College of Arts and Sciences

Protesters taking freedom of assembly to the streets

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 22:15:23 +0000

Protesters taking freedom of assembly to the streets Rachel Sauer Thu, 06/12/2025 - 16:15

Rachel Sauer

CU 51��ý conflict scholar Michael English explains why public protests matter and what they can mean in the current political and social moment

One of the most storied protests in U.S. history happened Dec. 16, 1773, when a group of Massachusetts colonists, angry with British tax policy, dressed in Indigenous garb, boarded British East India Company ships anchored in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water—the infamous Boston Tea Party.

In response, however, British authorities did not amend tax policies but instead closed the harbor.

“If you look at the way we talk about the Boston Tea Party, here’s this event that we don’t generally describe as starting a revolution from violence,” says Michael English, director of the University of Colorado 51��ý Peace, Conflict and Security Program. “We start with people dressing up and doing this mass protest where they destroy some business owner’s property, which is something we’ve historically tended not to support.

CU 51��ý scholar Michael English, director of the Peace, Conflict and Security Program, is a specialist in conflict analysis and resolution.

“Then, in the 1780s, we get Shay’s Rebellion, where poor debtor farmers come into Boston to try to preserve what’s left of their farms, and the state raises a militia to put down this protest. Throughout our history, things bubble up and then there’s this backlash. It’s just an interesting quirk of this country that we embrace protest and hate protest.”

That central tension of public protest has been above the fold this week as federal troops have been called in to respond to Los Angeles protests over ICE raids and as No Kings protests are planned in cities across the country Saturday.

What does it mean when people gather to protest—a right enshrined in the First Amendment? English recently considered this and other questions in a conversation with Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine.

Question: Do public protests matter or make a difference?

English: A protest is something that, at least from a scholarly perspective, is there to send a message to people in power. As someone sympathetic to protest as a great American tradition, I have to say yes, protest matters. What does it do? That’s a more open question. In some sense, it can start us thinking about whether protest itself is the goal, or whether we want it to lead to something more.

Take the No Kings protests—is the goal to get President Trump to change a specific policy? It doesn’t appear to be so, and that’s not how protest organizers are framing it. Instead, it seems to be, ‘We want to bring a whole lot of people out to express that we are very unhappy about the direction of our country and what appears, to people sympathetic to the protests, as this power consolidation within the executive (branch).’ If millions and millions participate Saturday and we have protests on the scale of Black Lives Matter or Occupy Wall Street or protests against the war in Iraq—if they are able to bring those people out—did this protest do what it set out to do?

If that happens, I think we could answer yes. If they bring a lot of people out and the protests stay nonviolent and not a whole lot of negative things are associated with them, then we can begin to explore whether this is part of something larger, or whether it is this just a one-off thing that sent a message?

Question: Has what’s happening in Los Angeles, with federal troops called in to respond to public protest over ICE raids, brought a new layer to current protest?

English: These are new times, yes, but in some ways, there are parallels in the past. The National Guard has been called out at different points—in fact, Gavin Newsom did invoke the National Guard during Black Lives Matter protests, which is not even that far in the past. What’s happening now in Los Angeles does raise really interesting questions. When you look at movements in the past and look at the military being deployed, it’s usually been in service of the movement—school desegregation or Johnson enforcing the Voting Rights Act. These were actions in favor of the movement. Then there’s everything after, which has been the National Guard being sent out to quell unrest.

California National Guard members and protesters in Los Angeles in June 2025. (Photo: U.S. Northern Command)

In Los Angeles, there wasn’t actually a lot of unrest until you started bringing more and more force in, whether that’s more police, then the National Guard, then threat of the Marines. That’s a real thing we should worry about, because it does create a mirroring tension where people may escalate because they feel that those on the other side of them are prepared for confrontation.

Question: Is nonviolence still central to public protest in the United States?

English: I would say yes, there still seems to be a fairly significant commitment to nonviolence. But the further we get away from the civil rights framing of nonviolent protest, the harder it is for people to understand what that means and what goes into it. We’ve seen that the discipline between people participating in these events now seems to break down a little quicker, and there isn’t the same build-up over time of participants receiving training to participate (in nonviolent protest). There are some really interesting videos of James Lawson getting civil rights protestors ready for the freedom rides, and the training was they basically beat you up to make sure you wouldn’t respond. If you couldn’t do that, you weren’t going to get sent into that situation.

I think for the most part people are still committed to nonviolence as a strategy to bring social change, but in the same breath I can say that there’s always been a kind of violent contingent associated with protests in the past.

It’s easy to assume, when we look backwards, that we can tell a rosy story of civil rights movement, but we would be missing episodes that weren’t so friendly. If you look at Black Lives Matter protests, 95% of those protests were nonviolent, but the ones that get our attention are always the ones where violence occurs, and that’s just how movements work. Organizers of movements can certainly intervene, and you see that in the No Kings messaging, this attempt to say, ‘We need to police this; these are strategies for helping people who seem disruptive or are not at the same level of discipline.’ It gets back to the question of whether everyone who’s participating in a protest is on the same page and, if not, is public protest the best strategic choice for the movement?

Question: How have social media affected or changed how public protest happens?

English: It’s a real mixed bag at the moment. On the one hand, I watched the Arab Spring protests on my computer at work—I watched the protests in Tahrir Square and watched these folks engage across Facebook at the time—and that was super powerful, I’ll never forget that. And social media played an important role in the movement because young people knew how to use it and it gave them an advantage against regimes that, at the time, did not understand and just wanted to dismiss it outright. I would say the same thing about Occupy Wall Street and the first generation of Black Lives Matter when we were protesting the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown. Social media was really powerful there.

"A protest is something that, at least from a scholarly perspective, is there to send a message to people in power," says CU 51��ý conflict researcher Michael English. (Photo: Pexels)

But then we see this shift past 2016, where social media starts to feel super performative to people. I have students tell me that in one sense it’s great because they learn about things they didn’t know were going on, but on the other hand, yeah, you could post a picture or a video but didn’t really have to do anything about it. So that’s one critique, that it makes movements seem performative and like something people are just doing for an afternoon for social clout.

Now that we know so much of social media is being scraped by authorities to identify who people are and all of this kind of network tracing, it puts people who participate in movements in real danger if they’re careless with their social media. You’re making a record of something that who knows how it’s going to be used in future. It's certainly going to change how movements go forward, so it’s good that we’re having these conversations now when there’s real concern among people over whether they can participate—whether they feel they can participate—knowing somebody could scan your movements and identify you as having been there.

Question: How do you respond to the argument that protest doesn’t accomplish anything and change only happens by running for public office and creating policy?

English: I would say it depends on what the point of the movement is. With some movements or protests, depending on how the message is being put out there, the end goal may be that we’re showing our discontent now, with the idea that we’re going to support certain people running for political office or pressure legislators on a particular policy. But this can get complicated when the routine methods of forcing political change don’t seem like they’re working or seem really far off. I mean, the mid-terms are more than a year and a half away; how much impact does protest this weekend have for political office in a year and a half?

