The University of Colorado's Board of Regents voted unanimously Wednesday to elect Todd Saliman as the university's 24th president.
Saliman has been serving as interim president since July 2021. He is an alumnus of CU Boulder and previously served as CU's senior vice president for strategy, government relations and chief financial officer.
“When the board set out to elect a president last summer, we were clear that CU needed a respected leader who could work collaboratively with the board, shared governance leaders, and our campus administrators,” said Regent Jack Kroll, chair of the CU Board of Regents. “We also recognized CU deserves someone who could uphold the university’s values and advance CU as a leading public research university with a diverse and inclusive community. We found that and more in President Saliman. He emerged from a highly competitive field of candidates with an impressive background and a clear vision for CU’s future.”
Saliman was named the sole finalist two weeks ago. Saliman was nominated, Kroll said, because regents were impressed with his familiarity with budget issues and CU’s strategic plan and had demonstrated an ability to work well with the elected regents, according to our partners at The Denver Post.
“I’m deeply honored and humbled to be CU’s next president,” said President Saliman. “I’m grateful to the regents for their confidence in me, and I’m eager to continue working with them and the chancellors to advance the university and the important work happening on our campuses. I’m also looking forward to continuing to collaborate with our incredible faculty and staff to serve our students and the people of Colorado.”
Several Latino groups spoke out against the search process, saying it lacked transparency and inclusion. The Colorado Latino Leadership Advocacy and Research Organization (CLLARO), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the Latino Advocacy Council all expressed concerns over the process including the alleged exclusion of prominent Latinos from the finalists list.
However, some members of the Latino community felt the presidential selection process was fair. Sochi Gaytan, president of the Denver School Board, said speaking as the mother of a former CU student, she witnessed the effort put into diversifying the search team.
CU’s Board of Regents issued this statement on the search, saying in part:
"Many voices have helped shape this search and get us to this point. In the fall, we held more than 40 listening sessions with stakeholder groups to gather input. Our search firm has put together a very strong and diverse pool of candidates. The search committee spent many hours reviewing applicants, evaluating credentials, interviewing candidates, having meaningful conversations among committee members, and ultimately narrowing the pool to a list of candidates to forward to the board."
