Turmoil at CU Denver as faculty targets provost over mental health failings, financial aid problems

Discord is brewing at the University of Colorado Denver as the faculty considers censuring the campus provost over the controversial firing of a dean, concerns that students are withdrawing over financial aid mismanagement, and the discovery of a highly critical review of the school’s mental health services the university hadn’t planned to make public.

CU Denver’s Faculty Assembly aired its conflicts publicly last month in a notice of intention to censure Provost Constancio Nakuma, who is tasked with overseeing academic and student affairs. Ultimately, faculty representatives voted last week to postpone their censure vote until February, giving Nakuma time to address their concerns.

The assembly’s censure resolution called Nakuma out for having “diminished the university’s reputation and financial position, the well-being of faculty, staff and students… and the trust and cooperation necessary during a period of crisis and transition.”

The resolution criticized Nakuma for his removal of the dean of the College of Architecture and Planning. It also accused him of mismanaging CU Denver’s Office of Financial Aid, resulting in students not receiving funds on time, and said he failed to address campus mental health concerns laid bare in a university-commissioned review of CU Denver’s counseling center.

That review, conducted by higher education consulting firm Keeling & Associates, concluded CU Denver’s mental health services were understaffed and insufficient to meet the increasing needs of students.

CU mental health staff reported they “have never seen things this bad at any institution” and “can’t figure out how to get people to care” because “leadership doesn’t listen,” according to the report. One staff member, the report said, told consultants “only a tragic incident will get their attention.”

“University leadership seems not to have recognized and responded to mental health as the concern — or crisis — that it is, or to have prioritized mental health among campus challenges,” the report’s authors wrote.

Nakuma, who has been at CU Denver for three years following a 19-year tenure at Clemson University, declined an interview request from The Denver Post, but did send an emailed statement.

“I respect the Faculty Assembly process and willingness to engage with me,” Nakuma wrote. “I recognize that there is more work to be done, but I am optimistic that we can come together in a productive manner and make continued progress.”

In emailed responses to The Post’s questions, Marie Williams, CU Denver’s vice chancellor of marketing and communications, said Nakuma disputed several points in the faculty’s resolution. The faculty’s claims about financial aid and mental health are “sweeping” and “lack nuance and substantiation,” Williams wrote.

Faculty Assembly Chair Sasha Breger Bush declined an interview with The Post about the censure resolution. CU Denver faculty members, particularly those without tenure, have been tight-lipped about the situation. Student government leaders did not respond to a request for comment.

“A blatant level of misogyny”

Among the faculty’s complaints against Nakuma: his removal of Architecture and Planning Dean Nan Ellin over the summer.

Jody Beck, CU Denver’s dean of academic affairs and an associate professor in architecture, told The Post that a handful of faculty wrote a letter to Nakuma saying they did not believe Ellin — who had served as the college’s dean since 2017 — was fit for the job.

Every other department wrote a letter to the provost countering that narrative, Beck said.

“She had been an amazing dean,” Beck said, noting Ellin’s knack for bringing in funding, collaboration and including diverse people and perspectives.

This feedback was dismissed, Beck said. Nakuma removed Ellin in “a really brutal, public way” in July, having her escorted out and publicly implying wrongdoing on her part, according to Beck and the Faculty Assembly’s censure resolution.

Nakuma also called a faculty meeting at which he shared personnel information about Ellin that he “hoped would remain confidential,” according to the censure letter.

“What’s interesting is he removed a male dean previously, but we’ve heard it was quiet and respectful and totally different than what happened here,” Beck said. “There appears to have been a blatant level of misogyny in the way this was handled.”

In response to the faculty’s censure letter, Nakuma wrote: “I admit in hindsight that my communication of former dean Nan Ellin’s departure could have been handled differently. I own that mistake, which made a painful issue for all of us even more so. Despite some of the process issues surrounding the announcement, which I have since reflected on and learned from, I stand by my decision. This decision was not made lightly or without significant due diligence, thought, and consultation.”

Ellin, who remains at CU Denver as a professor of urban design, did not respond to an interview request.

“Critical improvements” to financial aid

CU Denver staff and faculty repeatedly flagged problems with the financial aid office, including understaffing and training issues that led to students’ financial aid packages not being distributed on time, the censure resolution said.

Over the summer, faculty documented 31 students who left the CU Denver Business School because other universities had “functioning” financial aid offices, according to the resolution.

“This is directly causing student distress and hardship, and student attrition at a university that is experiencing a budget deficit and for which revenue is driven by tuition dollars,” Faculty Assembly representatives wrote.

In his letter responding to the Faculty Assembly’s concerns, Nakuma wrote that he agrees the university needs to “enhance the strategy and operations” of the financial aid office and that a study has been commissioned to better understand how to improve.

“In terms of financial aid, we have already begun to make several critical improvements, including the hiring of new leadership to oversee and direct the areas of enrollment management and financial aid,” Nakuma wrote.

Increasing mental health needs

The faculty also questioned Nakuma’s commitment to mental health services on campus.

In the summer of 2022, Monique L. Snowden, CU Denver’s senior vice chancellor for strategic enrollment and student success, commissioned Keeling & Associates to conduct a review of the campus’s mental health services. The consulting firm’s final report, dated March 2023 and obtained by The Post, included interviews with counseling staff and data, and was highly critical of the university’s mental health offerings.

CU Denver did not publicly release the results of the review. However, a staff member received the document after filing a public records request with the university, according to the censure resolution, and it since has been distributed around the campus.

Williams, the CU Denver spokesperson, said in an email that the review was never meant to offer a state of mental health counseling for broad distribution. The review also contained errors, Williams said, such as combining data for CU Denver and CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus.

Mental health is a top priority of the university, Williams wrote, adding that students have access to round-the-clock mental health services and are reporting low to no wait times at the counseling center.

CU Denver budgets about $2 million on mental health and dedicates 19 positions to its counseling center, case management operation and related services, officials said.

According to the review, members of the CU Denver Campus Assessment, Response and Evaluation Team — created to assess whether individuals pose a risk to themselves or others and intervene when necessary — told the consulting firm that students referred to them have increased 25% to 40% every year in recent memory, with 1,200 students referred during the last academic year.

The CARE team said it only had the capacity to review the highest severity cases each week and couldn’t even look at the low and medium cases, according to the consultants’ report.

Moving forward

On Monday, one day before the originally planned censure vote, Nakuma wrote to faculty representatives proposing a November meeting to provide feedback, answer questions and give updates about mental health and financial aid.