Joining the Lynx Community
Sep 3, 2025Dear colleagues, It’s a privilege to join the Lynx community as your provost and executive vice president of academic affairs. I had a chance to meet some of you in my early weeks at CU Denver, and I can’t wait to meet more of you and hear what fuels your passions at this university. I am deeply motivated by CU Denver’s role as a public urban research university, which compels us to provide excellent, robust, and relevant educational experiences so that students reach their goals and improve their communities. I’ve been incredibly energized by your enthusiasm for your work and your commitment to serving students from so many backgrounds and walks of life. And I’m inspired by Chancellor Kenneth T. Christensen’s vision for building on our core mission and strengthening this university. It’s important to me that we continue to cultivate a welcoming environment for all students, faculty, and staff, and I’m invested in making sure everyone in our teaching and learning community here feels at home at CU Denver. As I work to help your efforts have impact, I will be focusing on the following priorities for CU Denver this year: 1) Retention: We need to ensure that every student who starts their educational journey with us has all the support and guidance they need to meet their academic goals. That’s why I’m encouraged about the Student Success Transformation Initiative, through which our work will improve our advising framework, first-year experiences, and student support systems. As we help more students feel at home at CU Denver, we also must value the efforts of faculty and staff who do amazing work to promote this feeling. That includes the enrollment and student services teams who work directly every day with students (under the new leadership of Vice Chancellor for Strategic Enrollment and Student Success Zina Evans), and the work of all of our incredible faculty in the myriad ways they support our students. I am especially pleased that a new team has formed to further advance IRC Task Force and Roadmap recommendations. 2) Graduate Education and Research: As you may have read last week, we are taking steps to respond to Council of Graduate Schools recommendations for our university, especially in clarifying our graduate education policies, structure, and funding of graduate students. These actions are crucial for meeting the needs of the many students who are pursuing post-baccalaureate education, and to supporting the greater Denver community through advanced education and research. In my recent role as chief science officer of the National Science Foundation, I saw firsthand how new ideas can lead to better lives and environments—and how partnerships can drive solutions, cut through systemic barriers, and bring people together. 3) Artificial Intelligence: We know that AI is transforming how we live, learn, and teach, but we’ve barely scratched the surface of its possibilities and implications at our university. I am an AI optimist. I think AI technologies will be a valuable thought-partner for us, and I expect their benefits to outweigh the risks, if our premises about their uses and limitations are clear. I know that scores of us across CU Denver have been exploring the topic: from new academic programs that equip students to work with AI; working groups and communities of practice that will guide policy development this year; Office of Information Technology work to assess which AI-infused tools best suit our environment; Auraria Library guides on AI and research ethics; and academic research that explores how AI can help find sewer leaks and develop mobility-enhancing assistive technologies. We will continue to move in new directions with AI this year and in the years ahead. I am eager this year to marshal and align these efforts to maximize AI’s value to our teaching, learning, and service. In following through on these priority areas, I will be transparent and communicate with you regularly. If you see me on campus, I hope you’ll say hi—and share something you love about the Denver area and the Auraria Campus—as I discover all the things that make this a great place to live and work. Thank you for all you do on behalf of CU Denver. |
Karen Marrongelle |