Dean's Letter

Currently, CU-Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences educates about 2,300 graduate students, nearly half of the campus total, and more than twice the number in any other single college on campus. Graduate students compose about 16 percent of the total A&S student body. These students seek advanced degrees, either at the master’s or Ph.D. level. At a comprehensive research university, they play critical roles in fulfilling our mission.

As graduation approaches, we see a notable uptick in campus activity, with term papers nearing completion and preparations for finals by both faculty and students. Recently, I was fortunate to help two honors students by serving on their thesis committees (honors theses need to be completed much earlier than other end-of-semester assignments).

As a comprehensive research and educational institution, the University of Colorado Boulder innovates. We maintain a leadership role relative to our peers by innovating across an impressive range of academic fields. Even with declining state support, CU-Boulder has continued to advance in new areas and is doing so in remarkable ways.

This week, we received the very best kind of news: Dr. David Wineland, CU-Boulder lecturer in physics and fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, won the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with his longtime colleague Dr. Serge Haroche.

It is bittersweet as my time as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences draws to a close. I know I will miss the challenges, rewards and friendships that have come with this position. I know that my successor is more than capable for the job.

Hope, the CU president said, is an incurable attribute of human beings, and hope is nowhere better cultivated than at the university. Here, scholars devote their lives to the pursuit of discovery and innovation.

As I write this, I am in the midst of my 11th year as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. In June, I will step out of the dean’s office—leaving behind the world of academic administration—and return to the faculty. The chancellor and provost have initiated a nationwide search for my replacement. I would like to tell you a bit about my decision.

Scientists and engineers compose about 4 percent of the nation’s workforce, but that small fraction exerts a large effect on the whole. A 2010 report by the National Academies explains why this matters.

After University of Colorado Distinguished Professor Thomas Cech won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989, he took the helm of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. One of his chief aims was to overhaul education, particularly in science, math and technology. Another goal was to retool the way research is done.

Every year, prospective students and their families pore over a range of college rankings that strive to gauge everything from universities’ academic rigor to their social atmosphere. Some of these assessments are more useful than others.