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President Jill Tiefenthaler's Blog

CC’s Film and Writing Programs Featured

A few weeks ago, CC was included on a list of the best colleges for writers. We are #10! Check out the list at http://www.collegedegree.com/library/college-choice/The-10-Best-Colleges-for-Writers.

In addition, last week The Independent published a terrific story about CC’s film program. http://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/how-to-succeed-in-film/Content?oid=2470475.

Both stories highlight the importance of a liberal arts education in helping writers and filmmakers connect the dots, and become great story-tellers, not just technicians.

CC’s Past Presidents

Over the past few weeks, I have had the great pleasure of meeting two of my predecessors, our 10th President Gresham Riley and our 11th President Kathryn Morman. Both are active and continuing to make important contributions in higher education. Gresham and Kathryn speak very fondly of their time at CC and the college.
Kathryn is now serving as the Director of the University Design Consortium and Professor of Practice at Arizona State University. The Consortium is “a boundary-spanning organization founded by Arizona State University (USA) and Sichuan University (China) to challenge public universities around the world to develop innovative strategies to address the complex issues of the 21st century.”  Kathryn travels to China regularly for this exciting work and is an active scholar, publishing regularly on education in China. You can check out a video of Kathryn addressing an education conference in Hanoi at http://universitydesign.asu.edu/.
Gresham and his wife Pam now live in Old City in Philadelphia and have enjoyed team teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Gresham holds a faculty appointment in the Philosophy Department at Penn and is currently engaged in an extended research project on the topic of evil.
I hope that Gresham, Kathryn and Dick Celeste (my immediate predecessor, our 12th president) will all be able to celebrate the history of the college at my upcoming inauguration!

The Importance of CC to the Springs

Alumna Pula Davis who writes for The Gazette in Colorado Springs wrote a great editorial on the importance of Colorado College to the future of Colorado Springs. Check out Pula’s thoughts at http://www.gazette.com/opinion/college-135860-colorado-view.html.

Gratitude

On March 7th, CC held its annual scholarship appreciation dinner.  This event is so important to us because it is an opportunity to publically thank our scholarship donors for providing access to a CC education to students who might otherwise not be able to attend. Four new scholarships were awarded for the first time this year.

  • The Eileen Carle Memorial Scholarship was established with a gift from the Pikes Peak Scholarship Committee of the Pikes Peak Club in Colorado Springs.
  • The Crown Family Endowed Scholarship was established by the Crown Family in response to the challenge grant from the Robert & Ruby Priddy Charitable Trust.
  • The Amy S. ’84, and Steven S. ’84 Louis Endowed Scholarship was established by Amy and Steve Louis, both members of the class of 1984.  Amy also is a member of the CC Board of Trustees.
  • The Oliver Ellsworth Wood III, Class of 1997, Endowed Scholarship was established following Oliver’s passing in 2008 after a hard fought battle with cancer by two of his CC classmates, Dan Haas and Rick Jacobs, and his parents Crete, ’69, and Chips Wood, and his sister, Catharine, ’95.
Two speeches – one by a generous donor, the other by a current student recipient – were the the highlight of the evening. Alumnus Ed Benton ’50 (and grandparent ’15), who understands both roles of giver and receiver, shared his CC story and why he now reinvests in the community that transformed his life. Senior Colin McCarey expressed his gratitude for his CC education and made it clear that CC is a stronger institution because of student scholarships. While these gifts transform individual students’ lives, they also transform Colorado College. Colin’s speech and Ed’s letter to me about his decision to give a scholarship are attached below.

What Presidents Worry About

Last week, Inside Higher Ed released its second annual “Survey of College and University Presidents.” Financial concerns continued to top the list of the biggest challenges facing institutions, according to the presidents surveyed. Interestingly, the economic outlook for public and private institutions appears to be diverging. While enrollment is relatively strong and endowments are rebounding,  private colleges and universities are more optimistic about the future while public university presidents are still contending with state budget cuts.

As my quotes in Inside Higher Ed’s story on the survey (linked below) suggest, public institutions’ budgets are starting to look a lot like those in the private sector – very tuition dependent, which will likely lead to a increasing focus on fundraising. Recent double-digit increases in public tuitions, resulting from state appropriation reductions, has also resulted in the net cost (tuition less financial aid) of a private education being much more price competitive with that of a public education (especially when taking into account that the probability of completing in four years is much lower at a public institution).

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/concerns-about-sports-backing-obama-survey-presidents