Insider View

LONNIE TIMMONS III

CC Student Body President Deksyos Damtew ’22

When I stepped onto the CC campus in August to begin the 202122 academic year as a senior, I was transported back in time to my first visit as a prospective student in 2017. What I remember most about that day was how welcoming everyone was — from the students to the faculty, from the admission team to the staff at the dining hall and bookstore. I’m from Lakewood, Colorado. I’d initially thought I wanted to go to a larger school, but as I pictured myself being part of that close-knit community, I changed my mind.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, that community feeling was put to the test. Suddenly, we couldn’t do the things that build community naturally — like having lively, in-person classroom discussions or gathering with friends over a meal. We missed those bonding experiences that typically happen during club and athletic events, study abroad, and block break adventures. But ultimately, I think our community was strengthened during this time. We learned to adapt and take care of each other. One great example is CC Mutual Aid, the student-run group that strives to build a network of solidarity by meeting each other’s needs. This fund helps offset costs not covered by other support systems around campus, and it’s been incredibly impactful.

Today, I have a new sense of gratitude for being back on campus. The CC community continues to look out for each other by getting vaccinated and wearing masks because it’s important to all of us that we can gather safely. I’m thrilled to be back in person with the Speech and Debate team, a setting that’s very challenging to replicate on Zoom. It’s rewarding to meet with prospective students face-to-face again as an Admissions Fellow. And, I’m enjoying being able to interact with my professors outside the formality of a class Zoom call. Those relationships with faculty are part of what’s so special about academics at CC, so I’m feeling particularly grateful for the Block Plan this year.

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LONNIE TIMMONS III

Sociology Professor Kathy Giuffre talks with a student in September during her class Writing for Social Justice, which is a CC120 course in the Dynamics of Power interdisciplinary themed First-Year Experience. The Dynamics of Power poster presentations at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College featured work from 80-100 students.

The Enduring Block Plan

The Dynamics of Power Introduces First-Year Students to a Truly Interdisciplinary Education

By Jeremy Jones

At first glance, the classes Construction of Social Problems and Art and the Museum may not appear to have much in common. But as part of the new CC100 thematic cluster, The Dynamics of Power, they share the same focus as they examine a single topic through different, but intersecting, lenses.

The five-class collaborative is one of the many new First-Year Program options available to students in their first block at CC. Each provides the new college students with a comparative, interdisciplinary introduction to liberal arts scholarship on the Block Plan. And, ultimately, the academic approach helps first-year CC students make more informed choices about how and with what focus they pursue their education, career, and impact on the world.

“Every student takes a course in a department or program, but each professor is charged with exposing the students to another field and how they look at that issue,” says Gail Murphy-Geiss, professor and chair of the Sociology Department. “In high school, students had to take all these classes, and they think the world is divided up into these disciplines. And it is, but a lot of the most interesting work happens in the cracks. That’s what liberal arts is all about.”

Over the course of the block, students in Murphy-Geiss’s Construction of Social Problems visited presentations by professors in the Sociology, Anthropology, Southwest Studies, and Art departments to learn how each discipline examines and discusses power. At the end of the block, all 80-100 students from The Dynamics of Power cluster created poster presentations and gathered at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College to share and discuss them.

The poster presentation format is unique to the Dynamics of Power cluster, but the interdisciplinary approach to General Education is shared by all first-year students. The First-Year Program launched in the 2020-21 academic year, and students select a first block CC100: Critical Inquiry Seminar. Other CC100 themes for 2021 Block 1 included Global Exchange, Technologies of the Body, and Transcultural and Intersectional Identities.

“These courses are designed primarily to teach students about the nature of disciplines and how they relate to a liberal arts education,” says Aaron Stoller, assistant vice provost and director of academic programs.

By disrupting preconceptions and provoking questions that reach across departmental structures, CC100 clusters are designed to expand students’ view of learning and introduce them to a variety of disciplines, or particular ways of asking and answering questions. “In order to be empowered to make informed curricular choices about what they want to major in, and to be able to do authentic things in the disciplines, students need to understand what they are getting themselves into and the choices available to them,” Stoller says.

The innovative approach is more expansive than what most first-year students have known previously and one they seem to find appealing as they embrace the CC experience in The Dynamics of Power cluster.

“Just talking about the dynamics of power is a lot different from what I experienced in high school. And it’s been super great to learn about different social issues,” says Mahima Chiles ’25 from Colorado Springs, Colorado. “I think it will be really cool learning about the different lenses of sociology.”

“I’m interested in computer science, and I’ve never been able to take an art history class in high school,” says Mira Giles-Pufahl ’25 from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “So I was really excited to see this class and see art, which I’m interested in, and also power dynamics and the ethics of art and museums.”

In sociology and art classes early in Block 1, students readily shared their perspectives in small group discussions. They appeared eager to engage with each other and the material that was organized around issues shaping culture in real time.