So, I come back to the idea of protest as building that collective solidarity, letting people know there are others who are upset and there is strength in numbers. Then I wonder what happens when we do find that redline issue that really upsets people. I think right now we’re still waiting for a redline issue—the thing this or any president wants to do that a majority of American people don’t support and don’t want.

The amazing thing about studying social movements is the speed at which they can escalate is really unpredictable and can be really intense. If you look at Black Lives Matter, for instance, that pushed a ton of young people to become interested and run for office. So, it could be the case that people leave this protest (Saturday) and they’re like, ‘I really want to make a difference and really want to ensure there’s a different kind of political majority in office come the next election cycle.’

Where it gets tricky is if nobody is pushing that message, or if the message is that there’s no way change can happen through the existing political system, then people might dig into cynicism and say it all just needs to collapse. We do need that central conflict because conflict is good, conflict is normal; we just don’t want the violence. Violence is where we have something that’s clearly gone wrong. But people coming out and expressing that they’re angry and upset? That’s what we want in a democratic society.

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CU 51��ý conflict scholar Michael English explains why public protests matter and what they can mean in the current political and social moment.

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Alum’s resumé: veterinarian, reality TV star, stand-up comic

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 17:15:10 +0000

Alum’s resumé: veterinarian, reality TV star, stand-up comic Rachel Sauer Mon, 06/09/2025 - 11:15

Bradley Worrell

As he muses about conservation, 1970s 51��ý and how Keith Richards prompted him to finish his college career, Kevin Fitzgerald still has his sights on crafting the perfect joke

Did you hear the one about the veterinarian who is also a stand-up comedian?

It’s no joke.

It’s the very real-life story of University of Colorado 51��ý alum Kevin Fitzgerald, who is a staple of the Denver comedy scene and who has opened for such nationally recognized acts as Joan Rivers, George Lopez, Jeff Foxworthy and Saturday Night Live alums Kevin Nealon and Norm Macdonald.

CU 51��ý alumnus Kevin Fitzgerald (right) with the late Norm Macdonald (left), for whom Fitzgerald opened. (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald has spent the past four decades working as a Denver veterinarian who specializes in treating exotic animals and has become something of a celebrity as one of the featured vets on Animal Planet’s popular TV series “Emergency Vets.”

Fitzgerald is also a wildlife conservationist—and with the recent publication of his autobiography It Started with a Turtle—he adds “published author” to his growing list of job titles.

The Denver native enjoys talking about his experiences as a comedian and a veterinarian, but most of all he enjoys reminiscing about his time at CU 51��ý, where he earned his undergraduate, master’s and PhD degrees. He says the lessons he learned in the classrooms—and in the local music venues where he worked security—shaped him into the man he is today.

“51��ý is a magical place,” he says. “51��ý has a different feel than other college towns—and the campus is absolutely beautiful. I first visited when I was in high school and I decided then and there that it was the place for me.”

Raised in a working class home, Fitzgerald says receiving a scholarship for being on the swim team made it possible for him to be able to attend college starting in 1969.

For his undergraduate degree, Fitzgerald majored in biology, and he credits biology Professor Dick Jones; Professor Hobart Smith, then chairman of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Professor David Chiszar, who was an internationally renowned herpetologist known for his work with rattlesnakes; and history Professor Charles “Chuck” Middleton, whom Fitzgerald says made history come alive, with being mentors.

“Even back then, CU 51��ý was known as a party school, but if you wanted to, you could get a great education there,” he says. “They didn’t so much teach you as inspire you. I had wonderful mentors who wanted me to succeed.”

Fitzgerald says his initial plan upon entering college was to get his bachelor’s degree from CU 51��ý and then attend Colorado State University to receive a veterinary degree. However, there was a waiting list to get into the CSU veterinarian program at the time, so Fitzgerald says Jones convinced him to continue pursuing his education at CU 51��ý by obtaining his master’s and PhD degrees, which he did.

“I’m still reaping the benefits of that wonderful education every day,” he says.

Working security for a hamburger and $1.35 an hour

To earn extra money for school, not long after arriving on the 51��ý campus Fitzgerald took a job working for Chuck Morris (the future CEO/president of national concert promoter AEG Live), who hosted concerts at local music venues including Tulagi and The Sink.

“There were so many great venues in 51��ý at the time,” Fitzgerald recalls. “There was Tulagi, the Blue Note, The Olympic, Shannon’s, the Good Earth and J.J. McCabes. The music venues were legendary—and they hosted a lot of great bands before they became famous. Not just rock bands, but soul bands and country bands, so there was something for everyone. There was just so much great music.”

Kevin Fitzgerald has been a staple of the Denver comedy scene for many years. (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Fitzgerald’s job working as a bouncer for local music venues led to jobs working security for concert promoters Bill Graham and Barry Fey, who produced nationwide shows featuring musical acts including The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, The Eagles, The Who, Jethro Tull and The Rolling Stones.

Years later, Fitzgerald still recalls Fey’s simple job pitch: “I’m going to pay you a buck-thirty-five an hour and give you a hamburger every shift and you’re going to meet more girls than Frank Sinatra.”

Fitzgerald says he has many fond memories of those times and particularly of the bands who performed—especially The Rolling Stones, who he says never forgot their roots and gave selflessly for some special fans.

“Back in the day, before handicapped seating was widely made available, people in wheelchairs didn’t get good seats at concerts and they were stigmatized by making them all sit together. It was awful,” he recalls. “So, before every show The Rolling Stones did, Mick Jagger would ask me: ‘How many (handicapped) chairs are there, and in which section, Kevin?’

“‘I’d say, ‘23 chairs and they’re in section three.’

“Jagger would grab 23 cassette tapes and 23 concert T-shirts. He’d put a towel over his head or put a hoodie up and he’d personally go to the wheelchair section and hand out a cassette tape and a T-shirt to each person. He’d say, ‘Thanks a million for coming; we couldn’t do it without you,’” Fitzgerald recalls. “He didn’t do it as a photo op; he specifically kept himself covered up so the rest of the concertgoers wouldn’t know what he was up to.

“People can say whatever they want about The Rolling Stones, about Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but they didn’t forget where they came from,” he adds. “And Mick would always say, ‘We’re blessed. You know, Kevin, we can’t forget how lucky we are.’ That really made an impression on me.”

What’s more, Fitzgerald credits Richards with prompting him to go back to college to get his veterinary degree.

“I remember we were in Philadelphia for a show, with more tour dates coming up, and I was unsure what I should be doing with my life. I was talking about it with my boss, Jimmy Callahan, who was the head bouncer, and he said, ‘Why don’t you ask Keith?’

“I knew Keith, so I asked him: ‘Should I stick with you guys, or should I go back to school?’

“And Keith said, ‘Oh, no, go back to school. Do you really want to be a bouncer at (age) 50?’

