CC-Bulletin-December-2015

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DECEMBER2015
Colorado College
50Years with
Owen Cramer &
Tim Fuller

2 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | DECEMBER 2015
Yellow and gold leaves cover the ground outside Shove Memorial Chapel on a sunny afternoon in late October.
A warm-weather streak made for a spectacular and colorful fall scene across campus.
A publication for alumni, parents, and friends. • Vice President for Communications: Jane Turnis • Co-editors: Jennifer Kulier, Leslie Weddell • Production and Editing: Kirsten Akens ’96 • Design: Felix A. Sanchez ’93
Photographer and Bulletin Photo Editor: Bryan Oller • Copy Editing: Helen Richardson • (719) 389-6603, (719) 389-6256 (fax), bulletin@coloradocollege.edu • THE COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN (122-860) is published four
times per calendar year by Colorado College, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3294. General Series 592. Bulletin Series 498. PERIODICALS postage paid at Colorado Springs 80901-9998 and at additional
offices. POSTMASTER: Please send ADDRESS CHANGES to the Colorado College Bulletin, Alumni Records, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3294.

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CONTENTS
ABOUT THE COVER
Owen Cramer, left, professor of
classics, and Tim Fuller, professor
of political science, were honored
for 50 years of service to Colorado
College at Homecoming in October.
See story on page 18.
Photo by Bryan Oller
From the President 2
Campus News 4
Athletics 10
Point of View 22
Peak Profiles 25, 32, 50
Student Perspective 26
First Person 34
On the Bookshelf 36
Class Notes 38
A Message from
Your Alumni Board 43
Milestones 44
Sexual Assault:
Prevention and Response
Student-Faculty Research
Collaborations Enhance the
CC Experience
Courageous Curriculum:
Religion Department
Stands Out
8
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
13
16

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
AT COLORADO COLLEGE
FROM
THE PRESIDENT
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
the CC faculty this fall. They bring a variety of inter-
ests and backgrounds, all of which make for a vibrant
intellectual environment for our students. I hope you
enjoy reading about their exciting work!
We know that the close mentorship of our students
is important. The Gallup-Purdue study of more than
30,000 college graduates examined elements of the
college experience that matter most. No surprise
to us at CC, the study revealed that those who felt
supported by a professor during college were more
engaged at work and more likely to be thriving in
overall wellbeing.
Professors who care, who make our students excited
about learning, and who mentor students are central
to our mission at Colorado College. That connection
is what John Novembre ’00, recently named a Mac-
Arthur Foundation “Genius,” expressed when he
said his first phone calls upon learning of the award
were to his mentors, CC professors Ralph Bertrand
and Jim Ebersole (see profile on page 25). It’s what I
hear time and time again from you — parents during
Family Weekend, and alumni at Homecoming. You
tell me that transformative, life-long relationships are
built here.
Thank you for staying engaged with Colorado College.
Thank you for helping us support our faculty’s com-
mitment, as we continue to “build on the block.”
With warm regards,
Dear Alumni, Parents, and
Friends of Colorado College,
his edition of the Bulletin celebrates
the contributions of our dedicated faculty.
During Homecoming weekend we honored
Professor Tim Fuller and Professor Owen Cramer for
50 years of service to Colorado College. Their careers
embody what it means to be a teacher-scholar. They
have taught and mentored thousands of CC students
and the outpouring of gratitude from alumni that
I witnessed at Homecoming is a testament to the dif-
ference that dedicated faculty make in students’ lives.
Excellent teaching and mentoring are fueled by
a passion for scholarly work. Not only does devotion
to one’s scholarship ignite a spark in the classroom,
but it also results in exciting opportunities for
students. As part of our strategic plan, “Building
on the Block,” we are doing more to support these
collaborations. For example, in September, we
highlighted the research of dozens of students and
their faculty mentors at our second annual Summer
Undergraduate Research Symposium. Tess Gruen-
berg ’17 and Edward Weeks ’17 presented their work
with Professor of Comparative Literature Corinne
Scheiner on the philosophy of David Foster Wallace,
and Adam Hunter ’16 explained his research on the
cognitive mechanisms involved in mindfulness med-
itation, which was guided by Assistant Professor of
Psychology Kevin Holmes.
As we express our gratitude to those faculty members
who have given a lifetime of service to the college,
we also celebrate the 13 teacher-scholars who joined

