CWA Newsletter - CWA June Newsletter
Visioning Outcome and Next Steps for the Conference on World Affairs
Dear Conference on World Affairs community,
In the brief time I have been connected to CWA, I have been struck by the passion, commitment and care demonstrated by our community, campus and student volunteers and by the energy and enthusiasm you bring to the annual event each April.
This April, CWA was a resounding success, with over 70 panels, speakers and keynotes attended by 1,500+ community members, faculty, staff and students from the local area, across the country and around the world via our livestreaming platform. From positive media coverage to strong attendance at our panels and keynotes, the conference fulfilled its 76-year CU and Boulder tradition of enabling open, multi-faceted and balanced discussion of today’s challenging issues in events collaboratively planned by CU and Boulder community members for audiences both academic and non-academic.
Beginning with Scott Dikkers of the Onion illuminating us on the perils (and humor) of misinformation and culminating with a packed house at Macky Auditorium for Coach Prime’s keynote in partnership with the CU Boulder Center for Leadership, CWA explored the themes of leadership, global equity and the next 100 years with a range of speakers and perspectives that you can watch (or rewatch) via our session recordings.
With this momentum in mind, I am also cognizant of the continuing opportunities CWA has to serve the university and our community as we move toward the next academic year beginning in August, and I’m excited to share the outcome of the visioning process we kicked off last summer and how we are proceeding with next steps.
A multi-year commitment to the future of CWA
CU Boulder is making a multi-year commitment to CWA’s future, and we are initiating the following next steps this summer.
- A strategic CU Boulder event anchor—our vision is to collaborate with existing campus and community event owners to develop an annual schedule of CU and Boulder events associated with CWA—culminating in an April event schedule anchored by CWA week each spring—that engages broad audiences, including CU Boulder students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters, as well as community members, K-12 students and broader audiences across Colorado and beyond.
- A university–community partnership—the core CWA April programming model will continue to be a university–community partnership, with university oversight and approvals through the strategic events team that reports to my role as Vice Chancellor of Strategic Communications and Chief Communications Officer.
- From a CWA board to a steering committee—Beginning this summer, the CWA board as currently constituted will begin transitioning to a CWA Steering Committee comprised of those closely engaged in the conference’s annual scope of work—including myself, a CWA faculty programming lead we will recruit this fall, the CWA community program chair, the CWA student program chair, the strategic events team, academic and administrative leadership, and additional community and student volunteer representatives.
- Clear roles, responsibilities and oversight—With my direct involvement, the strategic events team will work with our CWA volunteer leadership and steering committee to standardize the annual CWA event planning timeline, including alignment with our campus mission and values, staff and volunteer roles and conduct expectations, and clear accountability for goal setting, programming, communications, fundraising, budgets, logistics, approvals and metrics of success.
- Outreach to campus and community constituencies—We have already begun engagement work with a range of current and former campus and CWA constituencies, and my team and I will be increasing the frequency of communication and opportunities for dialogue with you in the coming months.
Next steps
Our current CWA board members and our Community Program Chair Yvette Lowney and Student Program Chair Vara Reom will be continuing to support the conference, collaborating closely with my team to enable us to implement the working model for CWA this summer and help us recruit faculty leadership, programming committee members and outreach volunteers as we start planning CWA for the coming year.
In the meantime, thank you for your continued engagement and please stay tuned for more updates in July.
With gratitude,
Jon Leslie
Vice Chancellor of Strategic Communications and Chief Communications Officer
Interim CWA Director
PS
Save the Date—CWA 2025 Is the Week of April 7.
We hope to see you next year during the week of April 7, 2025 for the next CWA!