March 2017
Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano Philip P. DiStefano

Dear Friends,

I want to share with you what I told our campus community at my annual spring town hall last week: There are great things happening on our campus.

Our alumni and friends are integral to our imperative to develop tomorrow’s leaders through a foundation of student success. We wouldn’t be who we are today without your support.

For example, through the generosity of Ann Smead and Michael Byram, $15 million in gifts will propel scholarships and fellowships in our aerospace engineering program. The newly named Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is ranked one of the top four departments in the country overall, including the No. 10 graduate program and the No. 12 undergraduate program. This gift will attract top students and faculty in perpetuity.

The College of Arts and Sciences has received $17 million in donations this year, including nearly $6 million in chemistry, that will support students, endowed chairs and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

As I mentioned here last month, the College of Music announced its Music+ campaign. It’s halfway to meeting its $50 million goal, including major naming gifts. Thanks to our donors, faculty and leadership in the college, the College of Music is broadly regarded as among the top 10 public university music programs.

Recently, the Leeds School of Business announced two major gifts totaling nearly $10 million. One is a $3.7 million gift from a group of donors, alumni and foundations in support of the Hernando de Soto Capital Markets program.

The other is a nearly $6 million commitment from 1987 Leeds graduate Tandean Rustandy, who heads one of the world’s largest tile manufacturing companies. Tandean told us, “I come from a very humble family with working-class parents in Indonesia. Without CU Boulder and Leeds, I would not be who I am today.” Gifts from the heart are especially gratifying.

We are so pleased that Lockheed Martin invested $3 million in a CU Boulder partnership to fund a campus research center on radio frequency technologies and their use in space communications systems. The Lockheed Martin Radio Frequency Research Center will also offer several academic programs. This is a great example of industry collaboration with CU Boulder.

In addition, just last month we were named the 11th top producer of Peace Corps volunteers this year (and in the top five since 1961). Next month we are excited to host the 69th Conference on World Affairs featuring recent NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, new Grand Canyon National Park superintendent and CU Boulder alumna Chris Lehnertz, Cirque du Soleil Director of Creative Strategy James Tanabe and 100 other fascinating speakers. Mark your calendars for April 10-14. 

We hope to see you on campus!

Sincerely,

Philip P. DiStefano
Chancellor
www.colorado.edu/chancellor



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