“When Keith Richards says something, he’s the coolest cat in the world. So, I got on a plane and I came back to Denver,” Fitzgerald says. “My brother picked me up at the airport, and I said, ‘Keith told me to get a grip on my life and go back to school.’ And my brother said, ‘Well, when Keith says something, you better do it.’ So, I applied to veterinarian school again and I got in.”

Becoming a vet … and a reality TV star

Kevin Fitzgerald has been a veterinarian in Denver for the past four decades and is one of the featured vets on Animal Planet’s popular TV series “Emergency Vets.” (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Fitzgerald obtained his degree in veterinarian medicine from CSU in 1983. He later took a job with the Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, where he has been working for the past 40 years.

“Veterinary medicine is a harsh mistress. It asks a lot of us (vets), but it’s very rewarding,” he says. “It’s been a wonderful career for me. To be successful, you have to love animals, but you also have to love people.

“Sometimes people would tell me, ‘My daughter would be a great veterinarian. She hates people but she’s great with animals.’ And I would always say, ‘No, no, no. People have to trust you when they bring their animal to you, so it’s important that you are able to connect with them.’”

Fitzgerald’s role at the Denver animal hospital became much more widely recognized starting in 1998, with the launch of the Animal Planet’s TV show Emergency Vets. At the time, the TV series ER was hugely popular, and the producer believed a reality show about veterinarians treating all types of animals would appeal to Animal Planet viewers, Fitzgerald says. That proved to be the case, as the show and its successor, E-Vet Interns, ran for a combined 11 seasons, and were two of the network’s top-rated shows.

“For me, it was just too weird to watch myself on TV, but it was quite an experience,” Fitzgerald says. “People started recognizing me from the show. Once, I was at the Denver airport and this young kid was staring at me. Finally, he said, ‘You look like that guy from the TV show on Animal Planet.’

“I said, ‘I am that guy,’ and the kid says, ‘Yeah, you wish,’” Fitzgerald says with a laugh.

He says his work as a veterinarian led naturally to his conservancy work. He has served on the Denver Zoo’s board of directors since 2009 and has been involved in several projects, including the creation of a huge nature conservancy in Mongolia.

“There’s 10 million other forms of life on this planet besides us, and we were given this wonderful biodiversity. Those animals are waiting for us to use our intellect to save this place,” he says. “We’re borrowing this planet from our grandchildren, so we have to win this one, because we’re given just this one planet. Realizing that, that’s how I went from veterinary medicine to conservation.”

‘Like being shot out of canon’

While being a veterinarian, an Animal Planet reality TV star and conservationist might seem to all naturally fit together, Fitzgerald acknowledges becoming a stand-up comedian is a less obvious choice to add to the mix. He says he was inspired to do so in part by watching comedians perform as the opening act for bands where he provided security and by seeing one of his friends perform.

“I started doing stand-up in 1986. At the time, a friend of mine was doing comedy, and he didn’t seem that funny to me, but he was getting paid to do it. I told myself, ‘I can at least be as bad as that guy,’” he says with a laugh.

The appeal for doing stand-up comes partly from the enjoyment of making people laugh and partly from the exhilaration of being on a stage, Fitzgerald says, explaining, “The feeling is like being shot out of a cannon.”

It took some trial and error in the beginning, Fitzgerald admits, before he developed his own comedic timing. The strategy he settled on involved trying to tell as many jokes as he could in rapid-fire succession at the start and telling jokes that would appeal to the broadest audience demographic.

“My job is to tell jokes that make everyone laugh—the old guy and the young guy, the black guy and the white guy, the man and the woman sitting next to him,” he says. “I don’t think it works to say, ‘This is a young person’s joke; you wouldn’t understand.’ The best jokes touch everyone.”

Fitzgerald’s brand of comedy was on full display during a recent Sunday evening show at a south Denver comedy club, where he was zinging his audience with one-liners about being an old guy:

“Our lives are short, but they are beautiful. My whole life, whatever I’ve done, has been small and beautiful. The fate of the Western world doesn’t hang on the balance of what I do in the exam rooms with people and their animals, but I try to make my little side of the street better as a veterinarian and also with my conservation efforts.”

“I’m so old my kindergarten had a smoking section.”
“I’m so old I can remember Preparation A.”
“I’m so old that I can run for president in a few years.”

Bathed under white stage lights, Fitzgerald’s flowing white hair gave credence to his position as a veteran of standup comedy, but those jokes about his age (he’s 73) were just a warm-up to a set that ran more than an hour long, and which also included several humorous stories about being a veterinarian and a reality TV star and concluded with a reading from his new book talking about the importance of being kind to animals and people.

Sharing life lessons in print

Fitzgerald says he’s accumulated so many stories and bits of wisdom over the years that he wanted to share with people in a book, but he says that his active veterinary practice and many civic and social commitments made that difficult to do. That changed, however, once COVID-19 pandemic brought much of the world to a yearlong standstill.

“It seemed like the perfect time to get my thoughts down on paper,” he says, adding, “We only have so many days, so we have to make them count.

“Our lives are short, but they are beautiful. My whole life, whatever I’ve done, has been small and beautiful. The fate of the Western world doesn’t hang on the balance of what I do in the exam rooms with people and their animals, but I try to make my little side of the street better as a veterinarian and also with my conservation efforts.

“And I’m not done yet,” he adds. “I still think I’m going to write the perfect joke. I’m 73 and I’m still going to see my pet patients every workday. I can’t bounce anymore, but I still love listening to music.”

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As he muses about conservation, 1970s 51��ý and how Keith Richards prompted him to finish his college career, Kevin Fitzgerald still has his sights on crafting the perfect joke.

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When passion flares, a freedom and duty to speak

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 29 May 2025 21:07:13 +0000

When passion flares, a freedom and duty to speak Rachel Sauer Thu, 05/29/2025 - 15:07

Clint Talbott

The pursuit and sharing of knowledge should be shielded from the brute force of public opinion, and when public pressure spikes, history shows, the choices of individual people really matter

Like a metronome, Albert A. Bartlett ticked off a steady beat of bad news, methodically outlining the truth and consequences of exponential human population growth. Then, he noted that the methods to reduce population are generally undesirable: for instance, pandemic, famine, war.

Rhetorically, Bartlett asked the classroom full of young people, “Who wants more war?”

A testosterone-addled boy sitting nearby roared: “War! Yeah!”

Clint Talbott is assistant dean for communications in the CU 51��ý College of Arts and Sciences and a former journalist.

Unfazed, Bartlett replied:

“Anyone who cheers for war has never lived through one.”

Having thus silenced the would-be warrior, Bartlett continued to explain the exponential function and its implications for humankind.

This was 1979, and I didn’t immediately grasp the symbolism of this brief exchange. It encapsulated core functions of academe—the pursuit and sharing of knowledge, careful and critical thinking, respectful and open debate.

Truth, logic and debate would become the foundation of my career, first in journalism, then as a communicator for the university.

