When Justin Schwartz sits down to talk with The CEO Magazine, he is on day 99 as the 12th Chancellor of the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder).
Yet, he smiles, he’s actually on his 10,000th day in higher education. More accurately, education has been a part of his life every day from childhood: his mother, father and stepfather were all university professors.
“It’s the family business,” he says, laughing. “Growing up, it wasn’t like, ‘What do your parents do?’ It was, ‘What do they teach?’”
Where he deviates from his parents, however, is in forging a career in large state and land grant universities. From a Professor at Florida State University to the Head of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University and seven years at The Pennsylvania State University, including his appointment as Executive Vice President and Provost, Schwartz’s career trajectory shows he is invested in the large, state university mission.
“When you talk about access, affordability, creating opportunity, having an impact on our communities and having an impact on our local, state and national economies, that is at the core of what large universities do,” he says.
Taking the lead
As the flagship campus for the state of Colorado (and one of the University of Colorado’s four campuses), it is CU Boulder’s responsibility to cultivate cutting-edge research and a scholarly and creative work portfolio with an impact that is felt well beyond the state borders, Schwartz explains.
“We serve Colorado first and foremost, but as a state flagship in today’s era, we also have topics where we look to be the lead nationally and internationally,” he says.
Those areas include space, climate and sustainability, health and quantum. And with an esteemed list of alumni, faculty, staff and affiliates – including five Nobel Laureates (four in physics and one in chemistry), 19 astronauts, three current or former Supreme Court justices and over 40 Grammy nominations – CU Boulder’s goals and ambitions are naturally set high.
In the 2023–2024 fiscal year, CU Boulder generated US$4.6 billion in economic impact across the state.
Educational impact
Schwartz knows impact is a topical subject in higher education in more ways than one.
“There’s a lot of controversy in the United States around whether higher ed is just a jobs training program or whether we should have a bigger view of educational impact,” he says.
Schwartz and his colleagues are of the latter opinion.
“We think preparing students for the economy means preparing students for the community, which means preparing them to be robust, intelligent participants in a democracy,” he notes.
He explains that a CU Boulder graduate should have an unfair competitive advantage in what they want to do next by virtue of having attended the university.
“That unfair competitive advantage comes not only from the outstanding academic programs in areas that they find exciting and that employers find exciting, but also the co-curricular experiences, the life experiences and the bigger-picture education they come out with,” he expands.
Affordable and accessible
Before they can graduate, students have to choose to enroll at CU Boulder, and Schwartz says affordability is part of the big picture at the university.
“We want Boulder to be accessible and welcoming to students from all types of backgrounds,” he says. “But they need to want to come and to be able to come.”
Financial incentives include a longstanding tuition promise that guarantees a student’s tuition and fees will remain steady for four years.
“We have also recently expanded an affordability program of our own to help students from families under a certain income level in the state to attend,” he says.
Schwartz knows that one challenge is the cost of housing in Boulder for both students and faculty and staff.
“The good news is that Boulder is a fantastic place to live. The bad news is that means everyone wants to live here and that drives housing costs up,” he says.
“We are trying to tackle that problem in a way that is mindful of the relationship between housing and transportation.”
In other words, avoiding a situation where addressing the housing problem creates a traffic and pollution problem.
Sustainable champion
Schwartz says that one of the key attractions of the Chancellor role was just how important sustainability is at CU Boulder.
The university’s student-led Environmental Center was established in 1970 and is now the largest in the United States. CU Boulder is also a climate science research leader, and its findings have impacted the fields of energy production, waste reduction and conservation. It was even the first university to purchase renewable energy credits in 2000.
Advertisement
In 2022, it hosted the inaugural Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit to address the interconnectedness of human rights and climate change, in partnership with United Nations Human Rights.
Schwartz adds that a blueprint has been drawn up to decarbonize the campus. The next part of the puzzle, he continues, is finding the right fit for the newly created Vice Chancellor for Sustainability role.
“Our goal is not just to become a sustainable campus and help our local communities be sustainable. We’d like to help Colorado become the most sustainable state in the country,” he says.
He’s betting on the large state university advantage to get it there.
“What’s the thing that makes large state universities stand out?” he asks. “It’s the number of students they have.”
If every graduate has sustainability as a key element in their educational profile, then they will spread those insights and knowledge to a wide web of employers, Schwartz details. And if all large universities do the same, change will happen.
“Suddenly, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of students every year graduating,” he explains. “When vast numbers of people are on the same page, that’s what transitions societies.”
A flagship for society
In terms of its partnerships, Schwartz explains that the priority is for relationships where CU Boulder can forge deep connections.
In the areas where the university has strong research, such as quantum science and technology, it already has strong industry partnerships. For example, Schwartz cites Elevate Quantum, whose mission is to ensure that Colorado and the Mountain West are the lead in quantum research, development and commercialization, leveraging existing awards to create over 10,000 jobs and generating US$20 million in income by 2030.
CU Boulder sits alongside corporate, nonprofit and public partners in the consortium that has just been awarded US$40.5 million as a designated quantum Tech Hub by the United States Economic Development Administration, followed by US$84 million in state support and US$1 billion in private capital.
More than a flagship in higher education, Schwartz says CU Boulder is a flagship for advancing society.
“We’re always looking for stronger partnerships with industry,” he says. “Our goal is implementation and impact. We want to see the things that we create that can improve the world actualize in, say, Stockholm, for example.
“To do that, we need global partners. And we are looking to partner globally with everyone who wants to see society advance.”