READ MORE LETTERS ONLINE
LETTERS
TO THE
EDITOR
into the several gardens and outlining the planning
that is taking place, demonstrated a work in progress.
The Southwest Studies garden actually had its start
during one of the Southwest Studies summer insti-
tutes in the late 1980s, when Joe Gordon encouraged
Dick Beidleman and me to develop a list of native
plant species that would do well around Dern House,
and describe the ecosystems in which we were con-
ducting our field activities. What fun we had!
As I studied through the article encouraging the need
for sustainability, and for all departments to join
together and rise to the challenge, I was reminded
of the early 1950s when Sir Charles Snow (Lord
Snow) described the “Two Cultures” and the scien-
tific revolution. He spoke of the literary intellectuals
and scientists as poles apart. He stated that the “gulf
of mutual incomprehension” must be crossed if
humankind is to survive, and that it was up to educa-
tion to cause this to happen. It has always seemed to
me one of the best places for this to occur is on
the liberal arts college campus. At the same time
the Bulletin article only touched on the lost discipline
of numeracy, which I consider paramount to survival
for all living systems. The concept of multiple
variables, including the calculus, and I would add
statistics, are certainly missing links in American
education today.
In the 1970s, while I was department chair of biology,
I was in Dean George Drake’s office making my case
to add another botanist to the biology faculty, because
we were adding additional sections of Biology 105 each
year. George made the mistake of asking me when I
thought we would have enough sections of beginning
botany to fulfill this need. What an easy question that
was! I would be extremely pleased when every student
crossing the stage at graduation had completed at
least one course in the plant sciences. Certainly today
the future of Homo sapiens rests clearly on our need
to understand and protect the green plant in a world
of limits. Should not every faculty member feel this
enthusiasm for his or her discipline?
One other important point
strengthens my case for
the liberal arts. When I
came upon that big smiling
face on page 21, I immedi-
ately remembered David
Buck ’83. Jane Cauvel and
I encouraged every student
we could reach to get to know India – the culture,
science, the arts, and the religions. If every student
would have “taken the bait” and turned out as David
has, we would be living in a much better world.
Martha (’70) and I want to join with William “Bro”
Adams ’72 and encourage every student, faculty
member, and friend who is so fortunate as to be a
part of Colorado College, to join with others to give
back to the college in every way possible.
JACK CARTER
professor emeritus of biology
Editor’s Note:
Kyle Larsen, garden specialist at CC, says the red hot poker,
or Kniphofia genus, has been featured in the gardens of Colorado
College for many years, while not becoming weedy or invasive.
It is not listed as an invasive plant genus in Colorado, and vari-
ous species have been vetted and promoted by the Plant Select
program at Colorado State University and are championed by
the Denver Botanic Gardens as favorable and drought-tolerant
ornamentals for our Western climate.
Thank you for writing such a thoughtful tribute
to Bob Steck, true to his activism and political
engagement.
I will always be grateful for our time spent with him
in the classroom - what a wonderful professor and
friend. A true champion of philosophy and liberal
arts education, he also made the best fettuccine
carbonara that was ever served at the CC Cabin!
GERRIT CONOVER ’08
Wow!!!! Just went through your latest issue…
A-maaaaazing!!! Gorgeous/rich loaded with goodies.
Maybe next time I go to school I should pay close
attention to class and less to the amount of ice time
I was getting. Congrats.
RED KLASHMAN ‘76
When we received our issue of the August 2015
Bulletin I was amazed and somewhat shocked to see
a brightly colored photograph of the red hot poker
(Kniphofia uvaria) on the cover, and the cover title
identifying the issue as “The Gardens of Colorado
College.” Surely this can’t be correct. This plant,
which has been defined over large parts of Australia
as an invasive species, and is now escaping cultiva-
tion in California where it is considered a trouble-
some weed, CC is introducing into Colorado. Once
I got by the cover and continued to read the wide
range of topics centering on conservation and devel-
oped around sustainability, I was extremely pleased.
Even the article describing the work that has gone
We welcome your letters to the editor. Please send them to:
Bulletin/Communications
Colorado College, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3294
Email: bulletin@coloradocollege.edu
As stated in the previous issue, letters related to the “Hands Up!
Don’t Shoot!” article will run online at www.coloradocollege.
edu/bulletin:
Aug. 28 letter from Wylie Lucero ’60
Sept. 8 letter from Craig Silverman ’78
Sept. 10 letter from Lawrence Waddington ’53

