Office of the Chancellor > Speeches, Columns and Letters > Washington, D.C. National Council Program

Washington, D.C. National Council Program
September 20, 2006

I want to thank you for considering the University of Colorado at Boulder as the place to continue your education.

We know that you are here because you are truly interested in a challenging academic environment. CU-Boulder is an excellent university with a great academic history. We know that a quality university experience can shape intellects, form visions of the future and establish a lifetime of friendships.

This fall we welcomed about 28,500 students with a freshman class that is one of the largest, around 5,500 students; one of the best qualified, with an average GPA of 3.5; and one of the most diverse in CU history. The new students hail from every state in the nation, and about 42 percent are non-resident students.

To assist with our non-resident enrollments, we have instituted a guaranteed price for four years to current and incoming non-resident students. We are also providing more merit scholarships to the most highly qualified through the Chancellor's Achievement Scholarship and the President's Student Scholarship, and these programs are having a positive effect on non-resident enrollment.

The Chancellor's Achievement Scholarship rewards the accomplishments of entering non-resident freshmen in the top 25 percent of the admitted non-resident freshmen class with an automatic $15,000 scholarship over four years. (Note: based on high school GPA and test scores, students must maintain 2.75 CU GPA for renewal).

Designation as a Presidential Scholar is intended to recognize non-resident students who have achieved excellence in particular areas of academic or extra-curricular activities, as determined by the Chancellor of each campus. Non-resident students who are designated as Presidential Scholars are eligible to receive tuition that is based on at least 110% of the projected cost for the students' academic program. To maintain their status as a Presidential Scholar, students must be continuously enrolled as a full-time student in both the fall and spring semester each year, and continue to demonstrate adequate progress and commitment to excellence.

Why students come to CU-Boulder
CU-Boulder is the Flagship University for the state of Colorado, a comprehensive national research university that aims to improve the quality of life for people all over the world, providing exciting opportunities for students to conduct research with renowned faculty

CU-Boulder is an outstanding institution with educational, research and artistic programs that are among the best in the world. We have many high-quality faculty engaged in groundbreaking research and innovative teaching.

We offer 3,400 courses in more than 150 programs of study and 85 different majors

CU-Boulder has an enormously talented student body with a strong sense of social consciousness

Students come to CU-Boulder to live, learn and work in a high-quality academic environment surrounded by unmatched majesty and beauty of the mountains

Active, engaged and successful students
A payload designed and built by CU undergraduate students will launch on the inaugural rocket fight from a new commercial spaceport near Las Cruces, New Mexico on Sept. 25. Known as RocketSat, the CU-Boulder payload will measure cosmic rays and microwave radiation as the rocket flies to a height of 62 miles above the earth. We're excited about this launch, because it's as much about the educational experience for students in designing, building and flying a payload as it is about making scientific measurements in space. The RocketSat program will provide new experiences for our undergraduate students and perhaps ultimately a platform for college faculty working with our students to demonstrate their research in space. The CU-Boulder student team will fly payloads on each of UP Aerospace's next three commercial launches from New Mexico through 2007.

CU-Boulder has an impressive record of students who annually earn prestigious national and international fellowships, and is the only Colorado institution where students won at least one Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Udall and Goldwater scholarship from 1990-2000. Since 1999, students have won three Marshall, two Truman, eight Goldwater and three Udall scholarships.

Last spring, CU- Boulder students won four national scholarships, marking the first time a Colorado university has been home to winners of all four of the highly competitive national scholarships at once. The awards were given by the Truman, Udall, Goldwater and National Security Education Program scholarships. Seven students won scholarships and two received honorable mentions.

These prestigious scholarships are very difficult to win. While CU and other colleges in the state have had previous winners in these programs, this is the first time any Colorado school has had simultaneous winners in all four programs.

Our winning scholars are studying math, science, environmental studies, accounting and journalism, evidence that CU-Boulder has a broad spectrum of excellent programs that can help students excel on a national level.

Eight CU-Boulder students have been offered prestigious Fulbright scholarships to study overseas this year, a record for the university. Our students have won a total of 95 Fulbright scholarships since 1977, but never eight in the same year. The Fulbright program gives these students outstanding opportunities to learn about other cultures and further their academic careers. Being a Fulbright scholar also helps them get better jobs and get admitted to better graduate programs for further study.

CU's two-time championship (2002 and 2005) Solar Decathlon team was selected to participate in the 2007 competition. This international contest, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, challenges students to design, build and operate the most attractive, efficient and comfortable solar home, while educating the public about alternative energy technologies. Twenty teams were chosen to compete from the United States, Canada, Germany and Spain. Each team will receive $100,000 in seed money from the Department of Energy to help develop solar technology for the competition.

Last spring, the University of Colorado ski team was crowned the 2006 NCAA champions and was invited to the White House for National Student-Athlete Day. The Buffaloes, who claimed the 17th national ski title in their history, was the first from the school to have the honor of meeting the president of the United States in the traditional White House ceremony.

