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Dear colleagues,

As we enter another academic year at CU Boulder—my first as chancellor—I’m excited to get fully immersed in the university’s academic mission.

The university has so many top-tier programs across numerous disciplines—a testament to the intellect and dedication of all of you who have chosen to make CU Boulder your academic home. The strength of the academic enterprise, the impacts this university is already making on individuals and communities, and its tremendous potential for the future are among the many reasons I was drawn to this institution.

I’m especially interested in academic work that brings together expertise around challenges that defy strict categorization—topics like quantum technology, poverty, immigration, public health, and sustainability. These are only a few of the important arenas where CU Boulder is having, and will continue to have, important impact.

As one example, this fall I am excited to explore how we might create new programs in sustainability at the graduate and undergraduate levels as we further incorporate sustainability into our common curriculum—building on the great work that’s already been done here. Sustainability is an area of study where the campus already excels, and the time is ripe to further expand and strengthen our educational offerings in this area while weaving equity and justice into our pedagogy.

If we pull on this thread, we can begin to imagine how a topic of inquiry could extend even further into a student’s CU Boulder experience. How can the co-curricular activities we offer intersect and reinforce our educational aims? How can the huge, global issues that we in higher education aim to solve permeate into every aspect of a student’s experience?

I suspect many of you agree with this holistic emphasis. I am very excited to see interdisciplinary teaching, research and creative work as a major pillar of CU Boulder. I’m eager to investigate how we can more closely connect and combine our efforts, remove administrative burdens, elevate and support the approaches that work, and allow interdisciplinary education to flourish.

I also want to make clear my commitment to improving the representation and inclusion of diverse identities and perspectives on our campus. I want to empower a campus culture that helps our students, faculty and staff engage constructively with the many ideas, perspectives and conflicts of our society.

I want to see CU Boulder improve its relationships with diverse communities in Colorado and beyond. I also want us to rapidly strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion outcomes at CU Boulder by clearly communicating how we are addressing our challenges, including equity gaps in student and employee success, lack of community, barriers to access and inclusion, and being transparent about our progress toward goals, especially where the progress has not been enough.

Those are just a few of the ideas on my mind as I consider the strengths and evolution of CU Boulder’s academic mission. I know you’ll have others.

That’s why I’m embarking on a campuswide listening tour this fall to hear comments and suggestions from faculty and staff in all of our colleges, schools and units. I’ll share more details as the schedule is finalized.

While the listening sessions won’t be focused solely on academics—all topics are open for discussion—I hope you’ll bring your thoughts and ideas about our campus’s academic mission to the conversation.

Thank you all for your contributions to CU Boulder’s past, present and future successes. Wishing you a happy and healthy academic year.

Sincerely,

Justin Schwartz
Chancellor