Join Associate Vice President of Wellness Janelle Taylor, MSN, on Thursday, Oct. 9 from 3-4 p.m. in Gates Common Room for the next Work of the College Series event Colorado College’s Health and Wellbeing Strategic Plan. This session will explore the College’s comprehensive wellbeing approach, which recognizes that all aspects of health—physical, intellectual, spiritual, social, environmental, and mental—are interconnected. Learn about how recent successful health and wellbeing initiatives support our strategic plan goals of reinforcing our foundation of wellness, creating enduring programming, and fostering collaboration with campus partners.

Taylor will share insights into exciting future initiatives centered around the themes of access, belonging, and thriving—including wellness mapping, enhanced partnerships with recreation and athletics, and expanded academic collaborations. Whether you’re interested in how holistic health impacts academic success, curious about prevention programming, or want to understand how wellness services support our campus community, this interactive session offers valuable insights into our comprehensive approach to student and community wellbeing.        

Come with your questions and engage in meaningful dialogue about wellness resources, mental health support, or how different departments can collaborate to support student success. This is your chance to learn about the future of wellness at CC through a holistic approach to community wellbeing.

The Work of the College Series is a year-long program of events with four goals: (1) clarify organizational structures and decision-making processes; (2) offer campus constituencies the opportunity to dialogue with leadership about campus affairs; (3) increase decision-making transparency in hope of building trust; and (4) build community.

The Work of the College Series consists of:

We want to let you know about an upcoming emergency exercise taking place on Tuesday, Sep. 30, at 8 a.m. This drill is part of our continued commitment to ensuring the safety and preparedness of our campus.

The exercise will take place near the intersection of Nevada Ave. and Dale St. and will bring together the CC Incident Management Team with partners from CommonSpirit Health, the Colorado Springs Police Department, and the Colorado Springs Fire Department. This exercise will also include nursing students from UCCS, with moulage (simulated injuries) to act as patients in the mock disaster scenario.

For more detailed information on the Standard Response Protocol, you can refer to the link provided: SRP-HED-2021-Student-Staff-Handout.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we work together to strengthen the safety and resilience of our community.

If you need any further assistance or have specific questions about the drill please email campus safety at campussafety@coloradocollege.edu

Colorado College leadership is excited to announce that CC will adopt the Okanagan Charter as a member of the United States Health Promoting Campuses Network, which calls on institutions of higher education to embed health and wellbeing into all aspects of campus culture. The official signing ceremony of the Charter happens this Friday, Sep. 26, from 1:15–2 p.m. on Tava Quad, outside of Shove Chapel during the Health & Wellbeing Fair.

Named after the Okanagan Nation in British Columbia, where the Charter was first created, a key principle is to honor the contexts, perspectives, and priorities of local and Indigenous communities. To that end, a smudging ceremony will precede CC’s signing at 1 p.m. in front of Shove Chapel. By joining 42 other institutions—including CU, CSU, and MSU Denver—CC demonstrates its active commitment to sustaining healthier campuses and communities.

The Okanagan Charter, developed by representatives from 45 countries at the 2015 International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges, reflects a global call to embed health and wellbeing into every aspect of higher education. At CC, this means recognizing that physical, mental, spiritual, social, and environmental health are interconnected and essential to thriving. Research shows that holistic wellness not only enhances productivity and learning, but also strengthens belonging and community—outcomes that are central to the CC experience.

“We are honored to join an extensive network of health promoting institutions of higher education. The Okanagan Charter naturally aligns with CC’s values, and the adoption recommits our resources towards supporting a culture of wellness and a campus of care,” said Associate Vice President of Wellness Janelle Taylor. “We are proud that over the past year, we have increased student and employee access to physical and mental health services, strengthened collaborations with campus partners, and enhanced our health and wellbeing programming.”

The deadline to propose an Off-Campus Summer Block for 2026 is Monday, Sep. 29. Proposals must include both course information and a draft budget. If you have questions about the proposal or the budget format, please contact Allen Bertsche.

