Dear colleagues. 

It is a busy time in the college! My purpose in writing today is to update you on a few key topics, which I summarize here and elaborate on below my signature.

Glen Krutz, executive dean

1. The college reorganization: Following Academic Futures, A&S now has a federal, or decentralized, structure, with discretionary authority delegated to each division, each led by a dean (CU officer) who reports to the college executive dean. We are clarifying roles and processes to finalize this reorganization, and we have hired a temporary project manager to help us complete this important institutional change.
2. A&S priorities, mission, vision and values (MVV): It is important, especially in the reorganized college, to think about our collective aims. We have started a process to consider MVV and will soon seek your input. Elements include enhancing student success, supporting faculty and staff impact, engaging the community and elevating justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.
3. Budget: The new CU budget model brings transparency and stability. It is based on net tuition revenue (NTR), support of campus services and supplementation of key programs that do not produce enough NTR. This year (FY24), A&S faced a 1.1% deficit (~$2.5 million), but we adapted and will break even in FY25. However, we are concerned that FY27 costs will exceed revenues. Hence, we are developing a cash-reserves policy and a framework for internal college allocation. 

I will send periodic updates on our progress in these areas in the coming months. I also will begin holding Coffee Chats (open time for visiting) every few weeks beginning Thursday, March 14, from 3 – 4:30 p.m. in Carlson Gym, room 108. Please consider dropping by. I look forward to talking with you!

Thank you for all you do for the college and its students.

Sincerely,

Glen Krutz
Executive Dean

College Reorganization

The university community has discussed the College of Arts and Sciences reorganization for so long that it might feel like a nebulous, unending process, despite administrators’ occasional emails that mark milestones.

I understand this. A college reorganization, especially one as significant as ours, entails many changes. At a minimum, we must ensure that the college’s central office, which provides college-wide policies, procedures and administrative support, works seamlessly with the divisions, which now have expanded decision-making and budgetary authority.

Success requires several things: shared understanding of roles and responsibilities, clear and comprehensible policies and procedures on personnel and budgetary processes, and precise guidelines about whose lane is whose.

Of course, a reorganization also involves a good number of tasks of varying complexity. All of us are busy with our regular workloads, and we have found that completing the necessary reorganization tasks, some enumerated and some not, is challenging.

That’s why I have offered Erin Cunningham Ritter, director of employee engagement, a temporary appointment as our reorganization project manager. She holds a PhD in organizational learning and change and is eager to coach us across the reorganizational finish line.

Priorities, Mission, Vision and Values

At their core, however, all these actions should reflect our priorities, mission, vision and values (MVV).

Over the last two academic years, we have emphasized several priorities in the college, including:

• Enhancing student access and success,
• Fostering faculty and staff efficacy and impact in research and teaching,
• Embracing community engagement, and
• Elevating justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (which crosscuts the three areas above)

It is important to note some encouraging metrics. After weathering the pandemic by keeping our classes available and our research and creative activity viable, even while faculty and staff hiring were halted, we’ve expanded our instructional offerings, and we are beginning to hire again.

We’ve also seen improvement in our six-year graduation rate, and we have set records in our first- to second-year retention rate and our retention rate from the first to second semester. We’ve made key investments in faculty and staff development, and we’ve seen striking success in the number and size of grants we’ve obtained. For fiscal year 2023, arts and sciences departments received sponsored awards totaling more than $113 million.

Also, we continue to make progress on the college and divisional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plans. (To learn more about the campus’ five DEI goals, visit this link). Centering the needs of and support for our faculty and staff, the college is focusing on DEI goals 1 and 4. To support our students’ development and sense of belonging, the divisions are focusing on DEI goals 2, 3 and 5.

Meanwhile, the dean’s executive leadership has been working earnestly in the last two months to complete a draft statement outlining our proposed mission, vision and values (MVV). When we finish this draft, we’ll share it with you, our colleagues, for your feedback. 