But as a high-school sophomore from Montrose, Colorado, my perspective was constrained; I was just a kid on a recruiting tour of the University of Colorado 51��ý. I met professors, toured facilities and spent a few days at CU because, unusually, I’d gotten decent grades in Algebra II.

A so-so student at the age of 17, I had no intention of going to college, let alone the state’s top university. I planned to attend vo-tech school and become an auto mechanic. Two things stood in my way: One, I was a bad mechanic, and two, I took a journalism course as a high-school senior and was immediately hooked.

It was compelling—intoxicating, really—to set up shop in the marketplace of ideas. Learning, discussing and debating ideas made them, and me, come alive. I was part of something bigger than myself. Work had Meaning.

Over time, I saw the extent to which public discourse was refined and distilled in academe. Discussions that occurred nationally also happened on campus, but often in more concentrated, more rigorous, sometimes more contentious forms.

Speech on matters of critical public concern should be “robust, uninhibited and wide-open,” former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan famously wrote. Discourse can reach peak vibrancy on campus, partly because of universities’ commitment to free speech and academic freedom.

Intellectual vigor is one reason, perhaps, that academe has long drawn criticism. By design, it protects unpopular ideas and unwelcome lines of inquiry. Why? Because the pursuit of knowledge should be shielded from the brutish whimsy of public opinion.

History teaches us this. Galileo committed heresy by reporting what was empirically true and what is now utterly uncontroversial.

Professor Bartlett campaigned for population control for decades. He gave the talk I observed more than 1,742 times before he died in 2013. It’s been viewed on YouTube more than 5.2 million times.

The late Professor Al Bartlett, who worked on the Manhattan Project as a young scientist, used his scientific acumen to pursue growth control both globally and locally.

Bartlett, who worked on the Manhattan Project as a young scientist, used his scientific acumen to pursue growth control both globally and locally. In 51��ý, for instance, he spearheaded the “blue line” initiative, which prevented the city from delivering treated water above about 5,750 in elevation in the foothills. Without water, real-estate development shrivels.

Today, Bartlett’s legacy is, literally, easy to see.

“Albert Bartlett’s influence is unmistakable in the foothills surrounding 51��ý. With few exceptions, one sees trees, grasses and rock,” the Daily Camera wrote in 2006 as it gave him a lifetime-achievement award.

Advocating for population control—and controlled growth generally—can be controversial. But as a university professor, he had wide latitude to take such positions. The 51��ý Valley and society at large are the better for full academic freedom and freedom of speech.

Critics have long argued otherwise. Again and again, higher education generally, and the University of Colorado in particular, have attracted strong public criticism and furtive government scrutiny. Some such episodes seem relevant today.

The feds are watching, and so are the people

The late Howard Higman, who was a professor of sociology and founder of the CU Conference on World Affairs, hit the FBI’s radar—and later Time magazine’s—in 1960.

In the middle of a sociology lecture at CU, “the most conspicuous member of the class,” Marilyn Van Derbur, then 22, Miss America of 1958, asked Higman to comment on Masters of Deceit, a book by J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the FBI.

Time characterized the episode this way: “The professor obliged by launching into a denunciation of the FBI, and for two days, embattled factions of the 190-student class, led by Marilyn and the professor, argued the reputation of the FBI. Proving Marilyn’s point that the FBI is always on the spot, Author Hoover sent Marilyn an autographed copy of Masters of Deceit with the message: ‘Your actions in confronting error with truth are in keeping with the highest traditions of academic freedom.’”

Higman said, “I smelled a plot coming, but it is not my habit to duck questions.” The Van Derbur report became one of many that the FBI carefully recorded in its thick file on Higman.

The late Howard Higman, a CU 51��ý professor of sociology and founder of the CU Conference on World Affairs, hit the FBI’s radar—and later Time magazine’s—in 1960.

That file was publicly revealed via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which helps to ensure that people can see how the government spends public money conducting the people’s business.

It so happens that one key architect of FOIA was Samuel J. Archibald, a CU alumnus who served as chief of staff of the Government Information Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Archibald led the investigation of government secrecy that paved the way to the passage of FOIA in 1966. And, in a later chapter of his life, Archibald was my journalism professor at CU 51��ý.

FOIA and its state counterpart, the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), help us understand, more accurately and fully, what happened during key junctures of our history. In the Higman case, federal law enforcement spent decades monitoring a professor who was suspected of no crime.

This happened repeatedly. Folsom Field is named after a once-famous CU football coach, Frederick Folsom. His son, the late Franklin Folsom, a CU alumnus and longtime 51��ý resident, was executive secretary to the League of American Writers from 1937 through 1942.

That job, and his activism for peace, drew the interest of the FBI, which recorded that several anonymous informants said Franklin Folsom was known by aliases. Those allegations were false. Secret informants also reported that his wife, Mary Elting, spent years working in a job she never held.

As Franklin Folsom noted in a 1981 Denver Post guest opinion, the FBI did get his home address and phone number right. “How much this information cost the taxpayer, no one will ever know,” he wrote.

Similarly, there was Kenneth E. Boulding, who was a distinguished professor of economics at CU. The 1993 New York Times obituary marking Boulding’s death called him a “much honored but unorthodox economist, philosopher and poet.”

As the Times noted, his textbook Economic Analysis “blended Keynesian and neoclassical economic theory into a coherent synthesis.”

But Boulding was also against war. He was, after all, a Quaker. His advocacy for peace drew the attention of the FBI, as one of my FOIA requests revealed. Starting in 1942, the government launched an investigation of Boulding. The files on him noted, for instance, that Boulding complained about “the downtrodden Negro and constantly protested that he should have equal rights with the whites.”

The FBI also noted that Boulding once advocated for the elimination of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In no case did the activities of Higman, Folsom or Boulding amount to “subversion,” much less a crime.

In these cases, warrantless (and unconstitutional) spying seemed not to have hindered the subjects’ lives. But national panic and illegal spying on citizens can and does harm people. As we have seen.

The late Kenneth E. Boulding, a distinguished professor of economics at CU 51��ý, was described in his 1993 New York Times obituary as a “much honored but unorthodox economist, philosopher and poet.”

Red scare

On Dec. 28, 1950, The Denver Post’s banner headline was “CU Prof Reveals Red Link.” The story reported that David Hawkins, CU philosophy professor, had been called to testify before HUAC.

Hawkins admitted that he had joined the Communist Party as a 25-year-old graduate student in California in 1938 but that he’d resigned and stopped paying dues in 1943. Some historians speculate that HUAC summoned Hawkins in an attempt to tie J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the Manhattan Project, to communism.

The Post’s editorial board argued that CU must determine Hawkins’ loyalty to “American stands of life and to the American ideal of free and honest education.”

State legislators, including 51��ý Rep. A.W. Hewett, proposed legislation that would have cut off Communists from any source of state money. As a centennial history of CU noted, Hewett claimed there were “all shades of Reds” at the university.