A jazz big band and its lead trumpeter recently won Down Beat magazine student music awards, widely considered to be the most prestigious national recognition for jazz students. The awards are among 13 given to the CU-Boulder College of Music's Jazz Studies program in the last five years, more than any other school in the Rocky Mountain region. A number of Down Beat winners have gone on to become stars of the international jazz community.

Rankings
CU-Boulder is a world-class university with a great academic history. We are always pleased to have the quality of our programs recognized on a national and international basis.

CU-Boulder was ranked 34th among all universities in the world, both public and private, in a recent survey by the Institute for Higher Education in Shanghai, China.

Ranking criteria included quality of the faculty, the education provided and the research of the faculty and students.

We are very pleased to be recognized once again in this international survey. Research, teaching and service are the primary mission of CU-Boulder, and this is another indication that our outstanding faculty continues to perform in all of these areas extremely well.

CU-Boulder was ranked 34th among the nation's public universities offering doctoral degrees in U.S. News & World Report's 2007 Best Colleges undergraduate rankings (tied with Virginia Tech).

Engineering and business undergraduate programs ranked among the top 25 in the country

This year (2006), CU-Boulder is ranked No. 3 among all U.S. colleges and universities for producing the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers. We are ranked sixth among all colleges and universities in the United States in the number of graduates who have served in the Peace Corps since its founding by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Last spring, the Leeds School of Business was named one of 10 "Hot Spots" for entrepreneurial education by Fortune Small Business magazine (March 06 issue). The magazine recognized the Leeds School as a "leader in 'green' entrepreneurship" and noted that its entrepreneurship program "specializes in helping students create companies that are eco-friendly and socially progressive." This is tremendous recognition of our commitment to socially responsible business practices.

CU faculty
At CU-Boulder, we are dedicated to providing our students with a richly rewarding learning experience. Our faculty members, who excel at both teaching and research, work on the cutting-edge of discovery and share their new knowledge with students in the classroom. We have four Nobel Prize winners and seven MacArthur Fellows among the researchers and faculty at CU-Boulder.

Numerous faculty members are also award winners in various fields, including chemistry, education, the creative and performing arts, social sciences and the humanities

Many faculty have been named fellows of prestigious organizations, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Education.

• 41 active or retired fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 21 active or retired members of the National Academy of Sciences
• 16 active or retired members of the American Academy of Sciences
• 12 active or retired members of the National Academy of Engineering
• Four members of the National Academy of Education

Teaching and research
The Center for Asian studies has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education that establishes the campus center as one of only three national resource centers designated as Asian Studies Centers, a credit to the strength of our Asian languages and studies programs. This will allow us to greatly expand our language instruction in less commonly taught foreign languages, such as Farsi and Indonesian. As you know, Asia is home to much of the world's population and a large part of the global economy, and this is another campus resource for our students and others to learn more about Asia.

Our faculty engage in discoveries that improve people's lives and add to the world's storehouse of knowledge.

 For instance: A new research center focused on nanostructures and micro- and nano-electromechanical systems has been established at CU-Boulder with a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The DARPA Focus Center on Nanoscale Science and Technology for Integrated Micro/Nano-Electromechanical Transducers, hosted by the department of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, expects to manage more than 20 cutting-edge research projects involving faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from CU-Boulder, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Northwestern University and Columbia University. The center will play an important role in enabling nanotechnology to achieve broad technological impact in commercial products such as cell phones, automobiles, and defense applications.

In addition to the new DARPA research center, CU-Boulder has established industry and research resources that can be developed to place the state of Colorado among the top 10 in nanotechnology, according to a study by the Business Research Division at the Leeds School of Business. Nanotechnology will be critical to our future economy because it enhances other technology efforts including biotechnology, electronics/information technology, energy, defense/homeland security and aerospace. The study assesses the current state of nanotechnology in Colorado including strengths and weaknesses over a range of factors in workforce development, business growth, and research and technology transfer, as well as quantifying the state's commercial and research nanotechnology infrastructure. University and federal lab research will be critical in supporting the state's nanotechnology efforts, and CU-Boulder is poised to contribute significantly to this field that may be the most important driver of global economic growth in the next 10 years.

(Note: The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, the State of Colorado's Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and the Denver Mayor's Office of Economic Development)

According to a study led by researchers at CU-Boulder and Pennsylvania State University, more than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside Earth's solar system may harbor Earth-like planets, many covered in deep oceans with potential for life. The study, which focuses on a type of planetary system unlike our solar system that contains gas giants known as "Hot Jupiters," was published in the September issue of Science.

Villagers in Muramba, Rwanda, now have an effective, easy-to-use water purification system that can deliver clean drinking water to the entire community, thanks to an Engineers Without Borders team from the University of Colorado that helped to install the system this summer.