Appropriately ratified mission, vision and values statements do not, of course, dictate our course of action as we encounter challenges and opportunities that we don’t foresee. Such statements serve only as beacons, helping us judge to what extent our decisions do or do not reflect our first principles.

Budget

The new campus budget model has been implemented, and this has brought increased transparency, stability and predictability to the university budget process. After taking a budget cut in the inaugural year of the new budget model (1.1% or ~$2.5 million) last summer for FY24, the college’s fall 2023 and spring 2024 enrollments produced enough revenue relative to our costs that our FY25 (July 1, 2024–June 30, 2025) budget looks quite favorable and should break even. That said, we do have concerns, with rising costs and a coming decline in Colorado high school graduates, about future years, starting with FY27.

That makes considering two remaining budget topics all the more important—a cash-reserves policy and how our internal A&S budget allocation will work. On cash reserves, which refers to one-time funds that sit in the college separate from the budget model (which allocates continuing budget), it is important that we take stock of these, manage them well and use them for key purposes related to our priorities. The biggest category of such funding is faculty start-up costs. 

College allocation refers to how the central college appropriation that A&S receives from the budget model is divided up by the executive dean for the division and central A&S office budgets. Like the campus model, we want this process to be transparent and, in developing a framework for allocation, we need to give careful thought and intention to net tuition revenue, what we want to offer no matter what (supplementation) and the distinct character and approaches of each A&S division. Both topics are being discussed with the college leadership, faculty leaders in the Arts and Sciences Faculty Senate and staff leaders in the Staff Advisory Committee.

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It’s no great pleasure to discuss long-term stress and trauma, and that’s surely a big reason why people tend to avoid such topics. Sometimes, however, hard conversations are necessary.

One important takeaway from the messages I have received recently from faculty, staff and students is that frustrations are still festering, if not building. Faculty and staff tell me of their struggle to teach well and advance their research and creative work effectively while also trying to manage the obligations of home life. Students relate their frustrations as they’ve gone from in-person classes to fully remote, to hybrid and back to in-person classes, sometimes while struggling to remain financially stable.

Above: James W.C. White is acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Frustrations can be deep, tempers short.

It is, again, worth placing these conversations in context: In the past two years, the pandemic has claimed millions of lives globally and upended many more. More prosaically but no less importantly, it has changed the way we work and care for children and other dependents. The evidence is clear that women and faculty of color have borne a disproportionate burden in this regard.

And here, close to home, we’ve seen extraordinary devastation, with a mass shooting in south Boulder last March and in December the most devastating wildfire (as measured by destruction of homes) in Colorado history. With the recent NCAR fire, our community was threatened again, though blessedly spared. Globally, we watch in deep sadness and dismay as Russia wages a brutal war against the people of Ukraine.

This is all a lot to bear.  

There are things the university can do, and we would be wise to focus on them. A good place to start is to have open, clear and explicit conversations about coping with and recovering from long-term stress. It is tempting, of course, to skip conversations about recovery and instead to talk about “getting back to normal.” In tough times, normalcy doesn’t just reappear.

There are, of course,  for those who need help, advice or counseling. Today, I’d like to ask you to tell us what you need: If the university could help you recover from the extraordinary efforts, losses and stress of the past two years, how would that support look? Feel free to share; we are listening.

Beginning such a conversation might not be comfortable, but it is necessary. As the poet Robert Frost once wrote, “The best way out is always through.” There’s no getting around what we’ve faced and where we are. Getting through this requires that we acknowledge, understand and discuss the challenges we must overcome to fully recover. Let us begin.

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As one expert observes, 'Rapid technological change makes the case for (academic) breadth even stronger. A four-year college degree should prepare students for the next 40 years of working life, and for a future that none of us can imagine.'

You’d expect Forbes, the iconic business magazine, to herald careers in finance. You might not expect Forbes to argue that a liberal-arts education is not only a good way, but, in fact, the best way to launch a career in finance. Yet it did just that.

I write to share this and other things should be unsurprising. A sizeable body of research shows the enduring value of a liberal-arts education.