Colorado’s attorney general ruled that professors should be forced to sign a loyalty oath that was originally enacted in 1921, during an earlier red scare. Eager to quell the rising public concern and possibly to discourage state lawmakers from doing the same, the CU Board of Regents launched an investigation of Communist or otherwise “subversive” influences on campus.

The regents hired two former FBI agents to conduct the investigation. Their report and its recommendations were kept secret—so secret that the report itself was stored in a safe deposit box in the First National Bank of 51��ý, and a regent could review the report only upon a majority vote of the board.

After the former FBI men completed their secret probe, the regents voted to retain Hawkins, stating that his actions (which were protected by the First Amendment) were not a firing offense.

But the university did fire Irving Goodman, an assistant professor of chemistry who won Guggenheim fellowships in 1949 and 1950. The regents said Goodman had been a Communist during part of his service at the university and that Goodman had lied about this.

Goodman called those charges “calumny” and said he’d honestly answered all questions about his politics when CU President Robert Stearns quizzed him in 1947.

It wasn’t divulged, at that time, whether the regents’ secret investigation found more damning material.

Similarly, philosophy instructor Morris Judd was fired in late 1951. The stated reason was incompetence and “pedestrian” teaching.

At the time, Judd revealed that he’d been interviewed by the former FBI agents. They asked him if he were a member of the communist party. He said he was not. They asked if he’d ever been a member. He declined to answer, as was his First Amendment right.

Once fired, Judd left academe, never to teach again.

The late CU philosophy instructor Morris Judd (right) declined to answer, per his First Amendment right, when asked by FBI agents if he'd ever been a member of the communist party.

Opening the safe deposit box

But questions remained, even in 2002, when I was working as a columnist for the 51��ý Daily Camera. Paul Levitt, a professor of English, was a CU student during the McCarthy era and suggested that I file a Colorado Open Records Act request for the report.

I did this. The university declined to release the report, arguing that it contained legal advice and private information. To its credit, the Camera sued for the report’s release.

In an initial court hearing, the 51��ý County judge who was reviewing the secret report said that if it indeed contained legal advice, it was subtle. The judge, who seemed skeptical of the university’s arguments, said she’d issue a ruling within a week.

Before the judge ruled, however, the regents voted to release the report in full. After 51 years, the report finally revealed that Judd was not, in fact, fired for incompetence; he was fired because he was merely suspected—with no compelling evidence—of being “subversive.”

The allegations were insubstantial. One unnamed source told the private investigators that Judd was “90 percent or better a probable Communist” in 1946. Another anonymous accuser said he was “of the opinion” that a “subversive” group had met at Judd’s 51��ý home in 1947.

None of this proved that Judd was (or had been) a Communist. Nor did it yield any meaningful data on Judd’s fitness to teach philosophy. The only empirical measure of Judd’s abilities—the assessment of his fellow faculty members—found him more than fit to teach. In fact, his colleagues judged him the best young teacher in his department.

Politics can circumscribe academic freedom. Stearns himself revealed this in a now-declassified interview conducted at the Pentagon in 1954 (released via my FOIA request). Stearns admitted that he had fired “leftist or pinkish” faculty members, including Judd.

Stearns also told the Pentagon official that he’d kept tabs on the alleged subversives after their firing: “My connections … have always been close with the military and with the FBI, particularly, and I have kept them informed on each of these men, so they know well what they are doing and where they have gone,” Stearns said.

The late David Hawkins, a CU philosophy professor, was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950 and admitted that he had joined the Communist Party as a 25-year-old graduate student in California in 1938 but that he’d resigned and stopped paying dues in 1943.

That is a startling admission. If we take his words at face value, it’s hard to fathom why Stearns did not fire tenured professors against whom there was stronger evidence of Communist Party affiliation. Instead, he targeted non-tenured instructors whom he might have seen as expendable.

As some have suggested, that might have been a stratagem designed to protect core faculty members from rabidly red-baiting lawmakers. Stearns might have believed he’d chosen the lesser of two evils, sacrificing non-tenured faculty to protect those with tenure.

All of that was moot to Goodman and Judd, who sustained permanent damage. Goodman later reported falling into poverty. Judd’s experience was similar.

“I suffered the loss of my academic career. This investigation was a horrendous violation not only of my rights, but of the tradition of academic freedom,” Judd said when the university honored him in 2002, adding:

“That secret and unwarranted procedure has been compounded by the years of secrecy in withholding the report from the public.”

The red scare episode was both a crucible and a parable. When the fuller account of what happened emerged in 2002, people debated how to reconcile this newly released information—firing faculty without due cause or process—with the ideals they held dear.

Some said the university made the right choice, arguing that making a public show of firing two junior faculty surely prevented the state Legislature from launching an investigation that could have unjustly destroyed even more careers. Such an investigation had, indeed, been threatened.

Others argued that contemporary observers can’t fully appreciate the pressures of 1951. One authoritative voice emphasizing that point was Albert Bartlett, who made a lasting—and positive—impression on me in 1979.

As public records from the university, the FBI, the Pentagon and other agencies provided compelling evidence that Judd, Goodman and others were sacrificed for the sake of a perceived greater good, English Professor Paul Levitt and others urged that the university rename the Stearns Award, the university’s highest faculty award.

Like Levitt, Bartlett was on campus during the red scare, which he called “one of the very dark periods in American history and the history of the University of Colorado.”

But Bartlett argued against stripping the Stearns name from the faculty award. Writing in the Camera in 2002, Bartlett recalled that one of his first letters to the editor of that newspaper concerned Sen. Joseph McCarthy, pointing out that “a specific allegation made by McCarthy was known by me to be a lie.”

“After the letter was published, someone counseled me about such writing,” Bartlett recalled. “I was untenured and uncertain, but the message was clear. So I turned my back to tend to my own business.”

Bartlett pointed out that in 1951, faculty groups did not condemn the firings of junior faculty members. Some professors, including Jacob Van Ek, then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, did object. But many were silent. Most turned their backs, tending to their own business.

As Bartlett noted, if the “faculty governance bodies of 50 years ago failed to stop these tragic firings, then the faculty of 2002 can apologize for failing to speak out against the injustice” in 1951.

And again, Bartlett faced a contentious moment with cool reason, verifiable facts and respectful debate. In so doing, he offered a lesson that we must heed:

In times of national hysteria, when reason fails and madness prevails, good citizens are obliged to stand and speak.

Clint Talbott is a 1985 journalism graduate of CU 51��ý. He spent 14 years working at the now-defunct Colorado Daily and 10 years at the Daily Camera and was a 1998 Pulitzer Prize finalist for editorial writing. He has worked for the College of Arts and Sciences since 2008.

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The pursuit and sharing of knowledge should be shielded from the brute force of public opinion, and when public pressure spikes, history shows, the choices of individual people really matter.