Boardroom
Named in Honor
of Barbara
Yalich ’53
Update:
Veggie Wrap
To Go!
CAMPUS NEWS
By Leslie Weddell
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLERPHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
More than 125 members of the Colorado College community
gathered for the dedication of the Kathryn Mohrman Theatre
in Armstrong Hall in early November. Mohrman served as
the 11th president of Colorado College — and the first woman
to hold that position — from 1993 to 2002.
Speaking at the ceremony were Trustee Ryan Haygood ’97;
retired Professor of Education and current CC Ombudsman
Paul Kuerbis; former Dean of Students Laurel McLeod ’69;
and Trustee Cole Wilbur. In the words of Trustee John
Chalik ’67, who couldn’t attend but sent his congratulations,
Mohrman “broke the glass ceiling with grace, determination,
and good humor.” Former President Mohrman and current
CC President Jill Tiefenthaler also spoke, with Tiefenthaler
noting that Mohrman had opened doors for her.
During Mohrman’s time at CC, the college raised nearly $100
million, adopted the First-Year Experience Program, issued
its first strategic planning report, addressed the status of its
athletics programs, added Asian Studies and Environmental
Studies, implemented the Breaking Bread program, opened
the Western Ridge apartments and the Glass House, dealt
with Greek life conflicts, launched the Colorado College
Council on Diversity, and worked to increase gender equity
and diversity.
Kathryn Mohrman
Theatre Dedicated The Barbara L. Yalich Class of 1953 Boardroom, located on the ground floor of the renovated Spencer Center, was dedicated
at a ceremony on Sept. 9. BARBARA YALICH ’53 served as an alumni trustee from 1971-73; director of alumni support from
1973-75; director of alumni affairs from 1975-85; director of development from 1985-91; and vice president for develop-
ment and college relations from 1991-94. Colorado College has dedicated a “Celebrating CC People” page to Yalich; to view
photos and send her well wishes go to http://2cc.co/yalich.
CC’s veggie van, featured in the August 2015 issue of the Bulletin, has a new look: a large, green, leafy-looking veggie
decal that clearly distinguishes CC’s veggie van from any other on the road. The van graphics project and design
were led by ANNA KAY ’15, a sociology major, and was a collaborative effort between the Art Department, Graphics
Research Lab, and Outdoor Education Office. “I thought the cross-disciplinary facet of this project was one of the
most progressive and interesting elements,” said Kay. The 15-passenger Ford E-350 runs on recycled and filtered
vegetable oil from CC’s food service operations.
DISCOVER MORE ONLINE
Colorado College has dedicated a “Celebrat-
ing CC People” page to Mohrman; to view
old photos and send her well wishes go to
http://2cc.co/mohrman

