Dear College of Liberal Arts community,
Happy new year! Here at CSU, we are welcoming back our students—filling the campus with life and energy. I’m grateful for this opportunity to share a few CLA updates with you and invite you to engage with this fascinating issue of our alumni magazine.
This issue, we’re trying something new: podcasts. Perhaps you are like me and love the audio medium as a way to learn what’s new. You’ll often find me listening to a podcast on long walks through Fort Collins. We’re experimenting with using podcasts to elevate the wide variety of research and creative excellence coming from our college. With the help of our very own (amazing!) Center for Science Communication, we assembled 26 short research and creative podcasts for your listening pleasure. In them, our faculty explore and uncover a wide variety of topics. For example, Associate Professor Erin Carignan (Theatre) discusses costume design's impact as a powerful, nonverbal form of storytelling, Associate Professor Mario Jimenez Chacon (Spanish) discusses how ancient pilgrimage stories mirror contemporary migration experiences, and Professor Ramaa Vasudevan (Economics) explains everyone’s need to understand finance and its relationship to social issues and power.
In other news: We are thriving here at CLA. Our undergraduate applications are up substantially not only over last year, but even over our numbers two years ago at this time—defying national trends in student demand for our disciplines. Perhaps that’s because of our longstanding tradition of teaching excellence. Our student success metrics are remarkable and our recent alumni survey data show that learning with us produces lifelong positive effects on career and well-being. We are piloting our new student experience program this year and launching an innovative, new living-learning community, Vida, in the fall. And our topics in the classroom continue to evolve: I’m entranced by the three new courses we are teaching this semester on artificial intelligence: one exploring art, creativity, and AI, another on demystifying AI through a philosophy lens, and a third at the intersection of religion and AI.
Are you an art connoisseur or an artist yourself? If so, you might be interested to learn about our recently launched inaugural President’s Art Prize – a juried competition open to current students and recent alums. The winning art will be installed in the President Parsons’ house later this semester. I’m thrilled we can provide this opportunity for young artists to gain visibility for their work.
It is a year of new prizes: In partnership with the Center for Public Deliberation and the CSU President’s office, we also just launched calls for student participation in our new Colorado Democracy Prize. This spring, student teams are invited to create projects that encourage democratic and civic engagement in the community; they can include celebrations, conversations, workshops, or volunteerism. The Colorado Democracy Prize is just one of many ways we are working here in CLA to advance our capacity for civic discourse and strengthen civic life. Speaking of: We are holding our 3rd annual Democracy Summit March 9-11. Join us here on campus if you can!
As always, thank you for your support of CLA. I hope you will help me tell the CLA story far and wide: to your alumni friends, to the people in your community, and everywhere you go. With bright energy and bold strategic thinking, we are entering an era of tremendous forward motion for this College of Liberal Arts. We couldn’t do it without you.
Sincerely,
Kjerstin Thorson, Dean
College of Liberal Arts