Writing in  in August 2021, George Malkin, quantitative finance program director at the Stevens Institute of Technology, noted that college graduates who earn degrees in engineering, science and technology tend to earn higher starting salaries than those who study, say, English, history or sociology. 

But in the field of finance, he contends, success depends on “the ability to cast a broad net and to understand and stay open to events and developments in all areas of the economy. And to see and understand the interconnections.”

 

A knowledge of history is a permanent asset. Skill in a language is a permanent asset. The liberal arts are the edge that students are looking for, the best foundation for a successful career in the finance industry.”

He gives an example: You’re working in the financial sector and want to understand the financial prospects of the Ford Motor Company. Ford’s future is affected, in part, by the European Union, Italian banks, Italian politics, German history, Brexit, the Treaty of Rome, World War II, Bismarck, Italian and German unifications in 1871, Gibbons’ Decline and Fall, the Medici, opera and Dante.

Malkin then poses a rhetorical question: “What sort of education does this call for?” 

Hint: It’s not an education that focuses only (or largely) on technical skills. The marketability of specific technical skills, he notes, wanes with time, as new tech skills—and younger workers—gain favor. 

“Critical thinking, on the other hand, is a permanent asset,” Malkin writes. “A knowledge of history is a permanent asset. Skill in a language is a permanent asset. The liberal arts are the edge that students are looking for, the best foundation for a successful career in the finance industry.”

I outline his reasoning here because it contradicts what counts as conventional wisdom, that a liberal-arts education might not be a gateway to a successful career. Particularly now, old myths about the liberal arts are destructive.

During the pandemic, some prospective students who wanted to go to college were forced by the tough economic reality to take jobs instead. Many of those would-be students come from underrepresented populations, such as those who would be the first in their families to go to college. 

They might embrace the conventional wisdom about the “return on investment”—or ROI—of college degrees, and they might choose not to study a discipline that ignites their intellectual passion. That would be not only their loss, but also ours.

I have made this point before, but it bears repeating: People with college degrees—regardless of whether those degrees were in the arts and humanities, social sciences or natural sciences—enjoy  than the rest of the workforce.

Additionally, getting a college degree has a good ROI: On average, college graduates  over the course of their careers than those who have only a high-school diploma, the Brookings Institution figures.

 

A 2021 survey of employers from a range of backgrounds and industries found that employers want to hire people whose college education engaged students in “forms of inquiry that train the intellect through a focus on real-world problems that draw the learner into relationship with others.”

Yes, students who major in scientific, technological, engineering or mathematical (STEM) fields tend to earn higher salaries than those in the arts and humanities. It’s also true that starting salaries of students who majored in the arts and humanities tend to be lower than starting salaries in the natural sciences.

But as multiple studies of graduates show, those gaps tend to narrow and even reverse over time. By the time they are in their 50s and 60s, people with liberal-arts degrees out-earned those who held degrees in professional or pre-professional fields such as nursing, business or education, according to a 2014 study from the Association of American College and Universities (AACU). 

More recent research reinforces these findings. 

A 2021 AACU survey of employers from a range of backgrounds and industries found that employers want to hire people whose college education engaged students in “forms of inquiry that train the intellect through a focus on real-world problems that draw the learner into relationship with others.”

In short, employers want employees with a liberal-arts background. 

“We know—and can demonstrate—that a liberal education prepares students for success throughout their working lives, in addition to fulfilling the broader democratic mission of American higher education,” the AACU stated.

Similarly, a  by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, found that the three attributes of college graduates that employers considered most important were written communication, problem-solving and the ability to work in a team, skills inculcated in the liberal arts. 

The “Project Oxygen” studies by Google, which identified the best attributes of its managers, echoed those results. 

David Demig, director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, has done extensive research on the earnings and employment of students with STEM backgrounds vs. those with liberal-arts backgrounds. 

 

Even on narrow vocational grounds, a liberal-arts education has enormous value because it builds a set of foundational capacities that will serve students well in a rapidly changing job market,” Demig wrote, adding that he does not mean to discourage students from pursuing STEM degrees if they choose. 