BY THE NUMBERS
Welcome all; we’re glad you’re here!
THE CLASS OF 2019
applicants (a record high)
8,064
17% admit rate
(a record low)
26%
U.S. students
of color
13%
from Colorado
25%
from the West
15%
from the
Midwest
15%
from the South
23%
from the
Northeast
9%
from abroad
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
Innovation continues to thrive at Colorado Col-
lege – and the college’s efforts have been nationally
recognized. CC launched an Innovator-in-Residence
Program this fall featuring two well-known inno-
vators, Michael Hannigan ’75, founder and former
CEO of the Pikes Peak Community Foundation,
and Aaron Kahlow, founder and former CEO of the
Online Marketing Institute. Kahlow was on campus
through the end of October; Hannigan will continue
through the fall semester and assist with the Startup
Crash Course: What You Need to Know to Start an
Innovation-Based Venture, a Dynamic Half-Block
class scheduled for Jan. 4–14, 2016. Both resident
innovators have partnered with various programs
on campus, including the Career Center, met regu-
larly with students, local community members, and
organizations, and delivered Innovation Thursday
talks, in which they shared their startup experiences.
Even before the Innovator-in-Residence Program
kicked off, a story in the August 17 issue of Forbes
magazine named Colorado College the third “Most
Entrepreneurial College in America.” This ranking
was based on what CC alumni do post-graduation,
and a high percentage have founded or run busi-
nesses and nonprofits. Forbes also highlighted CC’s
innovation initiatives as one of the key factors in the
high ranking. “Crucially, we’re just getting started —
but to have such recognition this early on in our
endeavors is really great,” said Patrick Bultema,
executive director of Innovation@CC.
Innovation@CC Strengthened, Recognized
Keller Family Gives $4 Million
for Venture Grants
CC alumni Jeff Keller ’91 and
David Keller ’95 announced
a $4 million commitment to
the Keller Family Venture
Grant Program for individual
student research on Thursday,
Nov. 5, at CC’s Keller Family
Venture Grant Forum. The
announcement includes $3
million to permanently endow
the program, which celebrates
its 10th anniversary this year.
The program provided
$121,750 to 134 Colorado Col-
lege students for research and
experiential projects during
the 2014-15 academic year,
and many of those students
presented at the forum. One
of them was Anna Cain ’17,
an English major who studied
James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and
its ongoing impact on Ireland.
She used funds from her Ven-
ture Grant to travel to Dublin
to research the commercial-
ism that has developed from
the book. Another student
who received a Venture Grant
was Soren Frykholm ’18, who
presented “Going the Distance:
The Effects of Travel on Team”
about his travel experiences
with the men’s soccer team.
The additional funding avail-
able as a result of the Kellers’
$3 million endowment gift
will not only ensure that the
program continues, but it
also supports an additional
20 grants annually. Many stu-
dent projects require funding
beyond the grant’s current
$1,000 per-project award;
the gift allows the college to
award additional funds up to
$500 for as many as 72 Ven-
ture Grant projects annually.
“The Kellers’ steadfast com-
mitment to the Venture Grant
Program has benefited more
than 1,000 students over the
past decade,” said President
Jill Tiefenthaler. “Their impact
on Colorado College is already
immeasurable. Their most
recent gift — and the possibili-
ties it holds for our students —
is extraordinary.”
The August 17, 2015 edition of Forbes ranked Colorado College third
in Most Entreprenuerial Colleges, part of their “America’s Top 200
Colleges” feature (page 90 of Forbes).
ANNA CAIN ’17 SOREN FRYKHOLM ’18
42%
yield
(students who accept their offer
of admission)
44states,
the District of
Columbia, and
20foreign
countries
represented
25
languages spoken
62
first-generation
college students
36
gap-year students

