METROLEADS, the College’s leadership forum, will kick off its fifth year this Friday by hosting the Colorado Higher Education Strategic Planning (HESP) Steering Committee, which will debut the “road show” of draft recommendations it is developing for the governor and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. Because of space constraints, the meeting is not open to the College community.

A yearlong career exploration and discovery program for select Metro State employees, METROLEADS holds eight leadership seminars throughout the year. The group’s first seminar, on Friday, Sep. 10, is on the state budget situation and how it affects Colorado higher education and Metro State.

The seminar will feature a two-hour briefing by the HESP Steering Committee, which was appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter in January and charged with developing a comprehensive road map for the future of public higher education in Colorado. Metro State President Stephen Jordan sits on the mission subcommittee one of four subcommittees. The HESP Steering Committee is presenting its draft strategic plan to the METROLEADERS in advance of a series of community forums to obtain feedback on the plan, scheduled for September and October throughout the state. The group’s final report is due to the Governor and the CCHE on Nov. 4.

At the Sep. 1 Metro State Board of Trustees meeting, President Jordan said the HESP Steering Committee would be “trying out their road show “on the METROLEADS group.

“All the former METROLEADERS have been invited back to participate in this conversation,” Jordan continued. “So we could have about 80 people listening and responding (to the draft higher-education strategic plan). I think that will help us to begin to understand these very important issues and to begin to develop solutions for how we can respond to these issues.”