Writing in The New York Times in 2019,  that higher education should emphasize the development of the whole person, that it should not be viewed as mere job training. 

“But even on narrow vocational grounds, a liberal-arts education has enormous value because it builds a set of foundational capacities that will serve students well in a rapidly changing job market,” Demig wrote, adding that he does not mean to discourage students from pursuing STEM degrees if they choose. 

Rather, he argues for a view toward the future. “Rapid technological change makes the case for breadth even stronger. A four-year college degree should prepare students for the next 40 years of working life, and for a future that none of us can imagine.”

This is a critical point: A liberal arts education helps humanity by cultivating compassionate thinkers who open doors to better careers and a brighter future for themselves, but who also improve access generally—to research, education or fundamental resources. In this edition, we meet some of those people who have both benefited from access and are increasing access for future students.

Rapidly, fundamentally and, it seems, ever more unpredictably, our world is changing. To adapt to the challenges ahead, we will need the full range of well-educated citizens—scientists, engineers, economists, sociologists, political scientists, businesspeople, historians and poets—from all backgrounds and walks of life. 

The job market (and the world) needs all of them, working together, in collaboration. As the data show, no surprise, today’s liberal-arts education opens doors to a brighter and better tomorrow. You might believe otherwise. My advice is simple: Think again.

James W.C. White is acting dean of the CU Boulder College of Arts and Sciences. 

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We know many of you are struggling, and we write to offer our sympathy, empathy and support.

Yesterday, we witnessed yet another tragedy, this time in our backyard; 10 people were killed at the Table Mesa King Soopers in south Boulder. We know many of you are struggling, and we write to offer our sympathy, empathy and support.

Too many times before, we have seen this terrible sequence of events. Mass killings are so common that they can seem to be a fixture in our lives. But this is not ok. We must not normalize this violence. What happened yesterday in our community is a horror that none of us should have to accept, overlook or tolerate.

As the  to the campus yesterday, we should recognize the horror and gravity of what we have witnessed and what the victims’ families now are forced to endure. And we—all of us—are called upon to treat each other with extra care, concern and empathy.

 

We want to help, and we encourage you all to help each other."

One way we can show such care and compassion is to be flexible with colleagues, students and others who need flexibility if they miss class or work to cope with the impacts of this tragedy. 

We encourage anyone who needs support to use the resources we have here on the CU Boulder campus. Those resources include:

• , which offers 24/7 phone support for students, faculty and staff,
• Trauma and advocacy support through the , which offers 24/7 phone support for students, 
• The , and,
• The  at the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience,
• Embedded therapists for the College of Arts and Sciences. 

We know this crime leaves more than just a gaping hole in the lives of the victims’ families. It burdens us with sadness, confusion and unanswerable questions. We want to help, and we encourage you all to help each other. If you see ways in which we could help more than we are, please contact us. We will do our best to respond quickly and helpfully.

We stand with you in this time of grief and sorrow.

Sincerely,

James W.C. White
Interim Dean

On behalf of of the college administration

Sophia Duax and Mariah Chao

Vice President and President, Arts and Sciences Student Government 

Image at top of page: A mourner pays her respects at a memorial in front of the Table Mesa King Soopers in Boulder. Photo By Glenn Asakawa.

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As is always the case during significant crises, we need more dynamic, well-rounded critical thinkers

I won’t sugar-coat it: These are uniquely challenging times. 

When the novel coronavirus burst into the human world, we were all already vulnerable. Now, in one way or another, we are all affected. 

Like other sectors of our economy, higher education has been hit, with nationwide enrollment declining this fall by about 2.5%, and CU Boulder’s decline is about the same. Some evidence suggests that uncertainty—about the job market, the economy, the value of higher education—is taking a bite out of college enrollment this year. That is unfortunate. But today’s uncertainty is precisely why today is the time to pursue higher education.

James W.C. White, interim dean of the college, soaks up the scenery in the foothills above Boulder. 