NEW FACES
Students
Assist
Refugees
While in
Greece
Alumni
Association
Presents
Awards
CAMPUS NEWS
New Director of Campus Safety
Magdalena “Maggie” Santos ’86 recently joined CC as the
new director of campus safety and emergency management.
Santos graduated with a B.A. in Spanish education and
taught for five years before serving with the Colorado Springs
Police Department for nearly 25 years. She graduated from
the Colorado Springs Police Department Training Academy,
completed credits for a master’s degree in education at the
University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, and furthered
her education through the Center for Creative Leadership,
Leadership in Police Organizations, and the Rocky Mountain
Command College. Santos brings expertise in neighborhood
and community relations, early-intervention programs,
problem-oriented policing, and emergency management.
KRCC Hires New General Manager
Tammy Terwelp joined CC in October as the new general
manager of KRCC, Colorado College’s NPR-member station.
Prior to coming to CC, Terwelp was the director of content
and programming at 90.5 WESA, the NPR-member station
in Pittsburgh. She has more than 20 years of public media
experience with systems and operations; a strong knowledge
of the structure and significant issues of public broadcasting;
and is dedicated to the public broadcasting mission. KRCC
airs several locally produced shows, including “Critical
Karaoke” and the podcast “Wish We Were Here.”
PHOTOBYEMILYKIM’16PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
Colorado College Alumni Association presented their annual awards on Saturday, Oct. 10, during Homecoming Weekend.
Those receiving awards were Frieda Ekotto ’86 and Andrew Fahlund ’91, the Louis T. Benezet Award; Doug Norberg ’62,
P ’88, P ’91 and Nancy Pettit Norberg ’64, P ’88, P ’91, the Lloyd E. Worner Award; and Associate Professor of Anthro-
pology MARIO MONTAÑO, the Gresham Riley Award, presented above by Eric Mellum ’90, CC Alumni Association Board
president. The Spirit of Adventure Award went to members of the Buntport Theater Company: Brian Colonna ’00, Hannah
Duggan ’98, Erik Edborg ’97, Erin Rollman ’98, Samantha Schmitz ’00, Evan Weissman ’01, and Mitch Slevc ’01.
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
The 25 students taking Lisa Hughes’ interdisciplinary course Romantic Comedy: The Birth, Death, and Re-birth during
Block 2 in Greece were struck by the plight of refugees and vowed to help. With broad support from CC students,
faculty, staff, alumni, student clubs, and athletics teams, the students raised more than $2,250 to buy necessities
for the refugees fleeing through Greece. The CC Chaplains’ Office handled the money and served as the liaison
between the campus community and the students overseas. Above, STEPHANIE KELLY ’18 hands out treats to
a refugee and her child in Victoria Square in Athens, Greece.
PHOTOBYKENDALLROCK’15

Padah Vang’s Essay Wins ‘I’m First!’ Scholarship
Padah Vang ’19, of St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of only nine
winners of the 2015 “I’m First!” Scholarship. More than 1,000
first-generation students applied for the prestigious scholarship,
awarded by the nonprofit Center for Student Opportunity.
Vang’s family members are Hmong from Laos, and she said the
college process was difficult for her family to understand. One
of the reasons she selected CC was the approachability of the
students. “When I visited I noticed how CC students interacted
with and how they treated each other.”
She’s contemplating an Independently Designed Major that
combines social justice, photography, film, and media, because
“storytelling is so powerful and healing.” She hopes to create a
student group for first-generation and low-income students to
mentor prospective students. She’s also one of the first-year stu-
dents behind the “Humans of CC” Facebook page.
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLERPHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
Four first-year students, Amelia Eskenazi ’19, Joann Bandales
’19, Padah Vang ’19, and David Gonzalez Salgado ’19, have
created the “Humans of Colorado College” Facebook page.
Modeled after the “Humans of New York” project, the page
seeks to tell stories that others aren’t aware of, letting students
know it’s OK to be vulnerable and helping to promote empa-
thy, said co-founder Vang. “I think it’s become a rare space
of authenticity and a community of support. I find myself
looking forward to the stories everyday because in the bustle
and stress of my day, it’s a reminder that our world is full of
people with love, triumph, sadness, and hardship. It gives me
some hope and it makes me feel connected to our campus,”
said Esther Chan ’16, who helped get the project going.
“Humans of CC” Now on Facebook
Visitors to campus will notice a more pedestrian-
friendly and aesthetically pleasing Cache La Poudre
Street, between Cascade and Nevada avenues. The
Cache La Poudre Improvement Project is the first
phase to address the campus master plan’s recom-
mendation to create a clearer gateway into campus
from the south. The project extends the curb on the
south side of Cache between Cascade and Nevada
avenues by 12 feet. This expanded curb slows traf-
fic, increases safety, and provides more outdoor
space. It also eliminates water-guzzling bluegrass,
adds drought-tolerant rain gardens to be watered
with strategically directed rainwater, and incor-
porates a bike lane on the south side of Cache La
Poudre Street. The north side of the street has been
improved as well: Additional paths and plantings
replace Armstrong Hall’s circle drive and there’s
a new entrance to the Armstrong parking lot.
The Sacred Grounds space on the lower level
of Shove Memorial Chapel, home of the Sacred
Grounds Tea House, also received a makeover. Gone
are the narrow side stairs, metal railings, and black-
box feel, replaced with warm and welcoming colors
and features. The new space includes multiple levels,
a meeting area, new kitchen, and various benches
and sitting spaces scattered throughout. A new
audio-visual system also is in place for late-night
screenings, music performances, and other events.
Sacred Grounds was conceived with the idea that
students should be in charge of a space on campus,
and the managers of the space are both students,
Vanessa Voller ’16 and Jesús Loayza ’16.
Cache La Poudre, Sacred Grounds
More Appealing
CAMPUS PROGRESS
See more at
www.facebook.com/
HumansofCC