The priority deadline for student Spring 2026 Semester Away applications is Wednesday, Oct. 1. This includes the CC in France, CC in Latin America, and CC Chinese in Asia programs as well as the CC Internal Application for any partner-led semester away. Students interested in a Spring semester away should be encouraged to complete all applications on or before this date. 

Connect to a community partner to co-create community-engaged classroom projects for a Spring 2026 course through the PEAK Project (Publicly Engaged Actionable Knowledge). Submit an Educator Interest Form by the end of Block 2 (Sunday, Oct. 19). Until funds are exhausted, matched partner/faculty pairs are eligible for grant-funded project development stipends ($500 each).

The deadline for Academic Year 2026-27 Off-Campus Block proposals is Thursday, Oct. 23. Unlike the summer proposals, the AY Block proposals do not require a draft budget at this phase. Please connect with Allen Bertsche if you have any questions about Block Away development.

Join us this January by engaging in the Week of Action, January 12-16,  as we celebrate MLK Day! Week of Action is a week of opportunities and events that aim to mobilize and inspire staff and faculty to engage in local community-based work and build community.  

We encourage departmental teams and individuals to join us for a 2–3-hour community engagement activity. To express interest as a team or individually, please complete this form by Friday, Oct. 31.

If you have need for funding for a field trip that is above and beyond an amount that can be covered by your department or other sources, apply for Spring semester courses by Friday, Dec. 5. 

Are you intrigued by the idea of offering an Off-Campus Block, but you missed the Build a Block Away workshop and don’t know where to start? Fear not. There is an online version offered in Canvas. This online program will guide you through the timeline and process for approval, advise you on budgeting and best practices, and provide you with resources to help turn your idea into a feasible plan for a Block Away. 

The LACF Initiative is currently seeking educators to teach courses in the 2026-27 Academic Year and beyond. Please fill out this brief form to express interest or email jradke@coloradocollege.edu. 

Through the LACF, we expand access to higher education for incarcerated persons by offering for-credit courses at no cost in the Youthful Offenders System (YOS) facility in Pueblo, which serves a population of 19 to 25-year-olds.

The Office of Sustainability monitors campus-wide progress through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS)—a transparent framework that evaluates institutions across five key areas, including Academic Research. As part of this effort, we’re asking faculty to complete a brief 10-minute survey about any sustainability-related research conducted in the past three years. 

Not sure if your work qualifies? Research may be considered sustainability-related if it meets any of the following criteria:  

Your input helps us reflect the full scope of sustainability work happening across campus. 

If you are planning to do a field trip, you are required to complete the Field Trip Leaders portion of the Taking Students Off- Campus Canvas Course. Even if you have not yet completed the course, please complete the Field Trip Plan if you have a trip scheduled for Blocks 2-4. 

Students can now take live, online, and on-demand test prep for free through Kaplan for graduate school admissions exams: GRE, GMAT, MCAT, DAT, OAT, & LSAT. For more information and the link to register for classes, please visit this website.

The Office of Sustainability tracks the College’s greenhouse gas emissions each year as part of our commitment to understanding and reducing our environmental impact. This effort includes anonymous data on employee commuting, which falls under Scope 3 emissions – indirect behavioral activities. Our Emissions Team compiles and publishes this data annually in the Greenhouse Gas Technical Report. ` 

Your responses help increase the accuracy of our reporting and help provide valuable insights into our community’s commuting patterns. Please take this anonymous 5-minute survey about your commuting habits and you’ll be entered into a raffle to win a $10 Downtown Partnership gift card redeemable, at over 100 local downtown shops, restaurants, and venues.

Whether you have done hundreds of field trips or none, Drew Cavin, Director of Field Study, can assist you in planning your off-campus experiences. Drew can help with every step of the process, from long term planning and financing/logistics to field trip pedagogy and making community connections. Please email dcavin@coloradocollege.edu to get started.

