Farrand Hall

Recent months have shown the university at its best in ways big and small, on both a grand scale and on a personal level.

We were excited to learn this fall that the National Solar Observatory chose the University of Colorado Boulder for its headquarters. CU-Boulder’s east campus will be the primary site for scientific research on solar physics and space weather, which can have a significant impact on global communications and power grids.

The NSO will enhance our longtime research partnerships with several federal labs, create exceptional educational opportunities for students and produce more than 70 high-paying jobs with an annual payroll of $20 million.

It will further position CU-Boulder as a center of innovation in solar research and is another example of how our entrepreneurial spirit will benefit Colorado’s economy [read more about this here].

Just as important is the heartfelt letter I received from the mother of a student with autism. She wrote, “It is amazing to me that such a large school was able to give so much personal attention to my son.”

She told of faculty and staff in every corner of campus who offered her son help and personal attention to support his transition into college. She specifically mentioned Housing and Dining, Disability Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, his residence hall director, his math, engineering and biology professors and teaching assistants, his computer science advisor, students in his residence hall, a physics professor who hired him for a summer job and the CU Rec Center staff.  She spoke earnestly of individuals who care about the success of her son.

“I am in awe that such a big university would give such special attention and create community in such a lovely way,” she wrote.

I am in awe as well. It is truly staggering to think that, on the one hand, we are a university that captured $359 million in sponsored research contracts this year, spun off 50 companies based on our technologies over the last decade and just landed a world-class observatory. On the other, we are a university that cares about the success of each student, strives to give each a small-college experience and takes pride in the citizens we produce.

It shows what CU-Boulder can do on the macrolevel and at the microlevel. It also reminds us we have to succeed on both levels to maintain our position in the world and, more importantly, to serve the young people whose caring parents send them here.

Philip P. DiStefano is the 11th chancellor of the University of Colorado Boulder.
You may contact him at chanchat@colorado.edu.

Left to right at Farrand Field are Mel Otero (Edu’83, MBA’89), daughter Catherine Otero, CU freshman Alexander Otero at his first home game with the marching band last fall and Heather Otero (A&S’82).

I wish all my mail was as gratifying as the letter I received recently from Mel Otero Jr. (Edu’83, MBA’89) of Pueblo, Colo. His wife, Heather, is a 1982 Arts and Sciences graduate.

In his letter Mel recalled the advice I gave him 30 years ago when he was a first-generation student and I was an associate professor in the education school.

“Your guidance and encouragement helped me to stay in school and complete my undergraduate studies at a time when I had doubts about my ability,” Mel wrote. “You told me a degree would give me options I would not have otherwise. Your words had a profound impact on my career and on my life.”

He said he has passed those words of encouragement on to his own students at Pueblo County High School. That does my heart well, and it reminds me of the university’s circles of influence: how the university is at the center of lives touching other lives.

As a first-generation student myself I spoke from the heart. I grew up in Steubenville, Ohio, a working-class steel town, and later discovered the untold opportunities a college degree offers.

Mel and Heather’s son, Alexander, got that message, too. Alexander just completed his freshman year at CU, coincidentally living in the same Arnett Hall room in which his dad lived.

Yet Alexander’s educational opportunities at CU are vastly different from those of his father. He is in the Honors Residential Academic Program housed at Arnett, one of a dozen such halls with an academic focus.

“The small-class intimacy, the accessibility to the professor, the in-depth discussions without even leaving his dorm, he really enjoyed that,” Mel said. “These are things I didn’t have as a freshman.”

Additional opportunities available to today’s students include undergraduate research, service learning and studying alongside international students in an increasingly global campus and society.

“We realize the pressures that universities are under to cut costs so we are grateful that CU continues to move forward with innovative offerings. The value of the different experiences students get today at CU is tremendous,” Mel said.

It’s great to hear from alumni and parents that their student is having a fresh and exciting experience, one wholly different from their own. I don’t want alumni to send their children to CU simply because they had a great experience here but also because we’re delivering some of the most relevant experiences in American higher education today. I’m proud we’re giving new generations of students reasons to come to CU that go beyond family tradition.

Philip P. DiStefano is the 11th chancellor of the University of Colorado Boulder. You may contact him at chanchat@colorado.edu.