The looming questions humans faced before 2020—a better economy for all, human rights, racism, climate change, effective self-governance and human health—are still with us. So, too, are new conundrums about how to help people wracked by the pandemic and an economy that is partly in tatters.

As is always the case during significant crises, we need more dynamic, well-rounded critical thinkers. And the place that helps those rising stars meet their potential is here, in college. 

I know some people believe that a traditional liberal-arts education—which exposes students to a broad range of disciplines in the natural sciences, social sciences and arts and humanities—is less important in such times than degrees in technical arts or applied sciences.

We will, of course, need workers in technical fields, applied sciences and natural sciences. But we will need more. We will need geographers, linguists, classicists, historians, sociologists, artists, philosophers and writers. We will need interdisciplinary specialists who can speak intelligently with all of them.

The solutions to problems in the realm of the environment, human health, democratic institutions and others will surely involve science, engineering and technology. But the solutions will be propelled by and honed with a clear understanding of social sciences and the humanities.

A liberal-arts education—one that exposes students to the breadth of human knowledge—conveys skills in critical thinking, communication and adaptability. These are desperately needed skills. The alumni, researchers and teachers we profile in this edition exemplify these strengths.

So, if someone you know is having second thoughts about college, thinking that the time and tuition are not justified, please share two words from me: Think again.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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My fellow Buffs, we will get through this together.

You must be exhausted. I am, and I would like to pause to reflect on how these are times that try our patience, our good humor, and to quote Thomas Paine, our souls.

James W.C. White

The pandemic constrains daily life. As students, you have had to adapt to quickly to changing requirements about how you study, where you can go and whom you can meet. You deal with this as you study in isolation or maintain a small measure of social interaction through the sterile medium of Zoom. You bear criticism heaped on you by those who attribute the errors of a culpable few to the blameless many.

On top of that, you confront real concerns about a pernicious, deadly disease.

 

Many if not most of us feel anxiety about what has already happened, what may come and grief for what—and who—has been lost."

Meanwhile, our economy falters and unemployment remains too high. The nation has seen massive, overdue protest of systemic and often violent racism. Political discourse is coarser, harsher and less productive for us, the people, each day. Hope for a brighter tomorrow can seem downright elusive.

These are tough times for higher education. Many if not most of us feel anxiety about what has already happened, what may come and grief for what—and who—has been lost. If you have such feelings, you are not alone. When I meet with other deans across the country, I hear eerily similar stories to ours at CU. We are all in this mess together.

That being said, I know that any message of concern from the university administration can be greeted with suspicion. After I’ve sent other messages expressing care and concern, I’ve heard messages like these: “If you care so much, cut my tuition,” or, “Why did you hold in-person classes in the first place?” 

If you have such a reaction, I do understand your frustration. But I also understand your grief and exhaustion. I feel them, too.

My fellow Buffs, we will get through this together. I believe that in unity is strength and that as a community of scholars we are stronger than we may think. Thank you for being with us on this long, strange, exhausting trip. It may not be over yet, but one day it will be. I’m looking forward to it.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.

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You can show the country that Buffs can handle anything, including a pandemic

You have the distinction of going to college in extraordinary times. You don’t need me to tell you this, of course. Headline writers describe the new school year with adjectives like “grim” and “frightening.” 

You might view the fall semester with trepidation. That’s OK. Some fear can be healthy and make us more aware of our surroundings. To effectively handle COVID-19, we must be smart, careful and alert for bad behavior—which we all need to call out when we see it. We all are responsible for the health and safety of the university community. 

For daily life on campus, this means observing rules including the following:

• wear a mask in public places on campus, indoors and outdoors
• wash hands frequently with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds (long enough to sing “Happy Birthday” twice) each time
• stay at least six feet apart from others and
• stay home when you are sick.

As the campus has noted, all students must take a on the Canvas learning platform before arriving on campus. Students living in the residence halls had to take a COVID-19 test before moving in. And before coming to campus each day, students, faculty and staff must complete a Daily Health Form, which helps us prevent the spread of illness.

