Editor’s Note: Between the time Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet spoke with The Gazette and publication of this story, the Colorado Springs Police Department identified a fatal stabbing victim on Aug. 7 as UCCS professor Haleh Abghari. Sobanet issued a statement mourning her loss and offering campus resources to students and staff.

Jennifer Sobanet was faced with challenges no chancellor should ever have to face just mere weeks into her new position.

Her first semester included multiple student deaths on campus and difficult budget decisions as she was finding her footing as the University of Colorado Colorado Springs’ new leader.

Despite the circumstances, Sobanet says the resiliency by the campus and community she witnessed will help guide her vision for the university in the years ahead.

“It’s just an honor to be a part of the Mountain Lion family and to come together and create the UCCS of the future,” she told The Gazette. “It’s the most exciting work that I could be doing right now.”

Sobanet was appointed as the university’s next chancellor last December following a brief interim basis when her predecessor Venkat Reddy announced that he would vacate the position and return to the College of Business as a professor this fall.

Sobanet had worked in higher education throughout the state since 2004 with stints including the Colorado Community College System and the state’s Department of Higher Education. She held various administrative positions at the University of Colorado Denver for seven years before coming to Colorado Springs as interim chancellor in July 2023.

She said the transition process with Reddy has been “super-smooth” as she settled into the new role.

“So, I have felt very welcomed and embraced by this community and this campus and that makes it way easier to learn,” Sobanet said.

Among her tasks going forward include revisiting the school’s 2030 strategic plan that “literally went live the day that the university was closing down to go remote (in the pandemic year 2020)” and adjusting it to the changing landscape of higher education since then, and determining where UCCS fits.

“We’re going to spend time digging into that,” she said. “So, then we can start to make the decisions around ‘How do we re-align our resources, our time, our energy, our people, our finances?’ How do we realign that towards the vision of ‘Who is the UCCS of the future?’”

Safety and security

On Feb. 16, UCCS student Samuel Knopp, 24, and his houseguest Celie Montgomery, 26, were both shot and killed in a campus dorm two months into Sobanet’s start as chancellor. The man suspected of the murders, Nicholas Jordan, was also enrolled at UCCS at the time. The murders led to conversations about campus gun and safety policies and the overall state of safety on the campus.

Sobanet has noted the campus community and local community’s resilience following the double-homicide while adding that this will play a continuing role in shaping the campus going forward.

One week following the shooting, students began an online petition advocating for increased security measures like more secure classroom buildings and increased security cameras throughout campus. Sobanet said the campus completed a year-long initiative to install additional cameras and has added more police staff over the summer.

Students and community members have also expressed concerns about communication and transparency following the February shooting. To increase communication regarding threats and safety, Sobanet said that additional features were added to their UCCS Safe App so that students can now report suspicious activity via video to dispatch in addition to requesting escorts across campus when they feel unsafe.

The university has also invested in new apps and software to increase student connectedness and additions to existing mental health support systems.

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Remaining tasks for the university include filling multiple leadership positions following a series of resignations over the summer. UCCS’ Police Chief DeWayne McCarver left the university in July to be closer with family in Alabama while the director of housing operations and emergency management program director also left in the same month.

Heading into the new year, Deputy Chief Clay Garner will act as the interim chief while the other positions remain vacant.

“He knows everybody on campus, he’s been here for almost two decades, I think, knows everyone at CSPD and at the sheriff’s office,” Sobanet said of Garner. “So, I don’t worry about the transition because we have a great interim chief.”

UCCS Director of Housing Operation Ralph Griese also retired over the summer, with the position currently listed as “vacant” on the university website.

A job opening for the school’s emergency management program coordinator was posted on the University’s website on Aug. 12. Arthur J. Simental previously held the position before also leaving in July.

Sobanet acknowledged students’ frustrations about the university’s communication in the hours and days following the shooting. But she points out that she was limited in what could be shared given the process and nature of an on-going police investigation.

“The only way and best way that I honor the lives that were lost is to ensure that justice is served,” she said. “And I will never cross that line of providing information. Even though I wish I could because, in that moment, it might make someone feel better, I won’t. Because what I want in the end is justice for Sam Knopp and Celie Montgomery.”

Incoming changes

Sobanet was also tasked with how to navigate an incoming deficit of $4 million ahead of the current fiscal year. Tough decisions included an increase to student tuition by the CU Board of Regents while UCCS made the call to consolidate some departments in order to balance increasing expenses and declining revenue.

Sobanet explained that many investments in ongoing activities in recent years were expected to grow along with the campus. Instead, both activity revenue and overall campus growth were stunted by the COVID-19 pandemic and slowing enrollment.

“So, what we ended up with was investments that we were making with growth that didn’t come,” she said.

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She added that the administration will be working to identify and reevaluate additional areas and investments throughout the semester that may stay, or get consolidated.

Students will also see an increase to their activity fees, starting this year, following discussions on spending from the student government body and their use of those funds. With the increase will come expanded programming for the UCCS Student Government Association and student clubs. A campus concert later this month with rapper Waka Flocka Flame is an early example of this increased investment in student activities, along with the continuation of existing successful programs like the annual campus Friendsgiving event.

Also coming this year is the expansion of programming and labs offered at the Anshutz Engineering Center that opened its doors in April. Over the summer, technology and equipment were brought in to house the university’s aerospace and engineering program along with classes for electrical and computer engineering, computer science and game design.

“The types of labs that we have in this building are incredibly sophisticated and it’s because our community has asked for us to be able to have degrees … that satisfy the needs in the workplace,” she said.

A large amount of the center’s equipment comes from donations by various community partners which Sobanet also hopes to grow going forward. Recent partnerships and collaborations have included Pikes Peak State College, U.S. Space Force and Colorado Springs School District 11.

Along with the school’s academic programs, pathways, certificates and research, Sobanet said she sees its potential for collaboration as the Pikes Peak region continues to thrive as one of the school’s most promising developments, despite recent challenges.

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“I feel like there is opportunity for us that maybe wasn’t even there before the global pandemic and it’s because we’ve all come together around wanting to make this region be something very, very special,” she said.