“[The Dynamics of Power cluster] gave an opportunity to talk about something that I haven’t actually experienced before and to look at it in a new perspective,” says Claire O’Donnell ’25 from Baltimore, Maryland. “We’ve talked about issues, but usually only from a historical perspective, not necessarily sociology. And I thought that it was really interesting, especially coming out of a [pandemic] year of not being able to talk to anybody or really talk about issues that are prevailing in our society.”

The innovative content organization has been challenging but freeing for faculty as well.

“My hope for the students is that they have a really compelling first-block experience — that they are challenged and excited and in the wilderness and bothered and all the great things that can happen when you first arrive at college,” says Rebecca Tucker, professor and director of the Art Department. “I think the value of this model is that it structures a cross-disciplinary way of thinking right from the beginning of their career at CC.”

“I do hope all the students find their calling — not their discipline, but their calling, something that calls you, that you just can’t shake,” MurphyGeiss says. “And then they figure out what they need to put together at Colorado College to get there.”

WEEKE N D

From Oct. 8-10, 2021, the Tiger community came together on the CC campus for a combined Homecoming and Family Weekend. More than 2,400 alumni, parents, families, friends, and current students took part in the action-packed weekend that included class reunions, Homecoming Convocation and the Alumni Awards Ceremony, a CC Hockey pre-game tailgate event, a community picnic, educational sessions and learning opportunities, music and arts showcases, athletic events, affinity group meetups, and more. These are some of our favorite photos from the memorable weekend. Photos by Lonnie Timmons III and Gray Warrior. Save the date and plan to join us for Homecoming and Family Weekend, Oct. 7-9, 2022. See more photos at https://2cc.co/hcfw21.

Continuing a tradition started in 2019 — the president of the Fifty Year Club, Dan Cooper ’66, gifts a bottle of champagne for champagne showers to CC Student Body President Deksyos Damtew ’22.

President L. Song Richardson congratulates alumni awardee Shawn T. Sears ’98 as he receives the 2020 Spirit of Adventure Award during Homecoming Convocation. Kathy Rechnitzer Kelly ’71, left, celebrates with her sister Karen Rechnitzer Pope ’70, P’04, after Karen received the 2021 Lloyd E. Worner Award at Homecoming Convocation.

Clockwise from left: Jessica Legaard ’25, Troy Legaard, Rose Marie Legaard, Amy Legaard, and Beatrice Babbitt enjoy a farewell brunch at Ed Robson Arena. Alumni from the Class of 1966 gather for a reception and dinner in the renovated Charles L. Tutt Library. Nancy Stewart Ramsdell ’60 poses for a photo with RoCCy during the farewell brunch at Ed Robson Arena. Stewart Ramsdell attended her 60th Reunion.

During the Community Picnic, Ana Gaby Pareja-Alfaro, former CC Cultural Program Coordinator, and Alexis Uribe ’22 showcase the CC Mobile Arts Open Mic program.

Students and alumni of color had the opportunity to network and catch up at the annual Alumni of Color Reception at Tutt Alumni House. President L. Song Richardson hosts Alumni Association Council awardees for a celebratory reception at Stewart House.

Jessie Brown Macfarland ’87 and her daughter, Key Macfarland ‘22, during the hockey team introductions at the Hockey Pre-Game Tailgate on Tava Quad.

LEFT: Alumni from the classes of 1995 and 1996 reconnect at Phantom Canyon Brewing Company.

RIGHT: Class of 2000 and Class of 2001 alumni enjoy a reunion reception at Gaylord Hall in Worner Campus Center.

ALLYSON LUPOVICH

Faces of Innovation

By Kirsten Akens ’96

AS THE DIRECTOR OF ARTIST COLLABoration for Meow Wolf, Han Santana-Sayles ’15 says she is “essentially, a curator.”

But the company she works for and the spaces it designs are more difficult to define. Forbes has coined Meow Wolf an “immersive arts innovator”; The New York Times called it a “tourism juggernaut”; and the Santa Fe Reporter, the alternative newsweekly where Meow Wolf began in 2008 as an informal collective of DIY artists and opened an official entertainment venue in 2016, labeled it the “Santa Fe arts mega-corp.”

“I describe it often as a narrative-driven, immersive art exhibit,” says Santana-Sayles, at the same time admitting those words don’t necessarily draw something immediately to mind. “But,” she adds, “it does kind of evade description because it is a lot of different things … a new type of industry, which is a model that hasn’t existed exactly like it before.”

Think art exhibit meets museum meets storytelling experience — with a sci-fi or fantastical theme. Visitors can interact with almost every element in some way, such as opening a refrigerator and walking through it to an interdimensional travel agency or crawling through a fireplace and ending up in a large Mastodon cave.

“Describing it kind of helps [people] grasp that there’s a narrative element to it,” Santana-Sayles says, but “it’s more fun for me to just show them what I’m talking about.”

