A look at 2006-07: Investing in our future
(Page 3 of 3)

	Dancers perform in ATLAS. (Photo/Casey A. Cass)

Interdisciplinary partnerships - While the foundation of any university is based on the quality of its educational programs, the international reputation of all truly great educational institutions is based upon the quality of its scholarship. This scholarship must be dedicated to the creation of new ideas, new knowledge and new technologies, creative works and on the dissemination of that knowledge, those technologies, and those creative works in appropriate forums. The technological and creative advances of the next century will be made at the interfaces between traditional disciplines and as a result, continued emphasis must be placed on the development of interdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship, and the establishment of strong intellectual partnerships: partnerships between institutions, between disciplines, between our university and the community, and between our faculty and our students, that allow all to become involved in and experience the excitement of creative scholarship and leading edge research. We are engaging in new partnerships with area universities, government and industry to forge new alliances and greater achievements in areas such as geosciences, energy research and biotechnology. We are also working together to seek out additional state and federal funding and other resources to make Colorado the nation's leader in these areas of growing importance to the state, the nation and the world. For example, we recently joined our colleagues at Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden in forming the Collaboratory, a joint research project for the development of new energy technologies. The Collaboratory is being heralded from the halls of state government, in the private sector and among our peers as having enormous potential for generating research dollars, new discoveries and most of all, new energy resources for our nation. Likewise, though we were not selected to host a supercomputer for environmental modeling that went to the University of Wyoming, we will nonetheless, be sharing access to the computer and partnering with UW in projects on computational science and atmospheric modeling. In other areas, we and our fellow institutions of higher education have joined forces in lobbying for funding at the state capitol and delivering a unified message on the need to invest in the state's research universities as a strategy for economic growth in Colorado.

The new Wolf Law building. (Photo/Casey A. Cass)

Fundraising - Our educational, research, and creative and artistic achievements continue to impress, energize and motivate the great minds on our campus and are making CU-Boulder a hub of activity that keeps us among the nation's elite public research institutions. Much of this would not be possible without the generous support of our many constituencies, including alumni, private individuals, philanthropic foundations, and our partners in business and industry. Thanks to their collective support and the great work of the folks in the CU Foundation, our fundraising success has reached an all-time high. As of March 31, 2007, fundraising at CU-Boulder is at $31.5 million, 35% ahead of where it was at this same time last year and we will clearly surpass our goal of $35.6 million.

There is much more to report, but time and space are limited. I want to close by thanking each of you for your contributions. Every one of these achievements has its roots in the hard work and vision of you, the members of our community. The University of Colorado at Boulder is a special place, where our dreams are harnessed to become vibrant realities and where our faculty, staff and students set their sights ever upward. In an age in which higher education struggles to help students find purpose, at CU-Boulder, purpose is built into all that we do and all that we seek to become. I believe that, with time, we will only reach greater heights in all that we do.

As we journey toward that end together, let me thank you all for your hard work and idealism, and for welcoming Val and me, and allowing us to serve this unique and incomparable institution that is the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Sincerely,

G.P. "Bud" Peterson
Chancellor