On Monday of this week, we began Maymester, the first of our three summer terms. Monday was also the day each dean's list of budget cuts was due to Chancellor Phil DiStefano's office. These are uncertain economic times, especially in higher education in Colorado, but I visited one class in particular on Monday that made things seem a little less dire.

The class is actually an entire certificate program condensed into three weeks of May. It's called "Ads a2b," and it's designed to equip students who are NOT majoring in advertising with the basic background, language and skills necessary to venture into the ad world. The program, now in its fourth year (and again at full enrollment), is offered through the campus's Division of Continuing Education, which means that the School receives a substantial share of the student-fee revenue. It's the entrepreneurial brainchild of our Advertising faculty, and it creates a revenue stream that will enable us to restore funding to some budget areas -- as well as enrich our Advertising instruction at unprecedented levels.

I'm still hoping the budget cuts will be minimal, but it's good to know that -- thanks to an enterprising faculty -- we've got backup.