulus dollars to temporarily keep rates flat for a year. Others, like the Colorado Community College System, voted to keep tuition flat despite a decrease in enrollment. Several boards have yet to vote on next year’s tuition.
Courtesy of Claire Teklitz
Claire Teklitz, left, and Elise Madonna pose in their graduation gowns with the Colorado School of Mines s bronze burros statue.
Claire Teklitz, a rocket scientist in Florida, is among the thousands of 2020 graduating college seniors who had their commencements cancelled last year.
But now, one year after she obtained her degree in mechanical engineering, she’s getting her chance to cross the stage in front of friends and family. Her alma mater, Golden’s Colorado School of Mines, is holding in-person ceremonies for both this year’s graduating class and last year’s. She described graduation as a small, but important moment to celebrate overcoming college.