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College finance chief wins prestigious fellowship

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 22 May 2025 15:08:06 +0000

College finance chief wins prestigious fellowship Rachel Sauer Thu, 05/22/2025 - 09:08

Amy Lavens, the College of Arts and Sciences’ vice dean of finance and administration, is one of 17 professionals to win this recognition

Amy Lavens, vice dean of finance and administration for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado 51��ý, is one of 17 business and financial professionals named as fellows of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), the group has announced.

NACUBO’s immersive leadership development program prepares higher education professionals who are seeking a chief business officer (CBO) position in their next role, the organization said.

Amy Lavens, vice dean of finance and administration for the College of Arts and Sciences at CU 51��ý, has been named a fellow of the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Over the course of a year, NACUBO fellows will work with higher education presidents, provosts, CBOs and other experts as they expand their management, communications and leadership skills and strengthen the core competencies needed to succeed as senior leaders.

The 2025-26 fellows were selected from the largest applicant pool in the program’s history, and the incoming cohort is one of the largest since the program was founded in 2016.

"We are thrilled to welcome the 10th cohort of NACUBO’s prestigious Fellows Program—a milestone made even more meaningful because this group was selected from one of the most competitive applicant pools in our program’s history,” said Kara D. Freeman, NACUBO president and CEO, adding:

“These new fellows’ talent, diverse experiences and passion for higher education reflect the best of the future of college and university business administration and leadership. We look forward to supporting these and all our fellows’ continued growth and impact.”

At the CU 51��ý College of Arts and Sciences, Lavens oversees financial strategy, budget planning and finance operations for the largest academic unit on campus. Before joining higher education, Lavens led financial and operational strategies in diverse environments, including clinical research, start-ups, manufacturing and a successful initial public offering. This background allows her to challenge conventional approaches, promoting creative and pragmatic solutions that marry financial stewardship with an institution’s overarching mission.

Her successes are built on the foundation of listening and learning, being authentic and translating complex concepts into clear, accessible language. She prioritizes transparency and avoids jargon that obscures meaning, fostering trust and collaboration, NABUCO noted.

Lavens holds an executive MBA and a bachelor of science in biochemistry from Colorado State University.

NACUBO’s fellows program is one in a suite of professional development programs aimed at preparing the next generation of chief business officers. Its offerings also include the Emerging Leaders Program and the New Business Officers Program.

Founded in 1962, NACUBO is a nonprofit professional organization representing chief administrative and financial officers at more than 1,700 colleges and universities across the country. It works to advance the economic vitality, business practices and support of higher education institutions in pursuit of their missions.

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Amy Lavens, the College of Arts and Sciences’ vice dean of finance and administration, is one of 17 professionals to win this recognition.

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Grad’s body of work already changing courses

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 02 May 2025 22:19:01 +0000

Grad’s body of work already changing courses Rachel Sauer Fri, 05/02/2025 - 16:19

Tim Grassley

Rachel Suter, who is earning her BA in neuroscience and arts practices, summa cum laude, is named the College of Arts and Science’s outstanding graduate for spring 2025

Fusing her artistic training and scientific understanding, Rachel Suter highlighted the questionable traditions of using cadavers while exploring anatomy through an artistic lens, and in doing so she has helped change how anatomy classes are taught.

Suter, who graduates this month summa cum laude with majors in art practices and neuroscience, has been named the spring 2025 outstanding undergraduate of the University of Colorado 51��ý College of Arts and Sciences. Her thesis is titled “Cadaveric ethics in figurative art instruction: Developing a workshop for an anatomical approach.”

In her thesis, Suter explores the history and ethics of body procurement in cadaver labs, as well as the consequential effects of primarily representing white male bodies in these figures. “I was doing anatomy through an artistic lens,” notes Suter.

Rachel Suter, who graduates next week summa cum laude with majors in art practices and neuroscience, has been named the spring 2025 outstanding undergraduate of the CU 51��ý College of Arts and Sciences. (Photo: Kylie Clarke)

“I created a workshop for artists in the cadaver labs that taught them superficial anatomical structures relevant to figure drawing, and I simultaneously addressed the history of body procurement and dissection to advocate for a more ethical and equitable future.”

Steven Hobbs, who is an associate teaching professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology, coordinates the anatomy lab and served as chair for Suter’s honors committee, notes that Suter’s project was excellent in its scope and caused him to reconsider his approach to teaching anatomy.

“Rachel’s honors thesis is the most original undergraduate undertaking I have witnessed in my 20-plus years at CU,” says Hobbs. “Her work deftly combines history, art, anatomical sciences and advocacy. Any of these domains would be considered original, masterful and compelling. Together, they form a remarkable whole, born entirely from Rachel’s creative thinking, passion and hard work. Her thesis is the quintessential fusion of ‘arts’ and ‘sciences.’”

While Suter’s bachelor’s degree studies in art practices and neuroscience helped her fuse research techniques and art-making workshops, the project’s interdisciplinarity also offered opportunity to initiate instructional practices that could be incorporated into anatomy labs and figure-drawing workshops right away.

“That was my big goal with the thesis,” says Suter. “It was to put theory into practice and make a tangible change.”

Exploring the ethics of how cadavers are procured, studied and illustrated

Suter began her research intending to learn about the history of how bodies are procured by cadaver labs and medical schools to better understand and critique unethical practices. As she charted the medical history, she discovered that labs commonly obtain “unclaimed bodies,” or cadavers that were not claimed by family or friends for burial or cremation and are then made available for medical education and research by the state.

In her thesis, she argues that knowing this background helps anatomy students see cadavers as more than educational objects—they are people deserving of care and respect.

“Some medical schools still use unclaimed bodies today,” says Suter, “and so my thesis promotes the use of consensually donated bodies in anatomy. I didn't know that my project would also turn into more advocacy and activism for working towards a better future.”

While delving into a cursory history of body-procurement and medical ethics, Suter recognized a relationship between her anatomy classes and art classes. While anatomy is generally taught as a science course, it uses art as one of its primary means of communicating findings about the human body, and a stronger understanding of art-making places figures in context.

As an artist interested in figure drawing, Suter experienced first-hand that her stronger understanding of anatomy helped generate more reliable and variable representations of the human body’s structures.

“I was learning how to figure draw at the same time that I was taking the anatomy lab course, and then I continued to work on my figure drawing while I was simultaneously dissecting bodies in the labs,” reflects Suter. “Having an anatomical knowledge of the human body really supported my representation of bodies in art.”

Rachel Suter organized two figure-drawing workshops in the cadaver lab for artists with the goal of helping them better understand the details they observe on the human body, like musculature and skeletal structures. (Photo: Rachel Suter)

Suter noted a tendency for anatomy textbook images and illustrations to rely on white male bodies as representative of all human bodies. She found that this was a common practice historically among medical illustrators and could create misunderstanding among students analyzing these visual representations.

“Anatomy studies people,” says Suter. “In studying people, you want to ensure that you are representative of all of those groups.”