Our alumni are our best ambassadors and when they speak about the value of their CU education it’s a powerful voice that carries to the chambers of the State Capitol.

Cheryl Campbell (Bus, ChemEngr’83, MBus’90)

“I have given back more to the state of Colorado than they ever invested in me and my education at CU,” Cheryl says. “I sit on several boards for community groups, give generously to several causes and pay more than the average amount of taxes to the state.

“It occurs to me we don’t do a very good job telling people what they get back from the university. Is there anything we can do to help tell our stories?” she asked.

Cheryl used her CU chemical engineering and business degrees to become the first female engineering manager at Colorado Interstate Gas. Today she is a vice president at Public Service Company of Colorado, an Xcel subsidiary based
in Denver.

Passionate about education, she serves on the board of the Public Education and Business Coalition, which focuses on improving teacher quality.

Recently the board members surveyed themselves, and it was revealing.

“Most are products of public schools and public universities,” she says. “Most are from modest backgrounds. Many are first-generation college graduates. Almost all are presidents and vice presidents of companies in Denver. Public education got us these positions.

“They are presidents and vice presidents of organizations sitting on boards trying to make the community better and returning the investment to the state,” Cheryl says.

State funding has declined from 25 percent of CU’s budget when Cheryl was a student to 3.3 percent of our budget today. Colorado is 48th in the nation in funding higher education. When state funding decreases, tuition increases to preserve quality of education. That’s not palatable to anyone because it impacts accessibility — something close to my heart and Cheryl’s as first-generation college students of modest means.

“I know how hard it was for my dad to write those tuition checks,” Cheryl says. “I was a first-generation college student. We didn’t know how to pursue scholarship money.”

Cheryl is one of 98,209 CU-Boulder alumni living in Colorado. If all of you came forward to speak about what a public university education meant for you and how you return the investment to the state of Colorado, you would not make a village but a mid-sized city. And not just a voice but a chorus.

One place to start is CU Advocacy Day at the Colorado Capitol on Jan. 28. Our legislators will be listening. But don’t stop there. We need your chorus all around the state and nation.

For more information on CU Advocacy Day please go to www.cu.edu/cuambassadors.

Philip P. DiStefano is the 11th chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.You may contact him at chanchat@spot.colorado.edu.

As we celebrated this landmark anniversary on campus, I met alum Mark Mavrogianes (Hist’72, MA’77) who recently retired as a social studies teacher and student council sponsor at Northglenn High School. Mark was certified in 1973 and was named Colorado Teacher of the Year in 1998. His students called him “the Mav.” They once invited him to deliver their commencement speech.

As I chatted with Mark, I was struck by how often the university is at the center of lives touching other lives. Mark has taught thousands of students in his 35-year-career as a teacher — many of them have gone on to become teachers and community leaders, touching numerous lives themselves. His students have included Northglenn’s own mayor, Kathy Johnston Novak (Bus’83, MS’88); Bronson Hilliard (Hist’86), CU-Boulder spokesperson and media director; and Kent Zimmerman (Edu’80, MPubAd’90), our former alumni association director, as well as dozens of teachers, administrators and professionals throughout Colorado, the nation and indeed, the world.

Thanks to thousands of alums like Mark — not just educators but also business and community leaders, engineers, performing artists — the circles of influence emanating from the university grow increasingly larger like ripples from the proverbial pebble tossed into a pond.

Mark says when he was a CU student preparing to be a teacher, the expectation of the education school was for students to commit to making a difference in the lives of children and young adults. He never forgot that commitment, and it proved to be a guiding light throughout his career.

In living this commitment, Mark, and really all our alumni, are pebbles creating ripples that extend further than any of us can imagine. Those ripples, in turn, create currents that shape the world in which we live. We are asking a new generation of students to make that same commitment, often through the question, “What kind of Buff are you?”

The challenge for the university is to help new generations of students to answer that question, and alumni like Mark — and you — are the keys to answering it and to keeping these currents forever flowing.

See the video of the 100th anniversary celebration of teacher licensure at www.colorado.edu/news and search for “100 years of teaching.”

