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Campus News
Spring Plan Aims to Bring More Students Safely to Campus
Colorado College announced plans in mid-October to responsibly bring as many students as possible to live on or near campus for the Spring Semester so that they may experience the full, distinctive CC liberal arts education. The college’s intent is to allow seniors to finish their last year at CC, and new and international students to become better established in their first year. During the fall, CC modeled density, capacity, testing capabilities, and processes to develop a plan that emphasizes “de-densifying” the campus and continues its rigorous testing program, says Andrea Bruder, professor of mathematics, associate dean of the faculty, and chair of CC’s COVID Scientific Advisory Group. This includes testing students upon arrival; randomized testing of students, faculty, and staff; response protocols; creating pods/cohorts, and conducting wastewater testing and other measures to quickly identify, pinpoint, and isolate cases of the virus. Additionally, CC has established four CC Alert Levels, which the campus follows in addition to El Paso County’s alert levels. The number of new weekly cases at CC is the primary criterion for determining the CC Alert Level. Other campus criteria include the availability of space where those with positive test results can isolate; the total number of quarantined individuals and the college’s capacity to provide them with sufficient support; and COVID-19 cases, positivity rates, and hospitalization rates in El Paso County, says Brian Young, CC’s vice president for information technology/chief technology officer. While CC has students living on campus, they are spread out, with the college carefully spacing rooms to maintain low density, a component of the risk-mitigation plan. Students also are allowed to live off-campus, as the college is waiving the three-year residency requirement this year. The college anticipates having approximately 1,040 students on campus
and 330 in supplemental housing. CC’s Spring Plan also includes the cancellation of the 2021 Spring Break, in order to reduce the risk of massive outbreaks and quarantines. After obtaining input from faculty, staff, students, and CC’s Scientific Advisory Group and national medical advisers, it was determined that the risk of a major virus outbreak and large quarantines outweighs the benefits of a lengthy Spring Break. There will be a regular block break between Blocks 6-7.
During summer 2020, CC planned to bring students to campus in phases, with the intention of having all students on campus by Block 2. However, after a few cases of COVID-19 led to the quarantine of entire residence halls, CC followed scientific and medical advice to “de-densify” campus, sending some students home.
J Block runs Jan. 4-27, with CC’s Half Block running Jan. 12-22. Testing and move-in for Winter Start students is Jan. 25, with Winter Start Orientation running Jan. 26-30 and Block 5 beginning Feb. 1. CC also is offering 10 blocks for the price of eight so that students have additional flexibility when scheduling classes.
CC COVID Risk Mitigation Alert Levels & Actions
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 3
LEVEL 4
what it means
• Goal: risk mitigation • Testing: 25-33% weekly • New Weekly Infections at CC: < 5
• Goal: increased adherence to everyday measures • Testing: 37-50% weekly • New Weekly Infections at CC: 5-10
• Goal: reduce interactions • Testing: 50-67% weekly • New Weekly Infections at CC: 10-20
• Goal: buy time for extensive testing • Testing: 100% within 7 days • New Weekly Infections at CC: ≥ 20 • Instruction: in-person, hybrid, flex, or remote • Movement: full use of socially-distanced campus
• Instruction: in-person, hybrid, flex, or remote • Movement: limit social interactions to academically necessary activities (e.g., study groups); outdoor time allowed
• Instruction: 100% remote • Movement: students stay in their living area (e.g., dorm floor) except to pick up meals; outdoor time allowed
• Instruction: 100% remote • Movement: students stay in their room, temporary quarantine of up to seven days will be put into place until testing and tracing are completed; guidance for outdoor time will be provided
Version 2.0 (November 10, 2020) Created by the Colorado College Science Advisory group in consultation with Crown & Company. Components and practices listed above may be updated to reflect best evidence.
$575,000 Grant Supports Black Students Pursuing Careers in Education
Colorado College has received a $575,000 grant from the Sachs Foundation to support Black students interested in pursuing careers in education. The grant will be used to support summer fellowships, academic-year internships, and scholarships, including two Master of Arts in Teaching scholarships.
“We are enormously grateful to the Sachs Foundation for this generous and visionary grant,” says Acting Co-president Mike Edmonds. “The grant supports Colorado College’s goals of making a CC education financially accessible and helps advance our antiracism initiative.”
Manya Whitaker, associate professor and chair of the Education Department, says the partnership with the Sachs Foundation allows the department to continue its mission to teach for social justice. “Such a mission necessitates the active recruitment, development, and support of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) teachers, but especially Black teachers whose presence in the classroom yields positive social, cognitive, and academic outcomes for all students, regardless of race,” she says. “We are extremely grateful to the Sachs Foundation for removing the economic barriers that prevent many Black students from considering a career in the classroom.”
