Academic Program Check-In
CU Denver’s Program Check-In process aims to help academic and faculty leaders assess their programs for ongoing vitality, optimize programmatic resource allocations, innovate and adapt to evolutions in student demand and external landscape, and ultimately increase the collective value of CU Denver academic offerings to learners and other stakeholders.
The Program Check-In is designed to nimbly achieve these aims by minimizing administrative burden on programs (relative to seven-year program reviews), while making available tailored centralized service supports and meeting CU Regent annual-review mandates.
Process Updates for 2026–27
Following the 2025–26 Annual Program Check-In process cycle, an extensive stakeholder listening and learning process generated ideas for how program check-ins should evolve going forward. Based on process insights, a Recommendations for Evolving the Annual Program Check-In report was published on May 14, 2026.
Read the Recommendations
Provost Karen Marrongelle endorses these recommendations, and a project team is working in fall 2026 to update the process for the 2026–27 cycle. One significant change is that some key process element move from fall to spring to fit more conveniently into the academic year workflow for program participants. We will communicate with process participants in the fall 2026 semester about process updates and milestones, and we will update this webpage with documentation relevant to this process.
2026–27 Faculty Working Group
A new Annual Program Check-In working group is charged with advising the Provost on the continued evolution of the process. Building on feedback from year 1 and the 2026 recommendations report, the working group will evaluate implementation outcomes, engage stakeholders, deliberate on unresolved policy and design questions, and provide recommendations for upcoming program check-in cycles.
Full Working Group Charge
Working Group members are:
- Joanne Addison, CLAS
- Hamilton Bean, CLAS
- Ester De Jong, SEHD
- Yosef Bonaparte, BUS
- Nate Thompson, CAM
- Jody Beck, CAP
- Wendy Bolyard, SPA
- Gita Alaghband, CEDC
Project Resources
NOTE: These documents and deadlines reflect the 2025–26 process: they are posted here for general overview purposes, but will be updated in November 2026 for the 2026–27 process.
Documents for Program Check-In Participants
- 2025 Metrics Dashboard (CU login and VPN required)
- Self-Study Template
- Program Action Steps Template
- Program Support Reference Guide (To guide programs in pursing Action Steps)
Training materials
These materials reflect the 2025–26 process and are posted here for general overview purposes, but will be updated in November 2026 for the 2026–27 process.
Project Background
In Fall 2023, CU Denver’s Office of the Provost launched an Academic Transformation initiative to help CU Denver navigate an evolving higher education landscape. A charge of this project’s Academic Program Viability and Curricular Innovation working group was to “develop a clear, data-informed, and transparent set of processes and protocols for the early ongoing detection and required realignment of academic programs to current workforce needs and learner demand.” A working group recommendation was to initiate an annual Program Check-In process for each academic program to guide strategic decisions about their trajectory. These check-ins are based on existing data, policies, and processes, as well as factors including market intelligence and a brief program self-study.
The annual process was piloted during the 2025–26 academic year, and is being updated for 2026–27.