Chancellor Phil DiStefano, center, shares a laugh with education school associate professor Valerie Otero, left, and physics associate professor Noah Finkelstein before the State of the Campus address at the University Memorial Center on Oct. 5.

Phil DiStefano is the chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and former dean of the education school. You may contact him at chanchat@spot.colorado.edu.

Not long after I started as an assistant professor of education at CU-Boulder in 1974, Dain Fritz (Comm’77) and Hillary Kramer Fritz (Engl’78) graduated. On May 8 their son Matt became a newly minted graduate.

Seeing the family at commencement reminded me of the late summer day four years ago when I bumped into the Fritz family as they helped Matt move into Farrand Hall — the same hall where his mother lived as a freshman in 1974. Perhaps with nostalgia sweeping over her, Hillary said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

There is charm when the ivy-covered places on campus that nestle into our memories remain unchanged. But the fact is, things are changing more rapidly now than at any time during my 3½ decades at CU.
If you return to campus, you will see familiar sights you fondly remember. But like our classrooms, our residence halls are being reinvented for education in the 21st century.

We are moving forward with innovative residential colleges called for in our Flagship 2030 strategic plan. Freshmen through upperclassmen with common interests and ambitions will reside in combined living and learning environments alongside a resident professor who conducts lectures, seminars, recitations and tutoring in the residence hall.

This gives students the opportunity to pursue their academic passions together in both a structured and social environment, studying together and exchanging ideas. It also creates a small-college environment within a comprehensive research university.

The first residential college, the Kittredge Honors Program, opened this year at Arnett Hall. The Engineering Honors Program will open next fall in Andrews Hall with a faculty-in-residence. Soon, the Global Studies program will move into Smith Hall after it’s renovated.

Eventually students will be able to study with a resident professor, choosing from residence halls that focus on everything from natural sciences, fine arts and the American West to international interests, business, global leadership and liberal arts.

Some of the fondest memories for the next generation of students may come from experiences in their residential college or from other Flagship 2030 initiatives, such as experiential learning, civic engagement and studying abroad.

Watching two generations of the same family graduate from CU fills my heart. I have had the pleasure of watching all three become part of the Buff family. Now, Matt’s younger sister, Jacquelyn, has her eye on CU!

Phil DiStefano is the chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. You may contact him at chanchat@spot.colorado.edu.

Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson is the 10th chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Not long ago I was talking with Richard “Dick” Engebretson (MBA’72), a longtime supporter of the university who has served on the boards of our Leeds School of Business, the CU Foundation and the Alumni Association.  In our conversation, I asked him what was special about his time as a CU student. His answer is instructive, I think, for all of the CU family: “I came to CU more or less on a whim, but by the time I left, all that I learned had given me all the tools I would ever need to create the life I wanted to live.”

What a great answer. And what a great description of CU’s enduring value.

As the university and our nation weather some of the toughest economic times we’ve seen in a generation, Dick described perfectly the value of a CU degree for our time, and perhaps, for all time. A CU degree — indeed, the CU experience — gives our graduates the tools they need for a lifetime of self-transformation.

But of course, as CU alumni, you already know that. Every time one of our graduates succeeds, many other people and the numerous institutions in which they are involved succeed along with them.

As we approach spring commencement, these are important things to remember. A CU degree gives our graduates the confidence to enter a shifting job market knowing they can succeed. In fact, a recent study in Forbes.com ranked CU seventh in the nation among public universities for the earning power of its graduates.

As alumni, you and your successes are as vital to advancing CU’s reputation as any ranking in a publication. Sharing how CU made a difference in your career and life is invaluable in helping us make the case for continuing our long legacy of transforming lives, Colorado communities and indeed, the world.

Working together, we have an opportunity to transform countless lives — those of our students and those touched by the works you do throughout your lives.  This is particularly true when we, as a country, are faced with financial challenges impacting virtually every facet of our lives.  Today we need graduates who are trained and educated to meet and overcome these challenges.

Thank you for your support of CU-Boulder.  As Dick, you and thousands of alums prove daily, we are transforming the world one graduate at a time.  Without you, we would have no past and certainly, no future.

You may contact the Chancellor at chanchat@spot.colorado.edu.