The assistant dean of students has explained how you can have a safe and successful semester, and a reminder with additional information  was sent out to all students. The whole campus wants to Protect Our Herd.

 

Simply put, this semester will be a referendum of sorts on the character of the CU Boulder community, its students, staff and faculty.​"

This much is clear: It takes more foresight and care to stay safe in a pandemic. Nonetheless, some view safety measures as a hassle or, in extreme cases, an infringement of personal liberty. 

As the well-worn saying notes, your rights end at my nose. That’s why it’s distressing to see reports of unsafe behavior in cities and towns and universities nationwide. This week, The Washington Post reported on a party involving hundreds of students—most not wearing masks—near the University of North Georgia. The story noted similar mass gatherings of university students in Alabama and Oklahoma. 

The story’s headline read:

Not behaving safely has consequences, such as these: Last week, the University of Northern Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michigan State University canceled all in-person classes. The University of Notre Dame suspended in-person classes for two weeks.

Here at CU Boulder, you have the advantage of learning from the recent past at other universities. Absorbing those lessons—which means being vigilantly safe and socially distant—will help ensure that you enjoy a successful semester in trying times.

But success is largely in your hands. Simply put, this semester will be a referendum of sorts on the character of the CU Boulder community, its students, staff and faculty. You can reject the behavior that’s making headlines across the nation. You can show the country that Buffs can handle anything, including a pandemic. In so doing, you will help to ensure that in-person classes are not canceled, and that everyone may enjoy the most productive semester possible. 

My faith and trust are in you. Protect the herd.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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Universities are designed to examine boundaries

As you may know, John Eastman, the 2020-21 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy at the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, has published an essay in Newsweek arguing that Kamala Harris might not be eligible to be vice president of the United States.

James W.C. White, interim dean of the college, soaks up the scenery in the foothills above Boulder. 

There are two issues here that we as academics must be careful to separate. One is academic freedom. The other is academic responsibility. 

Eastman makes the following academic argument: that the question of whether the 14th Amendment provides for citizenship for anyone born in this country, regardless of the status of their parents, has never been explicitly decided by the U.S. Supreme Court (other than the obvious situations such as foreign diplomats or of children born of alien enemies in hostile occupation). 

 

As academics, we are free and should feel free to posit controversial arguments."

While most argue that this question was decided in , and the common practice today is citizenship by birth, it is valid to note that the meaning of “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment has never been explicitly addressed by the Supreme Court. For context, citizenship by birth is not universal throughout the countries of the world. While common in the Americas, it is uncommon in the rest of the world.

As academics, we are free and should feel free to posit controversial arguments. And as academics, we are bound to support each other in that pursuit. To denounce Professor Eastman merely for making an argument about the interpretation of the 14th Amendment is, I believe, wrong. And, frankly, it plays into the hands of those who falsely argue that higher education is too liberal and intolerant of any ideas that are outside the liberal mainstream. 

However, as academics we should not pretend that theories and ideas we propound will always be used appropriately. Indeed, it is our responsibility to speak out when ideas that we have put forth are employed to advance agendas such as racism. And it is just such a misappropriation of an idea that is happening here. 

Some in our society are taking Professor Eastman's argument and weaponizing it in the hope of selectively excluding people whose racial identity is anything other than white. As academics, we must speak out when our academic arguments are used inappropriately, and clearly and robustly deny that our arguments should give any credence to agendas as abhorrent as racism.  

We should follow the example of the editors of Newsweek, who now clearly acknowledge that Eastman’s opinion piece can be and is being used inappropriately to buttress a racist agenda. It’s one thing to accurately advance a debatable point of constitutional law. It’s quite another to use that argument to advance a racist agenda.

Universities are designed to examine boundaries. But when we do so, we must be thoughtful about how we react to the inevitable fallout. To denounce Eastman simply for what he wrote is wrong. To say nothing about his writings’ real-world effects is also wrong. 

I believe the appropriate action is to call on all of us—including Professor Eastman—to denounce those who use his academic arguments to advance a racist agenda. Doing so respects his right, and indeed all of our rights, to explore difficult and contentious ideas. 

