May 2009

Dear Friends,

Philip P. DiStefano

It was a distinct honor to preside over my first graduation as chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder on May 8. I was appointed chancellor by CU President Bruce Benson on May 5, after serving the university for 35 years as a professor, dean, vice chancellor, provost and twice as interim chancellor. Serving as chancellor is a rare privilege that only 10 other individuals have shared in the history of the university, and I intend to fulfill this role mindful of the need to both serve and lead our diverse community. In that effort, I will need your support, and the support of CU stakeholders all over Colorado and the nation.

One of my first jobs as the new chancellor is to see that even with state budget reductions to CU-Boulder, we preserve the high-quality education we offer our students.

While our budget struggles this year have been difficult for our community, we have worked together as a campus to implement them and preserve our core mission, personnel and strategic priorities. We are implementing a $12.9 million budget cut effective July 1, 2009 that eliminates 33 faculty and 42 staff positions. On May 19, the Board of Regents approved a 3.9 percent tuition hike for CU resident students. As our fall enrollment numbers come into greater clarity—with freshman housing deposits due later this month—we are preparing for additional spending cuts and working hard to achieve greater efficiencies and other cost-saving measures. Please take a look at my latest budget communication to the CU-Boulder campus for more details on CU-Boulder's budget picture.

Even in these trying times, great things are happening at CU-Boulder and I would like to take this opportunity to share them with you. Let me start with our students.

Newly appointed Chancellor Phil DiStefano at the 2009 Spring Commencement ceremony at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Students at the core of our mission

On May 8, 5,300 students who are already making us proud graduated. Six graduated with 4.0 grade point averages (Amanda Elizabeth Bennett of Holyoke, Kathryn Lynn Meek of Littleton, Rakefet Rachel Megory of Boulder, Cailyn Leigh Plantico of Highlands Ranch, Sarah Jo Stephens of Loveland and Zakeih Chaker of Boulder).

They typify the kind of students we seek and admit to our learning community as one of the most selective institutions in Colorado. Others will follow in their footsteps as our last two freshman classes have been our best qualified, with an average high school grade point average of 3.56 and 3.57 respectively. I also note that these students all hail from Colorado - which I don't think has been a characteristic of our 4.0 students in my memory and which is a tribute to our great state.

For many of our graduates, civic engagement has long been a part of their plans after college and this year some of our best-and-brightest graduates, including a number of our Boettcher Scholars, are heading into careers in community service.

Boulder Daily Camera, May 8, "More Class of 2009 members headed to service jobs"

Our graduating class had two 18-year-olds, including Ryan Kramer of Nederland, who graduated from one of the toughest aerospace engineering programs in the nation. For Ryan's story, and those of other graduates, please see the special report on the CU-Boulder spring commencement.

CU News Services, May 7: "Special report: CU-Boulder spring commencement"

The day before commencement we took great pride in announcing three CU-Boulder students among only 278 nationwide who have been named 2009 Goldwater Scholars, the premier national undergraduate award recognizing outstanding students in math, science and engineering. Junior Julia Goodrich of Boulder and sophomores Anna Lieb of Golden and Robert Rogers of Cedar Hill, Texas, will each receive up to $7,500 for their educational expenses in the 2009-10 academic year.

Students with the 2008 MBA program at the Leeds School of Business conducting community outreach at the Growing Gardens in Boulder for their 2008 orientation.

Chancellor's statewide tour May 27-29

Next week I will hit the road on a nine-city swing through eastern and southwestern Colorado to introduce myself as chancellor and to help tell the stories of our students and their experiences at CU-Boulder. These stories are broad in their scope and potent in their impact.

Our students are, to quote John Donne, "involved in mankind." Consider that our student-led Energy Green Teams have worked with over 800 Boulder homes to reduce energy and water use, improve recycling, and promote alternative transportation. Our student energy auditors have assisted over 500 low-income residences in Boulder and Boulder County by directly installing thousands of compact fluorescent bulbs, programmable thermostats, water saving devices, and energy-efficient appliances.

Last week, an instrument designed by CU-Boulder undergraduates to detect the origins of the universe was installed on the Hubble Space Telescope by Atlantis astronauts. Our students also will collect critical data from the instrument, called the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.

Watch: The Hubble repair mission is carrying a $70 Million student-designed instrument to track the origins of the universe.

These students embody our Flagship 2030 Strategic Plan's goal of promoting experiential learning, as do our students at the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship in the Leeds School of Business. Deming students are getting first-hand experience running a business like the TREP Café at the Koelbel Business Building, and recent graduates have started exciting new entrepreneurial businesses like University Parent, Chalk to Me, and ToughStuff from business plans developed while they were students.

It is no surprise that once again the Deming Center is ranked in the nation's Top 20 for entrepreneurship programs. Further, U.S. News & World Report ranked five CU-Boulder graduate programs in the Top 10, including three physics programs, physical chemistry and the CU Law School's Environmental Law program.

Boulder Daily Camera, May 7, "CU physics students graduate from the best"

Graduates rejoice as their schools are called up during the 2009 University of Colorado at Boulder Spring Commencement ceremonies at Folsom Field.

As we work to prepare for the class of 2009-10—a group that no doubt will build upon the achievements of other CU students—the size of our freshman class is looking similar to the size of the class of 2007. With the commitments we've received from students on May 1, we project a class of about 5,500 freshmen. That's down from last year's all-time, off-the-charts record of 5,833. We think the decrease we're seeing in non-resident applications (about 19 percent down from last year) is attributable to the recession and to our newer, tougher admissions standards that require two essays. Still, this is a good pool to draw from—very close to 2007, which itself was a record year for admission.

All in all, CU-Boulder continues to be a highly sought-after, national and even international destination in higher education, and we are attracting better students all the time. I look forward to updating you on their extraordinary achievements in the years to come.

Go Buffs!

Sincerely,

Philip P. DiStefano, Chancellor
University of Colorado at Boulder