The Buffalo Way
What is important. What matters. What is precious.
When something is important, we spend time on it, take care of it, grow it. When something is precious, we may do the same and also be protective.
As we think about what matters, is important and is precious, we are reminded that we are part of a herd in which each member is important, matters and is precious. In the College of Arts and Sciences, we are helping to protect our herd with our new embedded therapists, Rachel and Colleen, to promote and support the mental health of our students. Our new “Let’s CU Well” initiative is getting started with Faculty Expert Professor, Kim Dickey, who will discuss this month’s theme as it relates to her art and creative practice. As this semester begins, remember that you are part of the herd, are important, do matter and are worth protecting.
About the background sculpture
Half Arch: Aluminum, glazed terrracotta, rubber grommets, silicon 73" x 98" x 14"
Kim Dickey
"I’ve had the opportunity to focus on how sculpture can provide a space for healing through an invitation to design a sculpture garden on the sixth floor terrace of the new Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. At either end of this expansive terrace, two large-scale green wall-like forms inspired by architectural fragments and minimalist sculpture, frame the space. “Half Arch” and “Inverted L Beam,” tall aluminum structures cloaked in green, terracotta, quatrefoil leaves, each suggest an upended or split portal. Spaced apart, between these bookend sculptures resembling hedges, three foliated, cast-concrete animals will live among the plantings within garden beds along the terrace. Larger-than-life, a squirrel, “The Collector (Memory)”, dog “The Girlfriend (Fidelity)”, and seated lion, “Wolfgang’s Lion” occupy the stage of this garden space as reminders of the denizens of NYC street life, and of the qualities we cherish and sometimes struggle to maintain in times of crisis: courage, remembrance, loyalty and friendship. The sculptures, all covered with a leafy surface, blend animal and architecture with natural forms, in an aim to collapse the distance between outside and inside, exteriority and interiority. The site of this garden, elevated high above the ground, asks us to suspend our disbelief, to dream, and - as only art can - allow us to reconstruct the world as we hope it could be."
Special presentation:
The Value of Making: An Artist’s View
Thursday, Sept. 9, 3 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Featuring faculty expert Kim Dickey
Let's CU Well will include a featured research presentation from Kim Dickey, Q&A and a wellness participation challenge. Please join us in person at the Chancellor's Hall in CASE or online through our Zoom live-stream. Dickey describes her topic this way:
“Paying attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
—Simone Weil
Learning to “pay attention” is fundamental to arts education. It provides opportunities to encounter our surroundings more closely, to connect to histories through material exploration and to understand that every act of attention has the potential to shift our perception of the world we live in. Dickey will share how her creative projects foreground the value of art as that of making space, as well as how almost any act of making can acknowledge and honor our relations with others.
Registration information is below:
About Kim Dickey
Artist and professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, Kim Dickey received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from Alfred University. From 1991 to 1994, she served as director of Greenwich House Pottery in New York, where she curated over 20 exhibitions of contemporary ceramics in the Jane Hartsook Gallery. Her own work has been featured in numerous solo and group invitational shows in Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
"Qualities we cherish and sometimes struggle to maintain in times of crisis: courage, remembrance, loyalty and friendship. "
What is Let's CU Well?
We promote a culture of care and wellness in the College of Arts and Sciences with the Let’s CU Well campaign. Our aim is to bring to life Be Well's eight dimensions of wellness by encouraging healthful behaviors for students, employees and others in a fun, inclusive and practical way by promoting the benefits associated with college wellness research and expertise.
The college's wellness researchers and practitioners as subject-matter experts who provide the monthly wellness content for lectures, participant prompts and Be Well promotional material.
Join us!
Participants submit evidence of wellness behaviors that are inspired by monthly wellness themes to reinforce wellness for participants, the College of Arts and Sciences and CU Boulder.
Find what's important to you: September campus events
Staff Council blood drive August 31 - September 2
Staff Council invites all CU Boulder staff, faculty and students eligible to donate blood to participate in our blood drive. Blood center reserves are critically low, making it an especially crucial time for donating.
Donate and receive two free CU football tickets to the season-opening home game against Northern Colorado on Sept. 3, as well as a Vitalant t-shirt!
Pride Picnic September 2
Join the LGBTQ+ and allied community on Sept. 2 for a welcome-back picnic! Play games, meet new friends, and learn about the Pride Office and all of the LGBTQ+ student organizations on campus. If you want to get involved with our community, this is a great place to start! Free food and beverages will be provided.
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm, Regis Lawn
Education abroad fair September 9
Get info on the academic and financial components of a term abroad, your next steps, and even start your application during the fair! Application deadlines for spring 2022 abroad range from Sept 1 to Oct. 1, so don’t miss out!
The fair will take place 10:30 am until 2:00 pm at the UMC South Terrace tent.
Takács Quartet performance Sept. 12–20
The Grammy-winning Takács Quartet has moved audiences and sold out halls at CU Boulder for more than three decades. Join upcoming performances in person or tune in virtually.
Mental Health Is...Connection
Buffs roam together. Making friends as an adult can be challenging, especially after living through a pandemic for a year. As we return to a more traditional school year, it’s important to remember that the way we connect with people and make friends may feel different now than it did before the pandemic started.
Resources
Attend the Health & Wellness Summit
We hope you will join us for CU Boulder’s 4th annual Health & Wellness Summit! The summit is open to CU faculty, staff and students interested in learning more about our holistic approach to health and wellness and about the programs and services available.
Need to talk with a professional?
The college’s primary embedded therapist liaisons from Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) are Rachel LaHoda and Jazmyne Peters. They will serve as the college’s key CAPS collaborators regarding building relationships with the college or leadership and assessing mental health needs, as well as providing direct counseling services to A&S students. Peters also has special interest and experience in working with BIPOC students, specifically around race-based stress and trauma. The college’s third embedded therapist is Colleen Ehrnstrom, who will also be dedicated to providing direct care and support to students. All A&S students can also see all CAPS counselors including Karen Hamilton-Stokes, therapist Focused on Black or Black-Identified and marginalized students, and Ben Ototivo and Beth Parsons, multicultural specialist positions.
How to connect with an embedded therapist:
- Attend a Let’s Talk session with an A&S embedded therapist.
- Schedule a screening appointment online. If you end up scheduling a screening with a different provider, they can help schedule an initial therapy session with an A&S counselor.
Try Mindfulness
The Contemplative Resource Center (CRC) seeks to integrate secular contemplative practices into how we at the University of Colorado work, teach, learn and live.
Students can also join Health Promotion for free Mindful Mondays to engage in mindfulness exercises and learn about resources on campus.
Evidence-based acupressure
Since 2002, the CAIRR Neuroscience Laboratory in the Psychology and Neuroscience Department has conducted clinical research studies about the efficacy of acupressure for stress, cardiovascular function in stroke survivors, and mild traumatic brain injury in both civilian and veteran populations. From these, an evidence base has emerged, providing the foundation for the ITEA Plus webpage platform.
Acupuncture can also help relieve symptoms related to stress, fatigue, back and neck pain, anxiety and other conditions. Students, staff and faculty can access acupuncture services through Physical Therapy and Integrative Care at Wardenburg Health Center.