February 2024 Board of Trustees Update

Dear CC Community,


The Colorado College Board of Trustees met on campus Feb. 15-17 for our regular spring meeting, which was a valuable opportunity to connect, strategize, and chart our path forward.

We had important discussions about the upcoming leadership transition as President L. Song Richardson prepares to depart CC at the end of June. Manya Whitaker, Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff, will step in as Interim President for two years, effective July 1. The board came out of our meeting fully confident in the strength of the institution under the leadership of Manya and the Cabinet. We have great momentum behind many strategic initiatives, including Project 2024, and look forward to seeing their continued progress. None of this would be possible without the visionary work of President Richardson or the passion and talent of her leadership team.

On Thursday, we broke up committee meetings with tours of CC eSports Lab and the Colket Center for Academic Excellence. It is always rewarding to see the many resources we have on campus to support student success, in- and outside of the classroom.

Friday’s agenda included a Project 2024 update from Professor Susan Ashley and the co-chairs of our exploratory groups, a discussion about campaign readiness, and preparations for the college’s 150th this fall. We had a focused conversation about governing through a leadership change with David Rowe of Windermere Consulting. We also heard updates from Cabinet members around operational governance, digital transformation, student life, and people and workplace culture.

On Friday night, we cheered our CC Tiger Hockey team to a 7-1 victory over No. 2-ranked University of North Dakota — the first game of a weekend sweep in Ed Robson Arena. It’s safe to say our Tiger spirit is through the roof. We also celebrated Robert Moore, CC’s former Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration, at a dedication ceremony for the Robert G. Moore Entrance at Ed Robson Arena. Thanks to Trustee John Troubh, who made the generous gift to establish this space.

At the Saturday business meeting, the board:

  • Approved tenure and promotion to associate professor as of July 1 for eight professors:
    • Paul Adlerstein, Associate Professor of History
    • Iddo Aharony, Associate Professor of Music
    • Nene Diop, Associate Professor of French
    • Jessica Kisunzu, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
    • Rushaan Kumar, Associate Professor of Feminist and Gender Studies
    • Amanda Minervini, Associate Professor of Italian
    • Pallavi Sriram, Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance
  • Approved emeritus status for seven faculty and staff members:
    • Shane Burns (2000), Professor Emeritus of Physics
    • Phillip Cervantes (2000), Associate Professor Emeritus of Physics
    • Alberto Hernandez-Lemus (1999), Associate Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
    • Jane Hilberry (1988), Professor Emerita of Creativity and Innovation
    • Mark Smith (1988), Professor Emeritus of Economics
    • Mark Wilson (1998), Associate Professor Emeritus of Organismal Biology and Ecology
    • Mark Hatch (2001), Vice President for Enrollment Emeritus

Congratulations and thank you for your commitment to the liberal arts, the Block Plan, and our students.

If you would like to watch the Feb. 20 virtual town hall discussion, a recording is available here.

Thanks to all who made this visit so memorable. I have no doubt that even during this leadership change, it will be an exciting year of progress and celebration for Colorado College.

Sincerely,

Jeff Keller ’91, P ’23

CC Board of Trustees Chair
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Around the Block – Campus News

Gilman Scholar Studies Buddhism in India, Conducts Fieldwork in Nepal
By Julia Fennell ’21  

Dan Schmidt ’25 recently returned to campus after spending four months studying Buddhism in Bodh Gaya, India, and Chiang Mai, Thailand, and doing ethnographic fieldwork in Nepal to understand how Sherpa people conceptualize creativity.

Schmidt is a recipient of the 2023 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, a U.S. Department of State federally-funded program for Pell Grant recipients that promotes cultural exchange through study abroad opportunities. 

As a Gilman Scholar, Schmidt was able to participate in the Buddhist Studies in India program through Carleton College, which has been taking students to India and Thailand since 1979. Through this program, Schmidt and 16 other undergraduate students from the U.S. spent nine weeks studying Buddhism at the Burmese Vihar in Bodh Gaya.

READ THE FULL STORY»

Did you know….

In order to further CC’s antiracism commitment and improve equity and access, one of the directives to come out of Project 2024, we have increased our ADEI themed Fall and Spring conferences, revised our enrollment forms in response to the SCOTUS Affirmative Action decision, and established an Alternative Admissions Group.

Voters will Prioritize Land, Water, and Wildlife in 2024 Elections
By Alexa Gromko

CC’s 14th annual State of the Rockies Conservation in the West Poll reveals public lands issues like threats to wildlife habitats, water pollution, and the loss of natural areas are highly important to voters in the West and play a key role in how they will vote in 2024.

The poll, which surveyed the views of voters in eight Mountain West states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada), found 67% of voters are worried about the future of land, water, and wildlife. The majority of voters view issues like loss of habitats and declining fish and wildlife populations, inadequate and polluted water supplies, microplastics, uncontrollable wildfires, air pollution, loss of pollinators, and loss of natural spaces as extreme or very serious problems in their state. 66% of voters think the effects of climate change in their state over the past 10 years are significant. The levels of concern about climate change, wildlife habitats, water supplies, pollution, and the loss of natural areas are at all-time highs over the poll’s history.