The primary mission of the Colorado Springs-based Sachs Foundation is to provide educational opportunities to Black and African American residents of Colorado who meet established academic and financial criteria.
CC Co-Hosts Cornel West Virtual Conversation
Colorado College and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs joined together in mid-October to present “An Afternoon with Cornel West: Race, Religion, and Politics in a Year of Global Calamity.” To date, the virtual event, aimed at raising public awareness of the socio-political challenges facing the nation during an election year, has had approximately 4,000 views. Cornel West, professor of the practice of public philosophy at Harvard Divinity School and professor emeritus at Princeton University, discussed what was at stake in November's election, while looking at the forces that have brought the nation to this current historical moment, including a global pandemic, uprisings for racial justice, and a radically polarized U.S. electorate. Joining West in the virtual conversation was Christopher Hunt, CC assistant professor of religion, and two UCCS faculty members.
DISCOVER MORE ONLINE
If you missed the event, check it out at 2cc.co/cornelwest
NEWS IN BRIEF
Students Launch Mutual Aid Fund to Help One Another
A group of nine students — which later grew to approximately 15 — have founded the Colorado College Mutual Aid Fund to support students who request aid to meet basic living expenses. Funds generally are requested for items such as groceries, rent, transportation, and utilities by low-income students already receiving financial aid but who need additional help.
Begun in late July, the Mutual Aid Fund started as a branch of the student group Collective for Antiracism and Liberation. The Mutual Aid Fund is entirely student-run, created by students, for students, and organized under the Colorado College Office of Advancement. The group strives to create a network of solidarity within the CC community in order to meet each other’s needs, say students who drafted much of the organization’s statements. Among them are Hannah Friedman ’22, Misbah Lakhani ’24, Tova Salzinger ’22, Dylan Chapell ’24, and Ellie Miles ’23.
According to the organizers, approximately 70% of the students who have requested aid are people of color and 62% are Bridge Scholars. The average request is $1,800.
The founding students say a key differentiator of the fund is that it’s based in solidarity, not charity – one that directly allows CC students full and equitable access to their education.
“We hope to better our collective capacity to access a CC education, and address a number of related challenges that may have arisen for community members pertaining to COVID-19,” says Salzinger.
Since July, the group has raised $100,827 and distributed $76,781 of that to 151 students so far. This has been possible because of donations of all sizes from more than 600 students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, board members, and other community members. The group continues to raise money and will distribute the additional funds over the course of the Spring Semester.
All donations to the Mutual Aid Fund are used to supplement needs not covered by CC’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Emergency Response Fund and International Student Assistance Fund. The group is working on fundraising from current students through social media, noting that if every CC student donated $20 per month ($5 a week) through the end of the Fall Semester, the fund would be able to redistribute $91,640; if continued through the end of the academic year, it would add up to $320,740. The students also are partnering with the Senior Class Gift and the Young Alumni Donation Committees to engage seniors and young alumni in redistribution of wealth. They also are sending targeted emails, texts, and letters to alumni and parents.
DISCOVER MORE ONLINE
More information and giving information is available at 2cc.co/mutualaid
Colorado College has joined the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center’s newly established Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance. Colorado College’s inclusion in the Racial Equity Leadership Alliance is “yet another recognition of the critically important work we are doing through our antiracism initiative,” says CC Acting Co-President Mike Edmonds. “We are delighted to learn and work alongside other institutions that are participating in this groundbreaking alliance.”
Beginning in January, the center will host a dozen “eConvenings,” or virtual gatherings of member colleges, each on a particular aspect of racial equity. These monthly, live professional learning experiences will be held virtually throughout the year. Threehour learning sessions, each on a different topic, will be delivered by leaders of national higher education associations, tenured professors who study race relations and people of color, chief diversity officers and other experienced administrators, and specialists from the center.
These sessions will focus primarily on strategies and practical approaches, using contemporary cases of equity dilemmas and racial crises on liberal arts college campuses. Emphasis will be placed on learning from experiences that have recently occurred elsewhere; learning how to get ahead of situations and reducing risk of crisis; and learning actionable equity leadership strategies.