Taking that step also acknowledges our duty as academics to accept responsibility when others use academically defensible facts to make grossly inappropriate arguments, and to call them out for it, clearly and forcefully.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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Let us use this time of pandemics and protest to refocus on that vitally important part of our mission, to try harder to fully realize what our nation hails as self-evident truths

I often point out the benefits of a college education, especially a liberal-arts education. A highlights yet another reason to get an education beyond high school.

James W.C. White, interim dean of the college, soaks up the scenery in the foothills above Boulder. 

The data show that college-educated students are faring much better, with half the unemployment rate of others in this COVID-19 era.

 

The nation’s racial divide and related socioeconomic disparities are being made more obvious by COVID-19,"

One privilege accorded more often to college-educated people is the ability to work from home. Some 20% of high school graduates can work from home, whereas 63% of college graduates can work from home. While that is good news for college-educated workers, it also needs to be pointed out that college-educated workers are enjoying a privilege, one that they may not recognize. Those who work from home can do so because others with less education and lower pay make that possible. 

Too many of us attend our daily Zoom meetings in the relative safety of our homes without thinking about—let alone acknowledging—those who must labor to deliver packages to our doorsteps, process our food, operate our utilities and maintain the internet. Those who do such work risk viral infection to maintain financial health. And those who enable work from home to be possible are also more likely to be Black and Latinx.  

The nation’s racial divide and related socioeconomic disparities are being made more obvious by COVID-19, both to privileged communities and unprivileged communities. That is in one respect a good thing. Privilege is most insidious when it lurks in the shadows. When it is thrust into the light and carefully examined, all of its dimensions and implications become clear.  

The United States abolished slavery in the 1860s. But that’s not the end of the story. Ask a historian, or, better yet, take a history class. That way, you’ll learn (or be reminded) of the failure of Reconstruction, the “separate but equal” fiction of Plessy v. Ferguson, the American apartheid of Jim Crow laws, and the still-unfulfilled promises of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s. Racism and racists never left us. It is long past time they did.

At the university, we are in the business of providing education and producing those college graduates who enjoy a privileged place in our society. That is a good thing, one that yields advantages and pathways for all, most critically underrepresented peoples and first-generation students. Let us use this time of pandemics and protest to refocus on that vitally important part of our mission, to try harder to fully realize what our nation hails as self-evident truths.

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We launch this campaign to help our college family be well and stay well

“How are you?” 

Normally, that rote inquiry precedes a ready response: “I’m well.”

Today, however, we grapple with the global pandemic, record unemployment, political polarization and historic levels of protest of our citizens’ long history of unequal (and lethal) treatment under the law on the basis of race. 

So an exchange of conversational pleasantries bears the weight of the moment. Were we to reply honestly, our response would often be something other than “well.”

The college hopes to help. Today, we launch a campaign called “twelve months of wellness,” part of our Be Well initiative for students and employees. We are doing so because it is critical to maintain—and improve—individual wellness.

 

Buffaloes, and those who protect them, signify the determination to survive and to rebound in times of crushing adversity"

Be Well, summarized at this link, aims to help our college family

• understand and implement self-care strategies and resources to improve wellness, and
• learn of faculty research related to health and wellbeing.

We launch this campaign to help our college family be well and stay well.

Honoring the animals who once epitomized the Great Plains, members of the CU Boulder community call themselves Buffaloes. That is fitting. Buffaloes are survivors, despite the fact that men hunted them nearly to extinction. 

Buffaloes can symbolize hope, because the buffalo endures, even in the rapidly changing world to which it must constantly adapt. Buffaloes, and those who protect them, signify the determination to survive and to rebound in times of crushing adversity. And there’s a ripple effect. When buffaloes thrive, so does their habitat. 

In an observation well suited to our day, the late Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to be elected chief of the Cherokee Nation, noted that buffalo face adversity head on:

“Cows run away from the storm, while the buffalo charges toward it—and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo.”  

As Buffs, let’s meet that challenge together.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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