As I conclude my time as the president of the University of Northern Colorado, I am grateful to have served a public university in a state that believes in possibility.
This month, UNC’s College of Osteopathic Medicine will welcome its first class of future physicians, just as Colorado renews its focus on connecting higher education to workforce development — through the recent passage of House Bill 1317, also known as the Unified Postsecondary Talent Development System bill.
Over the past eight years, I have learned that Colorado makes its strongest progress when people who see problems from different angles — Republicans and Democrats, rural and urban leaders, educators and employers, donors and public servants — stay at the table long enough to build something the state needs.
That is what happened with Colorado’s newest medical college. Too many Coloradans struggle to find a doctor, especially in rural and underserved communities. Training a physician takes years. We cannot solve tomorrow’s shortage by waiting until tomorrow. We have to build capacity now.
In 2024, the state made a transformational public investment through House Bill 1231, and private donors stepped forward as well. Together, they helped create a medical college that will educate physicians and strengthen health care across Colorado.
That is why Colorado must continue to view higher education not as an expense to be managed, but as an investment to be cultivated. An expense is something we try to contain. An investment is something we steward because we understand its future value. If we approach colleges and universities only through short-term cost control, we will miss their long-term value to Colorado’s economy, communities and civic life.
Colorado’s colleges and universities prepare teachers, nurses, physicians, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and public servants. They give first-generation students a path forward. They anchor communities and fuel innovation.
Workforce development matters. Students deserve meaningful careers. Employers need talented graduates. Colorado’s economy depends on an educated, adaptable workforce. Colleges and universities should strengthen partnerships with industry, schools, apprenticeships and state agencies.
Having served as a university president for eight years, I worry that in the necessary push to align education with workforce needs, Colorado could lose sight of higher education’s broader purpose: developing people, not just credentials; citizens, not just workers. Higher education must not be reduced to workforce development alone.
The purpose of higher education is broader than job placement, even as career preparation is essential. We educate people not only for their first job, but for a lifetime of change. We help students learn to think critically, communicate clearly, solve complex problems, work across differences, understand evidence, lead ethically and participate fully in civic life. Those skills are not separate from workforce development. They are what make a workforce resilient.
A state that sees higher education only as a training pipeline risks narrowing one of its greatest assets. Colorado needs career-connected education, but it also needs curiosity, research, creativity, civic learning, entrepreneurship, public service and the human development that occurs when students encounter new ideas and discover who they are capable of becoming.
The question is not whether higher education and workforce development are connected. The better question is do we align them without losing the deeper mission of public higher education.
That will require community, state and higher education leaders to work together with honesty, humility and shared purpose. It will require stable, predictable public investment, because institutions cannot innovate boldly or keep education affordable when they are forced to plan around uncertainty year after year.
Leadership, I have come to believe, is an act of hospitality. It is the work of making people feel heard, respected and valued, even when decisions are difficult. It is listening before responding. It is building relationships before they are needed. It is remembering that institutions are made of human beings.
That matters in higher education because our campuses are among the few places where people from different backgrounds, beliefs and life experiences still come together to learn from one another. At a time when public life often rewards division, colleges and universities must continue to model something better: rigorous inquiry, respectful disagreement and a belief that learning can change lives.
The next chapter of Colorado’s future will be written by the students now sitting in our classrooms, laboratories, studios, clinics and residence halls. It will be written by the teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists, counselors, researchers and public servants they become. It will be written by the communities they strengthen and the lives they touch.
That is the promise of public higher education.
It is not a line item. It is not a luxury. It is not merely a pathway to a job.
It is one of Colorado’s greatest long-term investments.
And it is a promise worth keeping.
Andy Feinstein is president of the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. His last day in the office is July 31.
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Type of Story: Opinion
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