Wastewater Testing Helps in Early Detection of Virus
CC’s wastewater testing program was featured prominently in an NPR story titled “Colleges Turn To Wastewater Testing In An Effort To Flush Out The Coronavirus” that aired on Oct. 26. NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny visited Colorado College on Oct. 7 for the story, in which she interviewed Andrea Bruder, associate professor of mathematics, to learn how wastewater monitoring by colleges and universities provides an early opportunity to identify instances of the virus. As Nadworny noted, “In her 11 years on campus, Bruder had no reason to know about the dorm sewage lines — much of her research focused on ladybugs and aphids on yucca plants. But like so many faculty and staff members at U.S. colleges, she’s redirected her research to focus on COVID-19, using her expertise to keep the campus safe.”
CC added wastewater testing in mid-September to its comprehensive testing program, in an effort to help find COVID-19 cases before people become symptomatic. Bruder, who serves as associate dean of the faculty and chair of CC’s COVID Scientific Advisory Group, is part of a team that collects residence hall wastewater two times a week in an effort to detect the Coronavirus.
Researchers have found that spikes in the virus concentration in wastewater can be detected one to two weeks before spikes in the number of cases might occur. The sampling can be done in areas as specific
Associate Professor Andrea Bruder collects wastewater samples beneath South Hall. Photo by Elissa Nadworny /NPR
as a certain wing or level of a single residence hall. If the virus is detected in the wastewater, residents in that section of the building can be tested quickly, and those who receive positive test results can be FACULTY UPDATES Award-winning educator and author Felicia Rose Chavez joins Creativity & Innovation as its first Bronfman Creativity & Innovation Scholar-in-Residence. The three-year residency allows Creativity & Innovation to become more integrated in the everyday lives of CC students. Dez Stone Menendez ’02, director of Creativity & Innovation, says, “Felicia embodies the program’s goals to nurture students’ creative capacities and to support the college’s ongoing antiracist work. In this new role, Felicia’s work has the potential to benefit our entire CC community.” Chavez will work in collaboration with CC faculty members from all disciplines to develop and implement the curricular programs that will help build students’ creative capacities. Chavez, who holds an MFA in creative nonfiction, is the author of “The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom,” and co-editor of “The BreakBeat Poets Volume 4: LatiNEXT.” She taught courses at CC in English and Film and Media Studies from 2012-18. isolated, preventing an outbreak. “It’s a great tool in our arsenal to help stop this spread because it catches it really early,” says Brian Young, vice president for information technology and chief technology officer. The CC pilot project includes South, Mathias, and Loomis halls, with additional buildings possibly being added in the future. “Following the pilot project where we collected grab samples twice each week, we plan to use autosamplers to collect composite samples over a 24-hour period to gather data that is more representative of entire buildings
throughout the day,” says Bruder.
PHOTO BY IDRIS GOODWIN
FACULTY UPDATES
Colorado College Welcomes 10 New Faculty Members, Two Riley Scholars
Last fall, 10 new tenure-track faculty members and two Riley Scholars-in-Residence, including CC alumnus Juan Miguel Arias ’12, joined Colorado College. In welcoming them, Acting Provost and Dean of Faculty Claire Oberon Garcia noted that “their scholarly talents and commitment to teaching further enriches a strong and vibrant community of teacher-scholars and creative practitioners. The value of a liberal arts education has never been higher: We are preparing our students to ask tough questions of the world in which they live, and each of the new faculty members brings a unique perspective to the Colorado College community.”
Acknowledging the unprecedented circumstances under which they are joining the campus community, Garcia says, “They are starting their careers here at a time of two entwined and profound crises: a public health crisis and a crisis of our democracy as it confronts unprecedented and sometimes violent challenges to basic rights of citizenship. They are teaching students who are developing intellectually and socially in highly stressful times. But I am fully confident that each of our new colleagues — with their strong records of innovative pedagogies and relevant scholarship — are ready to thrive professionally and continue CC’s tradition of providing the best liberal arts education in the nation in an institution committed to antiracism in everything we do.”
The new tenure-track faculty members are:
• Aline Lo, English • Arom Choi, Film and Media Studies
• Cayce Hughes, Sociology • Chantal Figueroa, Sociology • Donald Clayton, Chemistry and Biochemistry • John Marquez, History • Liliana Carrizo, Music
• Lisa Marie Rollins, Theatre and Dance
• Nene Diop, French • Sofia Fenner, Political Science
The new Riley Scholars-in-Residence are:
• Ahmad Alswaid, Arabic, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies
• Juan Miguel Arias ’12, Education
DISCOVER MORE ONLINE
Read more about the new faculty members and Riley Scholars online at 2cc.co/newfaculty2020
Eli Fahrenkrug Receives $55,000 Grant for Research Fellowships
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Eli Fahrenkrug has been awarded a $55,000 grant from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund for a project titled “Selective Polymorph Crystallization within the Electrical Double Layer.” The grant, part of the ACS PRF’s Undergraduate New Investigator program, will support three undergraduate research fellowships each summer for the next three summers; two fellowships will be supported by ACS PRF and one will be supported by Colorado College.
