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February 22, 2010 – 11:05 am
One of the special pleasures I enjoy as president is the chance to interview tenure-track candidates who are seeking faculty positions at Colorado College. I see every one I can if I am in town.
Last year we made a very important decision during our tough budget deliberations—namely, to protect our core mission of delivering an excellent education to our students. That meant that, unlike many of our sister institutions, we recruited new faculty for every vacancy.
And we have done so again this year, conducting nationwide searches to fill six tenure track positions. What an exciting procession of candidates came through my office! While I take the opportunity to engage with these individuals, faculty search committees and the dean do the real work. Dean Susan Ashley and I confer about departmental recommendations before the offer to hire is made.
This year we made six offers in five different departments. All six of our first choices said yes. Joining us will be four women and two men. Five of our new tenure track faculty members were born abroad (in Lebanon, Egypt, Germany and two in Spain). All have excelled in graduate school in the United States. In August we will welcome a new contingent of devoted teachers and scholars who will enhance the talent and diversity of our campus community.
Now you know why I feel so excited by the recruitment and selection process.
January 28, 2010 – 8:45 am
From time to time I will see an article reporting on the impact of education on earning power. It will assert that someone with a bachelor’s degree will earn more than (fill in the blank) dollars over the course of a work life. Usually the number is a big one when compared to someone who has just made it through high school.
It may be just me, but I have never been particularly impressed by those dollar figures. Perhaps that is because I know from my own children how diverse their earning power can be. My entrepreneur son earns several times what my teacher daughter earns. Maybe it is the experience of my own career with its twists and turns, always guided by my interests and passions rather than the bottom line.
But a few weeks ago, a chart in The New York Times caught my attention. It appeared in a story on December unemployment figures, and reported the unemployment rate by educational level:
less than high school, 15.3%; high school, 10.5%; some college, 9.0% and Bachelor’s degree or higher, 5%.
I know that recent college grads are struggling in the current economy. Jobs are hard to find. Many grab at work that doesn’t fully challenge them. And they wrestle with how to repay college loans.
But these young people have learned skills and attitudes that will serve them incredibly well in the fast-changing world around them. They almost certainly will change jobs more frequently than I did, or their parents did.
But they will have jobs, even as others struggle to find work.
January 25, 2010 – 4:25 pm
We acquired a new puppy just before Christmas. Wally, named immediately by Sam, is a whoodle: a cross between a soft-coated wheaten terrier and a standard poodle. He is oatmeal colored, and adorable. Everyone who meets him is smitten.
But he IS a puppy. That means he, and his human family, need to undergo training. So for the last five weeks or so I have been reminded of the importance of discipline, predictability, using words carefully (the difference between “off” and “down”).
Trying to feed Wally at consistent times, walk him regularly and get him to bed at the same hour have reminded me that discipline is good for all of us. I am getting more regular meals, exercise and sleep.
Thanks Wally.
October 7, 2009 – 9:27 am
We just received the news that the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center has been awarded the LEED Gold designation. That is quite an achievement. And credit goes to our determined student leaders.
I remember vividly the day almost four years ago when then-Vice President Tom Nycum came to see me with a look of concern on his face. The final bids for the Cornerstone had come in significantly above our earlier estimates, and a project that had been budgeted at $25 million had ballooned to $35 million. We knew that we could not sign off on that figure. Consequently our facilities folks, working with the Mortenson Construction team, went back to pare the project down.
Our goal was to keep the major features of the building but to cut the final contract to $33 million or less. One recommendation was to eliminate the $450,000 that was earmarked for LEED. The Board of Trustees gave us the green light for the project.
But student leaders who were part of the Campus Sustainability Council questioned our decision. In their view LEED certification at the Silver level could be achieved for much less than the budgeted amount. I challenged them to put together a realistic budget, working with Stan Rovira, project coordinator for the college.
Within weeks the students came back with a budget of $125,000. Stan said he thought the numbers were solid and the goal achievable. Thus, I went back to the Board of Trustees and proposed that we approve this expenditure. They said yes.
As it happened, nearly everyone involved, from Stan and our CC facilities folks to the Mortenson team and Antoine Predock and the architects, devoted a special effort to successfully meet LEED requirements. Credit must be shared widely.
But first and foremost, credit goes to the CC students who would not abandon their effort to hold us to high standards when it comes to sustainability. They are the real Gold Medal winners on campus.
November 25, 2008 – 2:15 pm
Note: This blog entry is based on a guest column I wrote for The (Colorado Springs) Gazette.
Imagine downtown Colorado Springs with signs in five languages, and with plasma screens linking the city electronically to 24-hour news reports in different parts of the world, or live feeds showing a climber on K2, or a missionary in Orissa, India.
Why? Because that is who we are.
…continue reading “Yes, Colorado Springs is international” »»»
October 10, 2008 – 7:24 pm
With the Dow in a nosedive, Washington in a daze, and the Presidential election pushing the nasty index to new heights, my mind has turned toward food. Yes, food.
You see, while my grandmothers were dramatically different — one a first-generation Italian immigrant and the other an all-American Waspy descendant of a Civil War vet—they agreed on one thing: When things get tough, sit down over a good home-cooked meal and thank the Lord for your blessings. My grandmothers would love the core values of our new food service provider, Bon Appetit. Buy fresh food, locally grown whenever possible. Cook from scratch. Treat food as an invitation to sit down together and celebrate community.
…continue reading “Comfort Food” »»»
I’d like to keep you updated on “The Monthly Bag” and one group’s reaction to the college’s response. See my previous blog entry for the beginning of this story.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a freedom of expression advocacy group, targeted CC in March, launching a media campaign against the college. FIRE said CC administrators violated the students’ rights to freedom of expression and punished the students needlessly (though the students were never sanctioned). FIRE called for the college to remove conduct letters from the students’ files (the letters will remain in their files only until they graduate, and won’t be shared with anyone outside the college, including potential graduate schools, employers, etc.).
A second, completely new conduct committee reaffirmed the college’s findings, saying the students were in violation of the college’s conduct code, but should not be punished or sanctioned. During its regular meeting in May, the CC Board of Trustees also examined the issue, and again, supported the college’s actions.
In June, Colorado College Board of Trustees Chair David van Diest Skilling ’55 sent this letter to FIRE to communicate the board’s finding. FIRE promptly responded by placing CC on its “Red Alert” list (which also includes Brandeis University, Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University and Valdosta State University).
An interesting note: In 2007, FIRE reviewed 346 colleges and universities, and fully 96 percent of them did not pass its test for free speech (only 2% passed; 2% were unrated). From FIRE’s web site:
“Of the 346 schools reviewed by FIRE, 259 received a red-light rating (75%), 73 received a yellow-light rating (21%), and only 8 received a green-light rating (2%). Six schools did not receive any rating from FIRE. Surprisingly, public schools, which are unambiguously legally bound by the First Amendment, actually had a somewhat higher percentage of “red light” ratings; a full 79% of public schools were “red light,” 19% “yellow light”, and 2% green.”
Freedom of speech and personal safety are basic rights we all hold dear. We work hard at Colorado College to ensure both. A recent campus issue is a case in which these principles of good compete.
…continue reading “Freedom of speech and personal safety” »»»
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