Suter organized two figure-drawing workshops in the cadaver lab for artists with the goal of helping them better understand the details they observe on the human body, like musculature and skeletal structures.

The workshops also covered ethical considerations when working with cadavers, the importance of wide representation and individuality in artistic anatomy and methods attendees could use to advocate for a more inclusive approach to dissection and figurative art.

While she plans to pursue graduate programs in medical illustration after a gap year that includes a 10-week intensive workshop in Florence, Italy, Suter’s thesis has a more immediate effect on how anatomy will be taught at CU 51��ý in the future.

“The anatomy labs here have not previously taught an ethical dimension or historical dimension,” says Suter. “Throughout my thesis, I really tried to advocate for transparency and education in these topics in a cadaver lab setting, and I'm really excited because I'm now talking to Dr. Hobbs about adding some of this content into the anatomy lab curriculum for anatomy students.”

The expansiveness of this project and its effect on teaching were the two characteristics of Suter’s nomination that drew the committee’s attention. Notes Hobbs, “As an instructor of human anatomy for nearly 20 years, I was surprised and inspired by how much I learned from Rachel. Her lessons reshaped my perspective on the human form through the lens of illustration. Rachel’s workshops and honors thesis could be the blueprint for a fantastic interdisciplinary semester course at CU. Every anatomy program should be so lucky to have a Rachel Suter.”

Suter not only feels honored to be the 2025 A&S outstanding graduate, she is also thrilled that her project leaves a legacy of change made possible through thoughtful, scholarly and artistic work.

“I don't think I've really found the words quite yet,” reflects Suter. “I'm really proud that I was able to make an impact on campus and develop a new educational approach that filled some gaps.”

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Rachel Suter, who is earning her BA in neuroscience and arts practices, summa cum laude, is named the College of Arts and Science’s outstanding graduate for spring 2025.

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Top photo: Kylie Clarke/College of Arts and Sciences

College faculty and staff honored at 2025 recognition ceremony

Kylie Clarke — Thu, 01 May 2025 21:51:26 +0000

College faculty and staff honored at 2025 recognition ceremony Kylie Clarke Thu, 05/01/2025 - 15:51

The annual event recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarship and other work that is a highlight of the College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty and staff from across the University of Colorado 51��ý College of Arts and Sciences were honored at the Recognition Reception held Thursday afternoon in the Norlin Library.

Deans of division Irene Blair, Sarah E. Jackson and John-Michael Rivera presented gifts to faculty and staff being recognized for their outstanding achievements during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Awarded recognitions:

College Scholar Awards
Kahn Family Community Teaming Fund
ASCEND Awards
ASSETT Excellence in Teaching with Technology
Award Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction
College Professor of Distinction
CU Distinguished Professors
A&S Staﬀ Employees of the Year
Promotion to Full Professor
Tenure & Promotion to Associate Professor
Promotion to Teaching Professor
Promotion to Associate Teaching Professor

View the list of recognized faculty and staff

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The annual event recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarship and other work that is a highlight of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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In a whirlwind of change, our core values remain constant

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 18:51:57 +0000

In a whirlwind of change, our core values remain constant Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/17/2025 - 12:51

Daryl Maeda

Higher education is beset by challenges, and CU 51��ý is not alone in needing to surmount them. While we face today’s difficulties and prepare to meet tomorrow’s, we remain tethered to certain truths, including that a broad university education is more critical than ever to the workforce and to society.

Remaining true to our values is critical as we confront new challenges, and it’s worth noting that overcoming adversity is embedded in the university’s history.

In the 1920s, for instance, the Ku Klux Klan controlled the Colorado Legislature and demanded that then-President George Norlin fire all Catholics and Jews at CU. Norlin refused, even though the Klan-dominated Legislature slashed CU’s budget to zero.

Daryl Maeda is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of ethnic studies.

In the 1950s, hysteria over communists and “subversives” gripped the nation, prompting state lawmakers to demand the firing of professors who had once associated with communists. The university protected its tenured professors—though, sadly, dismissed some non-tenured faculty. The extent to which CU transcended the moment mirrors the degree to which it adhered to its core values.

Student protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s drew more legislative fire and pressure to suppress dissent, but the university emerged from this controversial period with its values—academic freedom, free speech and open inquiry—intact.

These episodes hold lessons as we reach a new crossroads. Today, higher education faces broad challenges, including:

Changing demographics. America will likely hit a peak of about 3.5 million high school graduates in 2025, according to some estimates. After that, the pool of prospective college students might shrink by as much as 15% over the next decade. We call this the “enrollment cliff.”
Eroding public opinion. More people question the value of a college degree than at any point in our lifetimes. An increasing number of people believe colleges and universities should focus more on students’ career success. Others question higher education’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Declining public funding. For decades, states have been steadily allocating less funding per student. Since 2000, state support per student has dropped by about 40%. Falling public funding drives rising tuition, which propels more student debt.

While the challenges are irrefutable, the best response is a matter of debate.

Some suggest that post-secondary education should focus more on “marketable” skills, “competency”-based education, “upskilling,” “reskilling” and the like. These are reasonable concerns, and the university is addressing them.

In a host of ways, we help students gain specific skills and specialized knowledge that help them pursue satisfying careers. In addition to majors and minors in a wide array of disciplines, we offer an ever-broader selection of certificates, research opportunities, study-abroad opportunities and internship-placement assistance.

Because we want to help students succeed, we provide advising, coaching, scholarships and other support. Predictive analytics help us intervene when students are at risk of dropping out and help them acquire skills to succeed.

At the same time, we are proud that a liberal arts education—which is the bedrock of the College of Arts and Sciences—imparts a host of foundational skills that drive success in a wide range of careers. Critical thinking and communications prowess remain at or near the top of employers’ most-requested employee attributes.

And this makes sense. As the world changes ever more rapidly, people increasingly need the ability to grasp, analyze and share new knowledge. As society grapples with new and vexing problems, those who broadly understand the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences will be better prepared to help our democracy soar.

We know times are changing, and we are adapting. The college experience of today is not that of our forebears. While we adapt, however, we will not forsake our core values, the first of which is a broad education.

On the library that now bears his name, George Norlin’s words—that anyone who knows only this generation remains “always a child”—are literally etched in stone. In times of blistering change, our dedication to core values remains as solid as bedrock.

Daryl Maeda is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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College of Arts and Sciences names 2025 Van Ek Scholars

Kylie Clarke — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 21:38:02 +0000

College of Arts and Sciences names 2025 Van Ek Scholars Kylie Clarke Wed, 04/16/2025 - 15:38

Seventeen students receive one of the college’s most prestigious honors, recognized for their exemplary academic achievement and meaningful contributions to the campus and broader community

The College of Arts and Sciences has awarded the Jacob Van Ek Scholarship—one of the college’s highest honors—to 17 outstanding undergraduates.

