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From the Acting Co-Presidents
Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends,
As we look forward to a muchanticipated presidential transition at Colorado College, we are grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the past year together. It has been our sincere honor to serve as co-presidents during this interim, and we thank you for your continued support and engagement.
Last spring brought many unforeseen challenges, but with your help CC adapted and stayed centered on our students. The pandemic dramatically changed students’ day-to-day campus experiences as we shifted to remote and hybrid learning to mitigate the virus’ spread. Despite unfamiliar circumstances, our faculty and staff embraced new ways of teaching and learning to provide a valuable liberal arts education and deliver support to our dynamic student body. Students found new ways to connect with one another and engage with the issues they are most passionate about, from the arts to social justice. Students’ willingness to radically change how they live, learn, and grow during this time has been a key to the success of this academic year and the health of the wider Colorado Springs community. Because of these efforts, Colorado College has maintained a significantly lower infection rate as compared to local and state levels since the start of the pandemic.
Our dedicated faculty and staff demonstrated courage, resilience, and creativity as we pivoted to virtual learning. They found new ways to engage students and make use of the Block Plan’s innovative flexibility, helping students connect with course materials and develop their sense of place, no matter where they were in the state, the nation, or the world. Our talented staff have helped students connect their studies with meaningful co-curricular engagement, provided invaluable mentorship, and have enabled structure and continuity as we face new challenges together. And you — our alumni, families, and friends — have supported this campus community with your time, volunteerism, and gifts.
We truly could not have had the successful year we did without your engagement. You gave generously to CC’s COVID-19 relief efforts, you participated in student mentorship opportunities, and you offered feedback and support as we navigated a truly unprecedented year. You also joined us to celebrate the Class of 2020, who graduated during an especially uncertain time. We invite you to join us in recognizing the Class of 2021, who have similarly adapted amid trying circumstances. While this year has brought many challenges, there are also many causes for celebration.
This issue of the Bulletin explores the pivotal role of the arts. From poetry to painting, fashion to film, from the classroom to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, we hope you enjoy reading about the community members among us whose creative works inspire and amaze. As we look ahead to the coming years, our commitment to the arts, and the transformative role they play both in our academics and in our wider society, remain strong. Finally, we invite you to join us in welcoming L. Song Richardson to the Colorado College community. Richardson will join CC as president on July 1, and we share in your excitement as we begin this transition. She brings a wealth of expertise as an educator, an expert on implicit racial and gender bias, and a legal scholar, and we are confident that through her visionary leadership she will help this community grow.
As we conclude the 2020-21 academic year, we extend our deepest thanks to you. We wish you health and happiness in the months ahead. We look forward to our continued work together.
Sincerely,
MIKE EDMONDS
Acting Co-president
ROBERT G. MOORE
Acting Co-president
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
PHOTO BY JENNIFER COOMBES
To the Editor:
AS AN AVID READER OF THE BULLETIN, I DIDN’T WANT THE YEAR TO END WITHOUT LETTING YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I APPRECIATED THE SUMMER 2020
ISSUE. The photo of Ali Keller in the Gates Greenhouse was especially meaningful for me. Many mornings I went up to the little greenhouse in Olin to take in the view of Pikes Peak and enjoy a little peace and quiet before spending the day in a biology, chemistry, or physics class. Since my class (’74) started CC with the Block Plan, I also appreciated the articles on the adoption of the plan and its flexibility. Going forward, I’d like to suggest that at some time over the next few years you feature remembrances of the early days of the Block Plan from students and faculty who lived through them. I’m thinking especially of the classes of ’71, ’72, and ’73, which experienced a mix of semesters and blocks; as well as the class of ’74, the first to complete all four years under the Block Plan. I know there would be many interesting stories about adapting to the Block Plan — likely too many to tell.
Sometimes things went too fast. For example, when the Block Plan started, the Chemistry Department decided to fasttrack biology majors, chemistry majors, and pre-meds through organic chemistry during the freshman year. That meant three blocks of chemistry in the first year, one of general chem and two of organic (for me, blocks 7, 8 & 9!). Well, that didn’t last too long.
On the other hand, sometimes things went too slowly. My first year I took an appreciation of music course. Although the textbook extended well into the “modern” era, our professor was still on the semester system and after 3½ weeks we had reached the Baroque period.
Well, that’s more than enough for now. Keep up the great work!
Mark Schlessman ’74
EDITOR’S NOTE: In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Block Plan, CC has been collecting remembrances of the Block Plan. Check out the Block Plan Stories section (and add your story) at coloradocollege. edu/basics/ blockplan/2020
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS:
In “Prioritizing Mental Health” (Bulletin, Summer 2020, p. 32), the academic degree Ph.D. should have been added after the name of Brittany Linton ’09. Linton is a licensed psychologist and serves as the director for primary care and mental health integration for the San Francisco Veterans Healthcare System. In the Aspen Bike Trip story (Bulletin, Winter 2020, p. 32), Paul Sheffer ’81 was inadvertently identified as Paul Scoggins. Sheffer was killed in a 1978 plane crash with Andrew “Andy” Reich ’81.
In the Winter 2020-21 issue of the Bulletin, we stated that the Class of ’61 would have a combined 60th reunion with the classes of ’59 and ’60 in October 2021. However, the ’61 Tigers have decided to hold off and combine with another class in October 2022. See p. 44 for more information regarding Homecoming 2021.
REACH OUT TO THE BULLETIN
We’d like to hear from you! The Colorado College Bulletin is distributed to alumni, parents, and friends. It seeks to portray the people, events, experiences, and topics that best reflect a CC education. We welcome comments, feedback, items of interest, class notes, letters to the editor, story suggestions, etc.
CC Connections: Have you unexpectedly encountered a fellow Tiger somewhere in the world? Let us know!
Class notes, obituaries, weddings and celebrations,
births and adoptions: Send your news! Information submitted should be for the current or previous year only.
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Help us build a better Bulletin by participating at
sites.coloradocollege.edu/bulletin Please send story ideas, class notes, and prints or digital images to: Bulletin/Communications Colorado College 14 E. Cache La Poudre St. Colorado Springs, Colo. 80903-3294
Email: bulletin@coloradocollege.edu