Of all drugs produced, more than 60% are orally delivered in a compressed pill or tablet format. More than half of these drugs exist in more than one crystalline structure. “This means that the molecules comprising the crystal (i.e., the pill) are unchanged, but the way they arrange themselves in space differs — this phenomenon is known as polymorphism. Simple changes in crystal structure can often render a therapeutic
PHOTO BY JENNIFER COOMBES
drug completely ineffective,” Fahrenkrug says. “Controlling polymorphism is notoriously fickle and remains an outstanding challenge in the fields of chemistry and physics.”
Virtual CC Conversations Promote Dialogue on Major Issues
CC has held six events in a series called “CC Conversations,” an in-depth, online forum which seeks to engage participants on the issues, events, and moments of our time. So far, the series has had more than 19,000 viewers, either through Zoom or joining via CC’s Facebook page for a livestream. The series centers on the scholarship and expertise of Colorado College faculty, staff, students, and alumni and furthers the college’s educational mission. Anyone, regardless of whether they are affiliated with CC, can tune in.
The first forum, “CC Conversation on Racism, Policing, & Protest” was held on June 18, and was moderated by Manya Whitaker, associate professor and chair of the Education Department. A CC Conversation has been held every month since, and include: “Facing the Pandemic,” in July (with three alumni panelists: Margaret Liu ’77, Sonlatsa Jim-Martin ’94, and Tia Tummino ’11); “Rising Indigenous Liberation,” in August; “Antiracism,” in September; and “Election 2020: What’s at Stake?” in October.
A sixth CC Conversation on climate change, moderated by Corina McKendry, associate professor of political science and director of the State of the Rockies Project, is scheduled for Block 5.
L. Song Richardson
NAMED COLORADO COLLEGE’S 14 TH PRESIDENT
By Leslie Weddell
L. Song Richardson, currently the dean and chancellor’s professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, was unanimously selected as Colorado College’s 14th president by the Board of Trustees on Dec. 9. Richardson, a legal scholar, educator, lawyer, and expert on implicit racial and gender bias, will assume the presidency on July 1, 2021.
Her selection was announced via a video that included an introduction by trustees and perspectives from the CC student body, faculty, and staff, as well as a message from Richardson to the CC community.
Richardson, who is Black and Korean, will be the first woman of color to hold the presidency at Colorado College. When she was appointed to her current post at the University of California, Irvine School of Law in January 2018, she was the only woman of color to lead a top-30 law school.
Richardson says she wasn’t looking to leave UC Irvine School of Law, but she felt deeply connected to Colorado College’s people, core values, and sense of purpose. CC’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, its initiatives to increase access for students, and its dedication to sustainability and innovation were among the factors that drew her to the college. Each time she met with members of what she calls “CC’s extraordinary community,” Richardson says her excitement about the college grew. “I never dreamed that I would be leaving UCI Law, a community that I adore and a school that has achieved unprecedented success in less than 11 years of existence,” Richardson says. “But then I was introduced to Colorado College. Everything about CC resonated with me. The more I learned, the more intrigued I was by this community of innovative changemakers and problem-solvers.”
“Dean Richardson’s research into racial and gender bias, her thoughtful scholarship and voice on policing and safety, and her dedication to building resiliency in students will move CC’s antiracism and innovation efforts forward as an institution,” says Acting Co-President Mike Edmonds, who has been serving with Acting Co-President Robert G. Moore since former President Jill Tiefenthaler’s departure in July. “Her passion for this work will propel our graduates forward to create solutions to some of the most challenging issues in our country and in our world.” Edmonds is the first person of color to serve in the presidential capacity.
PHOTO BY SALLY RYAN
Prior to becoming dean at UC Irvine School of Law, Richardson served as interim dean and senior associate dean for academic affairs. She holds joint appointments in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society and in the Department of Asian American Studies. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.
Richardson’s interdisciplinary research uses lessons from cognitive and social psychology to study decision-making and judgment. Her scholarship has been published by law journals at Harvard, Yale, University of California-Berkeley, Cornell University, Duke University, and Northwestern University, among others. She is working on a book that reflects on the current reckoning with anti-Blackness that is occurring across the U.S. and its implications for law and policy.
