Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends,

As we look forward to a much-anticipated presidential transition at Colorado College, we are grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the past year together. It has been our sincere honor to serve as co-presidents during this interim, and we thank you for your continued support and engagement.

Last spring brought many unforeseen challenges, but with your help CC adapted and stayed centered on our students. The pandemic dramatically changed students’ day-to-day campus experiences as we shifted to remote and hybrid learning to mitigate the virus’ spread. Despite unfamiliar circumstances, our faculty and staff embraced new ways of teaching and learning to provide a valuable liberal arts education and deliver support to our dynamic student body. Students found new ways to connect with one another and engage with the issues they are most passionate about, from the arts to social justice. Students’ willingness to radically change how they live, learn, and grow during this time has been a key to the success of this academic year and the health of the wider Colorado Springs community. Because of these efforts, Colorado College has maintained a significantly lower infection rate as compared to local and state levels since the start of the pandemic.

Our dedicated faculty and staff demonstrated courage, resilience, and creativity as we pivoted to virtual learning. They found new ways to engage students and make use of the Block Plan’s innovative flexibility, helping students connect with course materials and develop their sense of place, no matter where they were in the state, the nation, or the world. Our talented staff have helped students connect their studies with meaningful co-curricular engagement, provided invaluable mentorship, and have enabled structure and continuity as we face new challenges together. And you — our alumni, families, and friends — have supported this campus community with your time, volunteerism, and gifts.

We truly could not have had the successful year we did without your engagement. You gave generously to CC’s COVID-19 relief efforts, you participated in student mentorship opportunities, and you offered feedback and support as we navigated a truly unprecedented year. You also joined us to celebrate the Class of 2020, who graduated during an especially uncertain time. We invite you to join us in recognizing the Class of 2021, who have similarly adapted amid trying circumstances. While this year has brought many challenges, there are also many causes for celebration.

This issue of the Bulletin explores the pivotal role of the arts. From poetry to painting, fashion to film, from the classroom to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, we hope you enjoy reading about the community members among us whose creative works inspire and amaze. As we look ahead to the coming years, our commitment to the arts, and the transformative role they play both in our academics and in our wider society, remain strong.

Finally, we invite you to join us in welcoming L. Song Richardson to the Colorado College community. Richardson will join CC as president on July 1, and we share in your excitement as we begin this transition. She brings a wealth of expertise as an educator, an expert on implicit racial and gender bias, and a legal scholar, and we are confident that through her visionary leadership she will help this community grow.

As we conclude the 2020-21 academic year, we extend our deepest thanks to you. We wish you health and happiness in the months ahead. We look forward to our continued work together.

Sincerely,

Mike Edmonds, Acting Co-president

Robert G. Moore, Acting Co-president