Tests on a "FluChip" developed by CU-Boulder faculty, researchers and students showed that it can determine the genetic signatures of specific influenza strains within hours, and may help world health officials combat future epidemics and pandemics. The FluChip is expected to be in wide use in laboratories in the coming years.

We have launched a Renewable and Sustainable Energy Initiative to coordinate our extensive campus resources devoted to energy coursework and research, mobilizing resources to underscore our leadership in energy innovation. In addition to having great science and engineering, CU-Boulder is a great source of business and social expertise. We stand positioned to become a national and global leader in transforming the ways in which energy is produced and utilized.

Facilities
To improve our students' educational experience, we are actively pursuing the development of a residential college model by enhancing the residential academic programs, or RAPs, on our campus to combine the way our students live and learn. Renovations in the residence halls are scheduled to begin this spring and will occur campuswide over a multi-year period.

There are other visible signs of progress around the campus. A new building for the Law School opened this fall, along with ATLAS, a technology-enhanced teaching and learning center for the entire campus. The ATLAS building's unique features include classrooms with advanced technology, graphics and video editing facilities, a 25-foot high black box studio for performance and production uses, an exhibition lobby with a video wall, and a coffee shop, along with a full slate of over 90 courses from a broad spectrum of disciplines. In conjunction with the completion of these major construction projects, renovation and expansion of the Leeds School of Business is underway, along with design and construction plans for a new Visual Arts Complex

Programs
We offer a unique mix of large campus opportunities combined with small, personalized academic programs. CU-Boulder's honors, residential academic and leadership programs are ideal for outstanding students with a strong sense of curiosity and an interest in studying and doing research with fellow students from all over the world.

Outstanding undergraduate enrichment programs where students can perform scholarly work with outstanding faculty include:

• Honors Program
• Undergraduate Academy Scholars
• Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
• Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program, called SURE, for top incoming freshmen

In addition to renowned programs in the sciences, CU-Boulder also has strong programs that offer educational and professional training in visual and performing arts for students majoring in digital and studio arts, art history, theater, dance, film studies and music

CU-Boulder sponsors 150 Study Abroad programs in more than 60 countries around the world. Over 900 CU-Boulder students study on CU-Boulder programs annually, including the Semester at Sea program. The study abroad experience presents unique challenges and opportunities for each and every student.

A new course aimed at first-year CU-Boulder students known as "CU 101" was launched this semester in two of our residential academic programs. The class, called "The Contemporary Research University and Student Citizens," is aimed at providing students with the knowledge and understanding of the university and their place in it, to help them succeed at CU-Boulder.

Student Life
As a parent I can relate to your hopes and dreams for your child to have an excellent college experience and to be successful in the world. I want to assure you that we have that vision, too, for every CU-Boulder student. The health and safety of our students is a top priority for the entire campus community.

CU-Boulder is one of the first universities to systematically address student alcohol abuse. We work collaboratively with students, government entities, community members and research organizations to create a safer, healthier environment for students both on and off campus.

We have a number of alcohol education initiatives in place, including a program that helps parents of incoming students communicate with their children regarding alcohol use and abuse using the guide "A Parent Handbook for Talking with College Students about Alcohol."

This fall our new students were also required to take a mandatory online assessment and feedback survey called "Check-up to Go" that is designed to help reduce drinking among college students

This fall we opened a new center for students in recovery. The center is providing students with needs assessment, academic and housing support, 12-step meetings, addiction recovery education and community service opportunities. We are providing them support wherever they need it, in the form of academics, life skills issues or whatever it is they need to maintain their recoveries and succeed at CU-Boulder. We are one of six universities in the country with student recovery programs.

These are just a few examples of our numerous efforts to educate students about responsible drinking practices.

We have many outstanding students who are making a positive impact on our campus.

Students established an Honor Code system for our campus. The Honor Code is about academic integrity, moral and ethical conduct, and pride of membership in a community that values academic achievement and individual responsibility. Students developed, promoted and implemented the code with faculty and administrative assistance and continue to oversee its policies and procedures.

The Colorado Creed was formed by a group of students as an effort to promote what it means to be a University of Colorado student. Their goals are to encourage students to consider the consequences of their actions; unite the student body, faculty, and staff in efforts to maintain the quality of a CU degree; and support behavior that promotes excellence.

There are more than 300 clubs and organizations to choose from that cater to a variety of interests, including speech and debate, foreign languages, music and dance, politics, spirituality, martial arts, and sports, among others, and many opportunities for students to volunteer in the community.

We believe that students who are challenged and engaged enhance the educational experience for all members of the campus community. Therefore, we are seeking talented, academically committed students to come to CU-Boulder.

Our students become life-long learners who are important contributors to the communities where they live and work. Many of our graduates go on to make a difference in the nation and the world because of their undergraduate years spent at CU-Boulder.

On behalf of the entire university, I want you to know that we are honored that you are here today, and hope that you will choose the University of Colorado at Boulder as the place to continue your education. Thank you for coming!

G.P. "Bud" Peterson, Chancellor
University of Colorado at Boulder