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Keith Molenaar

Dear CU Engineering community,

In this space last year, I wrote what I thought would be my last letter as the acting dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

While I had not originally intended to continue beyond my interim role, I realized last spring that I still had a vision for the college and a true passion for leading the CU Engineering community. I decided to put myself forward for the permanent position and was humbled and honored to be selected by the search committee and provost.

Once my selection was announced in June, I immediately got to work. In the fall, the college’s faculty and staff kicked off a strategic planning process that is helping to define our values and who we want to become as a college. We’ve identified goals we want to pursue around education, research and innovation, and inclusion, which I look forward to sharing more publicly in the coming months. I believe our alumni and friends will be proud of and excited by some of the initiatives we are pursuing.

To better support college-wide goals around diversity, equity and inclusion, we have also been working to solidify our leadership structure, including hiring two new assistant deans, who you’ll meet on page 46. We want to become leaders in engineering recruitment and retention through inclusive, innovative efforts focused on students, staff and faculty — solidifying our internal organization was a first step toward that goal.

We are also undertaking an exciting initiative to support our students who need it the most. Through the generous donations of our alumni and corporate partners, we are providing full cost of attendance at CU Boulder for all of our incoming first-generation, Pell Grant-eligible engineering students from Colorado. These students have the opportunity to make generational changes for their families and contribute to our engineering workforce with their grit. However, these students leave CU Engineering at three times the rate of our majority students. Data shows that financial need is one of the primary reasons these students don’t complete their engineering education. We can’t wait to see what these determined, hard-working students can accomplish when that barrier is removed.

We would not be able to pursue all of these goals without the support of our industry and academic partners — not to mention our alumni and research communities. “Collaboration” is the theme of this issue of CU Engineering magazine. In the following pages, you’ll meet students who have found their pathways through our partnership programs with Western Colorado and Colorado Mesa universities. You will learn about pioneering research collaborations and see how our faculty are working across campus to have real-world impact.

If you haven’t done so lately, I hope you will find a way to engage with CU Engineering in the near future. I look forward to connecting with more of our alumni and learning more about what inspires you.

Go Buffs!

Keith Molenaar
Dean