Against that backdrop, conservation is top of mind with Westerners ahead of the 2024 elections. Compared to other issues like the economy, health care, and education, 85% of voters in the West – including 74% of Republicans, 87% of Independents, and 96% of Democrats – say issues involving clean water, clean air, wildlife, and public lands are important in deciding whether to support an elected official. 37% of voters describe those issues as “very important” and the “primary factor in deciding whether to support an elected official.”

READ THE FULL STORY»

Nominations for Honorary Degree Recipients are Open

An Honorary Degree is the highest honor CC can bestow. Degrees are conferred to selected individuals at Opening Convocation in the fall and at Commencement in the spring. Degree recipients are chosen with care, following thorough evaluation by the Academic Events Committee (AEC), the President’s Cabinet, and the Board of Trustees. The honor is awarded to individuals who have rendered distinguished service to society or made extraordinary achievements in their own profession.

The AEC is currently soliciting nominations from members of the CC community for Opening Convocation and Commencement for the 2024-25 academic year. Nominations may be submitted at any time, but because the vetting process takes time, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible, especially for Opening Convocation. Please note that only CC alumni are honored as degree recipients at Opening Convocation, while individuals honored at Commencement need not be CC alumni. Other criteria for Honorary Degrees are detailed on the AEC website.

Nominations for Honorary Degrees may be submitted with this form.

If you have any questions, please contact John Horner, Chair of the AEC, 2023-24.

Fine Arts Center Corner

Conversation with Hương Ngô, Chadwick Allen, Aline Lo, and Justin Quang Nguyên Phan
As part of the FAC’s First Friday, please help us celebrate the opening of Ungrafting, Hương Ngô’s first solo exhibition in Colorado on Friday, March 1, at 5:30 p.m. Guests will be invited to engage in an informal conversation to discuss the exhibition and its connection to topics such as intergenerational knowledge transmission, the importance of land in anti-colonial movements, and the role of the archive in artistic production. Joining the artist are Chadwick Allen, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Russell F. Stark University Professor of English at the University of Washington; Aline Lo, Assistant Professor of English at CC; and Justin Phan, Assistant Professor of Global Asian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This event is free and open to the public; RSVPs are requested.

Ngô’s exhibition displays early twentieth-century photographs of foreign trees and tree grafts planted in Vietnam by the French. For her, grafting—a procedure that involves cutting and splicing different species into a single plant—serves as a powerful metaphor for the physical violence inherent in colonialism. Ngô reproduces the archival photographs using the Van Dyke method, altering the fixing process to make the images gradually deteriorate and darken.

Accompanying the photographs are other new works by Ngô, including altered reproductions of plants that were catalogued in 1919 for a French herbarium and hanging fabric works with visible sutures, as well as a selection of cultural heritage items from the FAC’s permanent collection that further speak to the history of the region.

The exhibit runs through July 24, 2024.

Photo of the Week

A performance by the CC Bluegrass Ensemble at Packard Hall, on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023.
Photo by Mila Naumovska ’26 
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Join Us for a Community Conversation on Antiracism

Come join the ADEI Leadership team in a community conversation on antiracism.

With antiracism central to CC’s mission, we can continuously uproot oppression wherever it exists, including within ourselves. A community conversation is a great tool to help us connect with each other and identify opportunities to challenge systems and attitudes that perpetuate oppression. 

This event, part of the Work of the College Series, will be held in McHugh Commons on Tuesday, March 5 at 2 p.m. Register today!
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 hopes of building trust; and (4) build community.

The Work of the College Series consists of:

  • Community Conversations (dialogue about specific topics)
  • Roadshows (presentations and Q&As)
  • Board of Trustees Town Halls (informational updates)
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Don’t Forget the Harold D. and Rhoda N. Roberts Memorial Lecture Tomorrow, February 22

TOMORROW: “What Society Needs from the Higher Education Classroom”

Be sure to join us tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 22 from 4-6 p.m. for a presentation by Bryan Dewsbury, Associate Professor of Biological Science at Florida International University. Enjoy light refreshments in Cornerstone Main Space from 4-5 p.m. before heading to the lecture in Celeste Theatre from 5-6 p.m.

Dewsbury’s talk, “What Society Needs from the Higher Education Classroom,” will explore how institutions of higher education can be more than just vehicles for social and economic promotion. For the democratic ideals of society to be realized, they must be spaces that are connected to, respectful of, and in community with the society they pledge to serve. Dewsbury will discuss the challenges and possibilities associated with this view, and the role that each of us can play in ensuring the viability and sustainability of this relationship.

This talk is generously supported through the Harold D. and Rhoda N. Roberts Memorial Lecture in the Natural Sciences endowment, which supports and enhances the teaching of science at CC.
Add this event to your calendar.
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