Dear Roadrunners,
The Auraria Campus was impacted Friday by a threat to the Colorado Community College System, forcing us to secure the campus to ensure the safety of our students, employees and campus guests. While law enforcement ultimately determined that the threat was not credible and that campus was safe, the incident, which remains under investigation, was undoubtedly unnerving and disruptive. I am grateful to all who helped respond throughout the day, including the Auraria Campus Police Department, the Denver Police Department, our tri-institutional partners, our Communications team and many more. To those of you who were on campus during the incident, thank you for your calm response and for taking care of one another.
Friday’s incident also put our carefully developed emergency-response planning, protocols and procedures to the test. As information was confirmed by law enforcement, the University worked hard to provide regular updates that were clear and concise via email, website updates and social media, in addition to campuswide RAVE alerts.
If you have questions or feedback regarding emergency protocols, communication processes, etc., please submit them here so we can continue to refine and improve our emergency response and keep our campus community safe.
Please also see Monday’s Early Bird article to learn more about staying prepared.
Review or create a Departmental Emergency Procedures Plan
Additionally, September is Emergency Preparedness Month. I invite you to get a jump on it by creating or updating your Departmental Emergency Procedures Plan. To get started, please visit the Department of Facilities’ Emergency Preparedness page and download the Departmental Emergency Procedures Plan template. This document helps MSU Denver departments develop a solid plan of action for shelter, evacuations, rally points and emergency-contact lists in crisis situations.
Academic Spaces Improvement Project updates
Furniture deliveries began Wednesday, and furniture will continue to be delivered and installed through Wednesday. Some supply-chain problems have caused some materials, specifically lighting, to be delayed and some classrooms will not have new lighting installed until winter break. The Hospitality Learning Center will be home to the new Charlie Papazian Brewing Education Lab, and the project design just received compliance notice from structural consultants AEC West and went out to bid publicly last week.
Building progress to date:
- The King Center punch walk has been completed, but minor paint and ceiling touch-ups are still required. New lighting is completed for rooms in the building.
- The 7th Street punch walk has been completed, but minor paint and ceiling touch-ups are still required. Lighting will be installed off-hours this fall.
- The Cherry Creek punch walk has been completed, but minor paint touch-ups are still required. Lighting will be installed off-hours this fall.
- The Jordan Student Success Building punch walk has been completed, but minor paint and ceiling touch-ups are still required.
- The Arts and Administration punch walks have been completed, but paint touch-ups are still required.
- PE, Plaza West and Central punch walks are scheduled for this week and early next week.
Move-in update:
- Plaza Building – Aug. 19
Athletics updates:
- New lighting has been installed at all three Athletics fields, and the lighting contractor is completing the final electrical wiring so it will be up and running by next week.
- The turf installation on the softball and soccer fields is complete. Baseball-field padding and turf installation will begin this week.
Construction work adjacent to campus
As part of the Colorado Convention Center Expansion Project, sidewalks around that facility are undergoing repairs, which may cause some rerouting as students and employees try to access campus. There will be a single westbound right-turn lane closure on Colfax Avenue between Welton Street and Speer Boulevard and a sidewalk closure along the north side of Colfax Avenue from Welton Street to Speer Boulevard to allow sidewalk repairs to take place. These closures are scheduled through Sept. 2 at 6 p.m.
Free public transit through August
While MSU Denver employees already receive free Regional Transportation District access via the EcoPass program, RTD and 30 other transit agencies across the state are waiving fares for all riders through the month of August. The effort is intended to reduce traffic, which will in turn reduce ozone impact and improve air quality. If you work with students and/or employees who are not enrolled in the CollegePass or EcoPass program, please help spread the word and encourage people to use public transit to campus.
Additional updates
- Visit this article for important monkeypox health and safety information.
- Volunteer for MSU Denver’s first-ever University Welcome Week on Aug. 22-25.
Thank you again for your interest in University safety and operations.
Sincerely,
Larry Sampler
Vice president for Administration