Is your academic department planning to host a guest speaker, alumni panel, or other event to help students understand educational and career pathways beyond CC? The Career Center would love to partner and help promote these opportunities! A few ways we can collaborate:

Please contact us at careercenter@coloradocollege.edu to start the conversation. 

Student Information

We encourage you to review the student newsletter and pass along opportunities that align with students’ interests and goals.

Join CC Assistant Professors of Education Nickie Coomer and Juan Miguel Arias for the Block 2 Faculty Lunch talk, “Biopolitics, Debilitation, and Neoliberal Post-Colonialism: The Discursive Borders between Humanism and Educational Rights in Irish Education” on Tuesday, Oct. 7 from 12:15–1:30 p.m. in Bemis Great Hall. Faculty and staff are invited to attend.  Learn more about this event. 

Please register by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1. Lunch will be provided.

Reach out to kettleman@coloradocollege.edu“> Keragan Ettleman with any questions. We look forward to seeing you there!

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You are receiving this email because you are a member of the Colorado College community. Thank you for the important work you do each day.

Welcome to Block 2! The pacing of our academic calendar affords a special type of educational intensity, one where we dig deep and explore widely. Our Block 1 Crown Center Workshop focused on “Inclusive Participation.” Faculty and staff gathered over lunch to consider different modes and expectations of participation, ultimately articulating how the “what,” “how,” and “why” of participation depend on particular classroom contexts, expectations, and outcomes. Such modes and norms also shift over time. 

As Dr. Nadia Guessous, Associate Professor and Chair of Feminist & Gender Studies, shared with us, reframing participation as “contributions” offers a stronger and more inclusive means of supporting student engagement. As a culmination of many years of intentional development and practice, she has graciously shared with us a recent syllabus that outlines examples of how such contributions unfold in her courses. You can find more information on this and other evidence-based practices in the “Workshop Recap” below.

Our classrooms thrive on participation and experiential learning. When our students work together in ways that value all experiences and perspectives, they can accomplish almost anything. And we can too, in our departments, offices, and programs across campus.

[This introduction was not organized, written, or edited with AI]

Sincerely,

Ryan Raul Bañagale 

Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Crown Center for Teaching

This workshop focused on specific strategies for fostering robust, meaningful, and inclusive student participation. (Real) Professor Ryan Bañagale facilitated the conversation using a Crown Center case study scenario that describes a tense moment in the classroom after the (fictional) Bañagale “cold calls” on a quiet student to answer a complex question. In the ensuing discussion, workshop participants explored how and why we might shift away from a one-size-fits-all notion of “participation” towards more flexible, transparent, and student-centered approaches that acknowledge diverse ways of thinking, processing, and engaging.

The group generated many ideas; here are just a few:

Do you have suggestions to add to this list? If so, email Jessica Hunter.

You can find the Crown Center Participation Scenario, a video of the workshop, and a complete summary of the discussion on the Crown Canvas page. Contact Jessica Hunter to gain access to the site.

Block 2 at the FAC features a modern take on Sherlock Holmes on the theatre’s stage, and a critical reframing of wellness in the museum’s galleries:

Contact Academic Engagement Manager Blair Huff to learn how your class can engage with these projects and more at the FAC.

The full schedule of workshops is available on the Crown website and the C&I website. 

Monday, Oct. 6, 12:15–1:30 p.m. Crown Center Workshop: “Faculty Advising at CC: Preregistration and Beyond” by Marion Hourdequin. Access workshop information and registration using this link.

Thursday, Oct. 9, noon-1:45 p.m. Creativity & Innovation Workshop: “Flexibility for the Unfamiliar” by Kris Stanec and Steve Ralph. Access workshop information and registration using this link.

The NEH Professorship offers Humanities in Partnership Grants (HIP) of up to $3,000 for the academic year 2025-26 to faculty projects that connect to NEH themes. Read more for descriptions of grant categories and application instructions. Applications are due by noon on the third Monday of each Block. The Block 2 deadline is Monday, Oct. 13.  Please contact Jessica Hunter with any questions.