Richardson’s legal career included partnership at a criminal defense law firm and work as a state and
federal public defender. She was an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and a Skadden Arps Public Interest Fellow with the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles and the Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Unit in Brooklyn, New York. “She is authentic and accessible, a scholar committed to building the resiliency, depth, and breadth of students, and a changemaker who will shift CC and our future graduates forward on the path toward antiracism, access, and even greater academic excellence.” Susie Burghart ’77, chair of the Board of Trustees
She has won numerous awards and recognitions. She was honored for contributions to legal education through mentoring, teaching, and scholarship; was named one of the top women lawyers in California; and was chosen as one of the two most influential Korean Americans in Orange County, California.
In CC’s introductory video, Richardson speaks candidly about her personal journey, including training to be a concert pianist as a child, having a debilitating fear of public speaking, and understanding what it’s like to feel like an impostor. She says she created her own “Block Plan” while in law school — although she didn’t call it that at the time — by reading everything she could about public speaking and putting herself in positions where she had to address audiences, even though it was extremely uncomfortable, in pursuit of her dream of becoming a civil rights lawyer. Additionally, her hours of piano practice paid off: Richardson is a classically trained pianist who performed twice with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and won numerous major piano competitions, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Harvard-Radcliffe concerto competitions.
Jeff Keller ’91, P’22, vice chair of CC’s Board of Trustees and chair of the presidential search committee, says input was gathered from a group of more than 100 trustees, faculty, students, staff, and alumni to determine characteristics the search committee should seek in the next president. Additionally, more than 700 members of the CC community, including alumni and families of CC students, provided input through an online survey. “The findings from the feedback gathered made it clear that CC’s next president must be committed to maintaining and advancing the college’s sustained academic rigor and distinctive educational approach, broad creativity and innovation, and an unfaltering commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and antiracism initiatives,” he says.
“Dean Richardson is incredibly accomplished, with a track record of always leaning passionately into opportunity. She fits with our students, who are adventurous by nature, with a desire to take bold but carefully thought-out risks,” says Keller. “We have found the right person at the right time for Colorado College.”
CC Student Body President Sakina Bhatti ’22 says Richardson is what Colorado College needs. “Her passion for understanding racial and gender bias are particularly fitting as we educate students to address the challenges of our time.” Citing Richardson’s knowledge, charisma, dedication to students and ability to further Colorado College’s commitment to antiracism, Bhatti says she’s “beyond excited” to have Richardson join the CC community as its new president.
“Dean Richardson embodies the curiosity, dedication, spirit, commitment, and joy that are the essence of CC,” says Susie Burghart ’77, chair of the Board of Trustees. “She is authentic and accessible, a scholar committed to building the resiliency, depth, and breadth of students, and a changemaker who will shift CC and our future graduates forward on the path toward antiracism, access, and even greater academic excellence.”
“Dean Richardson is incredibly accomplished, with a track record of always leaning passionately into opportunity. She fits with our students, who are adventurous by nature, with a desire to take bold but carefully thought-out risks. ” Jeff Keller ’91, P’22, vice chair of CC’s Board of Trustees and chair of the presidential search committee Director of Performing Arts and Associate Professor of Music Ryan Bañagale ’00 says Richardson has “outstanding qualities that make her the unquestionable choice to lead CC into the future.” He notes her past administrative experiences have resulted in meaningful dialogue on difficult issues such as race and social justice, leading to important shifts in institutional culture. Bañagale says the incoming president is an outstanding teacher and engagingly effective communicator who understands that the solutions to many of the current challenges facing humanity will come from multidisciplinary creativity and collaboration. One of Richardson’s greatest strengths, says Bañagale, is “the value she places on learning and working across differences with empathy and an open mind.”
Rochelle T. Dickey ’83, P’19, acting dean of students and acting vice president for student life, says as a student at CC, she could never have imagined a president who shares her identity as a Black woman. At that time, she says, it was even hard to imagine a female president. “Song brings so much to the table,” says Dickey. “Song Richardson inspires me just as she has inspired so many others.”
The board confirmed Richardson after a nine-month nationwide search conducted by a presidential search committee that included trustees, faculty, staff, and students. The committee considered highly accomplished leaders from a pool of more than 150 applicants with diverse backgrounds.
Richardson and her husband, artist Kurt Kieffer, plan to move to Colorado Springs in the coming months. “I am honored to join CC and the Colorado Springs community, and look forward to building a bright future together,” she says.
Richardson succeeds Tiefenthaler, who served as president for nine years and is now the chief executive officer of National Geographic Society.
DISCOVER MORE ONLINE
See the video announcing L. Song Richardson as CC’s 14th president online at 2cc.co/newpres
