In 1968, Sandy Hildner (A&S’67) was among CU’s first woman Olympians after training with the men’s ski team under coach Bob Beattie. In 1967, she won the Roch Cup downhill in Aspen, Colorado (pictured), and was the U.S. National Giant Slalom Champion before racing in the Olympic women’s downhill event in Grenoble, France, the next year.

Hildner died in January 2019. On Aug. 27, 2023, she was inducted into the in Vail, Colorado.

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Photo courtesy Hildner family

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Accreditation for CU Art Museum 

After a five-year process, the CU Boulder Art Museum gained its first accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) this summer. Only about 3.5% of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums — including 26 in Colorado — have this designation. AAM awarded the art museum accreditation for its professional standards for education, public service and care of collections.

New Robotics Degrees

This fall, CU Boulder began offering a master’s and doctorate program in robotics. The program, which is one of about 15 like it in the nation, will equip students for careers in security, agriculture, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing and first response. Specific courses include “Machine Learning,” “Medical Device Design” and “Introduction to Virtual Reality.”

In Couples, Opposites Don’t Attract

A CU Boulder analysis of more than 130 traits in heterosexual couples found that partners were more likely to have traits in common than not. The study looked at data from existing and new research for millions of couples, and found that partners were most likely to be similar in about 80% to 90% of traits, which can range from preferences in politics to religion or substance use habits. 

“A lot of models in genetics assume that human mating is random. This study shows this assumption is probably wrong,” said the study’s senior author Matt Keller, who is director of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics.

The authors are studying same-sex couples in separate research. 

Heard Around Campus

“You may tip your hairdresser, but do you tip your physical therapist? Probably not, but why?” 

— CU Boulder economics professor Jeff Zax, who told CU Boulder Today this summer he believes the U.S. economy would be healthier without tipping practices and would like to see employees compensated more fairly instead. 

Old Main Beehives

In August, CU Boulder extracted two beehives from Old Main that were nearly a century old. The bees will be rehomed. 

8/15 

Date beekeeper removed the hives

80+

Years old

~20,000

Bees in both of the hives

60

Pounds of honey collected

4

Feet long (larger hive)

2024

Old Main restoration project expected to begin

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Photo courtesy University of Colorado; iStock/izusek (robot)

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