Named in honor of Jacob Van Ek (1896–1999), the award commemorates his remarkable contributions to the university. Van Ek joined CU 51��ý in 1925 as a young assistant professor shortly after earning his doctorate from what is now Iowa State University. Within three years, he rose to the rank of full professor and, by 1929, was appointed dean of the College of Liberal Arts—a role he held until 1959.

Students walking across campus.

The following students are this year’s Jakob Van Ek Scholar Award recipients:

Danya Al Nazal, Neuroscience/Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
Amaneet Brar, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
Michaela De Oliveria Olsen, Integrative Physiology
Rachel Suter, Neuroscience/Art Practices
Nikolaas Steele, Integrative Physiology
Ivory Carpenter, Environmental Studies
Karis Lowe, Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences
Natalie Sesselmann, Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences/Psychology
Brooklyn Phillips, Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences
Kalen Sieja, Political Science/Evolutionary Biology
Katie Mikell, Evolutionary Biology
Kalvyn Adams, Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences/Physics
Adriana Ripley, Psychology/French/Musical Theatre
Xavier Cisneros, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology/Sociology
Marina Levine, Economics/Psychology
Devayani Ravuri, Physics
Abby Schaller, Political Science

Seventeen students receive one of the college’s most prestigious honors, recognized for their exemplary academic achievement and meaningful contributions to the campus and broader community.

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Abby Hickcox wins 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 20:08:09 +0000

Abby Hickcox wins 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction Rachel Sauer Tue, 04/15/2025 - 14:08

Hickcox, a CU 51��ý teaching associate professor of geography, is recognized for empowering students to think of themselves as creators of knowledge

Abby Hickcox, a teaching associate professor of geography and associate director of the Arts and Sciences Honors Program, has been named the 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction winner.

Supported by a generous donation from Craig Cogswell, a three-time alumnus of CU 51��ý, the award recognizes outstanding instruction in the college, honoring individuals for their inspirational qualities and teaching abilities.

Hickcox, who also is co-principal investigator of the CU 51��ý Affordable Housing Research Initiative, earned a BA in peace and global studies from Earlham College in 2000. In 2006, she received an MS from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Her master’s research investigated the privatization of common property (the Mexican ejido) in a national protected area in western Mexico. She earned her PhD in geography from the University of Colorado in 2012 and joined the honors faculty that year.

Abby Hickcox (second from right, with faculty colleagues in the Arts and Sciences Honors Program) has won the 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction.

“I am so honored to be selected for the Cogswell Award!” Hickcox says. “Teaching is what I love most about my role in the Honors Program. To be selected for the Cogswell Award, which recognizes inspirational instruction, is heartwarming and affirming. I am honored that my colleagues and peers took the time to nominate me, and I am so grateful for the community I have at CU, especially my students.”

In nominating Hickcox for the award, her colleagues and students noted her innovative teaching practices, interdisciplinary focus and genuine care for students.

“(Hickcox) excels at creating an inclusive classroom where students feel safe to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions,” noted Amy Palmer, a professor of biochemistry and the 2024 Cogswell Award winner. “She challenges students to take ownership of their own learning and empowers them to think of themselves as creators of knowledge.”

A former student who took Hickcox’s Environment Society Geography class as a freshman detailed how Hickcox combines an “irresistible passion for geography and learning with an unparalleled care and respect for students and their experiences.”

The student added, “From the first day, Dr. Hickcox had us questioning what can even define the line between nature and the human world, and from this philosophical beginning we extrapolated from questions into frameworks into analysis of lawns and wolves. It rocked.

“Dr. Hickcox’s excitement permeates through the classroom with geographical jokes and contagious interest in people and places. She almost got me; I almost considered changing my major—I might still add a minor. One thing will stick with me forever: a deeper appreciation of our interaction as humans with the world.”

Focusing on human geography

"From the first day, Dr. Hickcox had us questioning what can even define the line between nature and the human world, and from this philosophical beginning we extrapolated from questions into frameworks into analysis of lawns and wolves. It rocked."

Hickcox also is faculty advisor for the Honors Journal, an interdisciplinary, student-run journal published annually by the Arts and Sciences Honors Program. A student who worked on the journal praised the community that Hickcox helped them cultivate as they worked on the journal—“the friendships, memories, creativity and mutual respect that was intentional and significant,” the student noted.

“There is one moment that will last with me for a long time: Towards the end of the semester, we had finished the stressful process of planning the release event for the journal. After we had finished tasks for the day, Dr. Hickcox told us that she wanted to take a moment to talk about what she had observed this semester and what she valued in each of us. I have not felt the same depth of honesty and genuine thoughtfulness from a professor before or since.”

Hickcox teaches five honors courses per year—both lower division and upper division—which include Sustainable Futures (GEOG 1972); Place, Power and Contemporary Culture (GEOG 3742); Environmental Justice (HONR 4075); and Racism in American Culture (HONR 4000). She recently overhauled the Honors Diversity Seminar (HONR 1810) and created a new Advanced Writing Seminar—Honors Journal Section (HONR 3220).

Her research expertise is in human geography and focuses on the relationship between people and the environment. Her areas of research include parks and protected areas, environmentalism, environmental justice, racism, racialization, white racial privilege and the politics of belonging and exclusion. Specifically, through examination of historical and contemporary data, her research addresses the complicated overlap between environmentalism, progressive politics and racism in 51��ý.

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Hickcox, a CU 51��ý teaching associate professor of geography, is recognized for empowering students to think of themselves as creators of knowledge.

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Financial wellness despite the current chaos?

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 22:47:57 +0000

Financial wellness despite the current chaos? Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/07/2025 - 16:47

Expert to discuss letting money work for you in April 15 workshop

A University of Colorado 51��ý finance expert will discuss financial independence this month during a Let’s CU Well presentation.

Let's CU Well

What: Let's CU Well: Financial freedom and happiness: Don't work for your money, learn how to make your money work for you, with Diane Hirschhorn

When: 1 p.m., Tuesday, April 15

Where: Zoom, registration is required.

Who: Diane Hirschhorn is a lecturer of finance in the Leeds School of Business and a wealth manager.

The College of Arts and Sciences event, titled “Financial Wellness with Diane Hirschhorn,” is scheduled for 1 p.m. April 15 via Zoom. Attendance is free, but registration is required at this link.

The presentation is designed to inspire and empower CU students, staff and faculty and community members on their journey to financial independence.

Led by Diane Hirschhorn, a wealth manager and lecturer of finance at the Leeds School of Business, this hour-long session will revisit powerful strategies to optimize savings and earn more with what you have. Hirschhorn will also discuss the current market swings.

This workshop will approach wellness through a financial lens and aims to help participants feel more secure within the changing financial landscape. The workshop is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.

The workshop will be moderated by Erin Cunningham, director of employee wellness and engagement in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The event is presented by the college’s Office for Access and Community Engagement. It is co-presented by the college’s wellness initiative, called Be Well. Let’s CU Well is that initiative’s regular series of expert presentations.

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Expert to discuss letting money work for you in April 15 workshop.

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