She is well-suited to share narrative elements after having majored in comparative literature with a focus in feminist and gender studies at CC. That’s part of her job when engaging with collaborating artists — creatives who work in a guest capacity to develop their own unique rooms, dioramas, murals, sculpture projects, and the like.

In addition to maintaining relationships with artists, her responsibilities include compiling recommendations of artists for the creative directors to review for a variety of projects, while keeping in mind the creative values Meow Wolf holds. “We look for work that’s kaleidoscopic — so, colorful, playful, layered, and multifaceted. Work that draws people in and expresses some kind of depth,” she says. “We look for work that’s maximal,” which she adds doesn’t mean that every square inch of surface is covered — though it can be — but that the work is detailed and thoughtful.

Next is “mind-bending.”

“One of the tenets of Meow Wolf is that we’re trying to challenge our guests to get outside their own boxes and parameters that they have for themselves and question the world in a different way,” Santana-Sayles says. “So things that are mind-bending are really interesting and important to us.”

And finally, inclusive — in a variety of ways.

For nearly four years, Santana-Sayles has been working primarily on the third-to-open Meow Wolf location, which debuted in summer 2021 in Denver. (The second-to-open site is in Las Vegas, with two more in the works for Washington, D.C., and Phoenix.) She’s proud of the Denver project because it involved predominately Colorado-based artists: Of the 130 artists, 120 are Coloradans.

“It also was really important to me that [Denver] would be the most diverse exhibit and project that Meow Wolf has ever done,” she says.

And it is.

“More than half of the exhibit is women-identifying folks. Around a third of the participants overall are people of color, and around a third are LGBTQ,” Santana-Sayles says. “I’m so proud of all the artists that we’ve been able to engage with and they’ve made incredibly brilliant work. It’s not just because it needs to be ‘diverse,’ it’s just that it makes the exhibit so much better.”

For more about Santana-Sayles and other CC Faces of Innovation, please visit https://2cc.co/faces.

Our Connection to the West Sticking Close to Home

Adapted Priddy Experience Allows Incoming Students to Connect to Colorado Springs

By Jessi Burns ’06 Photos by Gray Warrior

TOP: Nearly 300 students participate in a clean-up along a seven-mile stretch of Fountain Creek. ABOVE: Two students compete against a virtual Olympic track and field athlete at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum in downtown Colorado Springs. AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR-AND-A-HALF OF CHANGES to class structure, teaching, and campus living, pivoting during the pandemic is not new for Colorado College. This past fall’s New Student Orientation and Priddy Experience were no different.

NSO is designed to introduce first-year students to all aspects of campus life — inside and outside the classroom. This academic year, CC was especially excited to bring students back to campus for an in-person experience.

The NSO schedule gives new students a taste of the rhythm of the Block Plan. Required sessions are held each morning — in 2021-22 a combination of in-person and Zoom sessions. The rest of the day is open for students to connect to campus resources and peers, relax in their rooms, or walk around campus. Evenings are full of social activities, which this year included everything from trivia in Benji’s to a silent disco at the Hybl Community Center.

The final few days of NSO culminate in the Priddy Experience, coordinated through CC’s Outdoor Education program. In years past, students traveled to a variety of sites throughout Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Southwest. However, due to the continued impacts and uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, the Priddy Experience Trips this academic year took place within Colorado Springs.

Priddy Experiences typically have focused on outdoor exploration, but because of the adapted structure, new students were able to connect

TOP LEFT: Students work together to recreate works of art in the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College using their own bodies.

LOWER LEFT: Students tour the Fine Arts Center to gain a better understanding of the bridge between art and academics by using some of the center’s major art pieces in the permanent collection.

directly with the Colorado Springs community. This was a benefit to many who had yet to explore their new home. Some still visited outdoor areas, such as Red Rock Canyon Open Space, and others had the chance to visit places unique to Colorado Springs, like the new U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.

“We have students coming from all over the country, all over the world, to Colorado Springs to be their home for the next four or five years, and we really want them to have ownership of the space that they call their backyard, and call their home,” says Rachael Abler, assistant director of Outdoor Education.

Nearly 300 first-year students helped clean up a seven-mile stretch of Fountain Creek between Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs through a partnership with the two cities and the Adopt-A-Waterway Program. During the three-day Priddy Experience, students removed 4,800 pounds of litter from the creek.

Students appreciated being able to give back to the community in which they now live.

“I feel so lucky to be a part of this community, and I think it’s the least I can do to chip in,” says Darby Shaw ’25. “We’re so lucky to be welcomed into this city and welcomed into this state, so we should all be doing something like this.”

BELOW: Students hike through the Fountain Creek valley between Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs before arriving to their creek clean-up assignments. CC’s New Student Orientation programs aim to cultivate a sense of place and connection to Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region by deepening students’ knowledge of local communities, issues, and ecosystems.

ABOVE: Students get to know each other and dance the night away during the NSO Silent Disco. During the event, students listened and danced to various tracks of music through bluetooth headphones.