University of Colorado Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

For the third year, students from Denver's DSST Cole School visited the Auraria Campus on July 11 to learn about sustainability research and courses underway at CU Denver.  The Cole High School is a Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) with a focus on sustainability. This group of seventy 9^th grade students and twenty teachers and staff concluded their summer session, focused on STEM and sustainability, by visiting CU Denver to gain real-world perspectives by interacting with CU Denver faculty and students.  Laurel Dodds, Director of Initiatives and Continuing and Professional Education for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has coordinated the planning of the DSST Cole campus visits for three years with the Business School, the College of Engineering and Applied Science, the Auraria Library and this year the School of Public Affairs and the Admissions Office.   Dodds says of the experience, “We are pleased to continue the relationship CU Denver has with the DSST Cole Middle and High School , and look forward to further collaboration between faculty, staff and students working together in the future.”  After a series of four morning sessions presented by CLAS, Business, Engineering and the Library, the Cole students gathered for lunch in the Business School to hear from representatives of each College/School, the Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion, Brenda ... Read More »

Six teams participated in the first (hopefully annual) CLAS kickball match on Saturday, April 26. Though last minute logistics made it impossible to play a full tournament, Biology got  redemption in its solid vicotry over Chemistry. These two teams' student organizations played a game last year (in which Chemisty came out ahead) and special thanks go to Christal Davis, Gamma Sigma Epsilon Phi Beta Chapter President, for helping to expand the festivities to include the entire college this year. In the second game, the Political Science team, named "The Power Elite," secured a sound victory over the Geography Department.

The final match of the day pitted Economics against Mathematics, and in the closest contest Econ eked out a victory in the final inning. Special thanks to Anne Beard of Psychology and Karen Fennell of the CLAS Dean’s Office for volunteering! If you missed out this time, start getting your department’s team together and look forward to information on more kickball festivities happening in the fall, probably in October. Questions can be directed to Tracy Kohm at tracy.kohm@ucdenver.edu.

The Psychological Services Center (PSC), a service of the Clinical Health Psychology (CHP) PhD program and the Department of Psychology, moved into their newly renovated space in North Classroom 4036 on Monday February 24. The move of the PSC to its new home on the 4th floor tremendously enhances the CHP program’s capacity to train first class clinicians and provide much needed, low-cost psychological services to the people of Denver.  The new space is also a visible representation of the key support provided to the program by the university and college, an important consideration in the program’s bid for accreditation by the American Psychological Association (the accreditation site visit will occur March 13 and 14).

On February 20, the Philosophy Department, with the support of the Office of Student Life, the Philosophy Club, and Auraria Students for the Humane Treatment of Animals, hosted a talk by Professors Katharine Loevy (Pacific University) and Richard McGregor (Vanderbilt University) on the 10th century Islamic text The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of the Jinn. The seemingly simple premise of the story is that the animals charge the humans with unjust enslavement. While projecting drawings from the text, Professors McGregor and Loevy showed the rich philosophical implications of this text for comparative religion, animal ethics, and our contemporary understanding of the history of Islam. Information about future philosophy department events can be found here.  

In the previous issue of Deans' Notes the Department of Modern Languages announced a new format for elementary level French language courses beginning fall semester 2014. This announcement contained an inaccuracy: instead of listing the twice weekly meetings as 1 hour 50 minutes it should have listed them as 1 hour 20 minutes. Apologies for any confusion this caused!  For questions and further information please contact Diane Dansereau, Director of the French Program, at Diane.Dansereau@ucdenver.edu.

Join the CLAS Council on Diversity and Inclusion this spring semester for presentations, discussions, and working groups highlighting the research and creative work of CLAS faculty, staff, and students around diversity and inclusion. In the Tivoli Multicultural Lounge, 11am to 12:30pm, lunch will be served:

Wednesday, January 29 (more information below in Events)
Tuesday, February 25
Monday, March 17
Tuesday, April 22

If you are interested in creating a session, please contact Tracy Kohm, tracy.kohm@ucdenver.edu.

The following critical Dean’s Office deadlines should be marked on your calendars:

January 31: Clinical Teaching Track dossiers due in Dean’s Office
February 14: Sabbatical Applications (for those eligible)
February 14: CLAS Faculty Excellence Award nominations (specific information is forthcoming)
February 28: Nominations for Faculty Elections (vacancies to be announced soon)
February 28: Outstanding Graduate Student nominations for spring semester (Master & PhD)
March 14: eFRPA-Merit documents (eFRPAs to be completed electronically)
March 27: PTR dossiers

Questions can be directed to John Wyckoff at john.wyckoff@ucdenver.edu.

On Tuesday, the Department of Modern Languages along with their student interns, faculty sponsor Professor Andrés Lema-Hincapié, and family and friends celebrated the graduation of twenty Auraria Housekeepers from a new program. The housekeepers successfully participated in a pilot project designed to improve their literacy in computing basics. Dutting the ceremony Steve King, MA student and one of the project’s instructors, talked about how the project itself morphed as the semester went on, responding to the needs of the students.  He remembered that many participants were a little scared of computers at the start of the term, but that all changed as their confidence with technology grew.  Said King, “We want to give them a leg-up and entrance into the digital world.”  Participants in the new class talked about how much they learned and how their new knowledge makes them want to learn more. This project was made possible thanks to a Diversity & Excellence Grant from the University of Colorado President’s Office, and hopes to continue next semester.