T
he problem of sexual assault on college campuses has become a major
focus of the national news, particularly highlighting a number of shocking
cases from across the country. As bad as some of those incidents were, and
they were bad, especially appalling has been the responses from college admin-
istrations. Some schools had no one on staff trained to handle such cases, while
others overtly discouraged victim reports. In one of the worst cases, not only was
a victim not supported, but the accused perpetrator was also protected from invest-
igation until after his graduation, due to his importance to their football team.
The media attention brought to this issue led the Obama Administration to
form a task force charged with investigating the problem. As part of that effort,
a number of schools were identified for special investigation by the Office of
Civil Rights. In addition, all schools were directed to assess their campus
climates around sexual assault. In particular, they want to make sure colleges
are addressing what is now widely referred to as “rape culture” on campus both
in preventative and responsive ways.
How prevalent is sexual assault on our campuses, what educational efforts are
being done toward its prevention, and how are students able or even encouraged
to report incidents? Do they have confidential resources with whom they can talk
without having to make a formal report? If willing, are they encouraged to call
the police and report the incident as a crime? And regarding the college’s process:
Is it quick, humane, and ultimately effective? Is it fair to all parties? These are
just a few of the questions that came out of the task force and which have been
SEXUAL ASSAULT: Prevention and Response at CC
By Gail Murphy-Geiss
Associate Professor of Sociology and Title IX Coordinator

73%
23%
92%
the SARC and also the chaplains and
the Counseling Center staff. We have
been improving our connections with
the Colorado Springs Police Depart-
ment and with Memorial Hospital,
for students who want, or might want
in the future, to report a crime. These
last two were of particular concern
to the White House task force, as they
want campuses to both invite formal
reports in an easily accessible and
effective way, but also make it possible
for students not to report, such that
the campus climate is friendly for
victims, no matter what their desires.
The data we collected affirmed some
of our suspicions – we are doing well
in our educational efforts and in our
response. On the other hand, we have
rates of sexual assault comparable to
the average at colleges across the coun-
try found in another national survey.
First, our survey was completed by
46 percent of the student body, which
is very high. Compare that to a shared
survey distributed to students at
27 large universities (including many
of the Ivies such as Harvard, Yale,
and Dartmouth, and major state
schools such the Universities of Texas,
Wisconsin, North Carolina, Virginia,
and Arizona) through the Associa-
tion of American Universities (AAU),
which garnered only a 19 percent
response rate. We did a good job
of explaining to CC students why
completing the survey was important,
and they clearly agreed.
The data itself included both good and
bad news. First some good news: More
than 88 percent of CC survey respon-
dents could identify a confidential
resource by name, title, or office loca-
tion, and more than 73 percent were
familiar with CC’s Sexual Miscon-
duct Policy. Those numbers are good,
especially since most people don’t
worry about such details until after an
incident, and the majority of survey
respondents (80 percent) reported
never having experienced such an
incident. Of course, that means that 20
percent have been sexually assaulted
while at CC. That’s the bad news.
How does CC compare to other schools?
Because we all asked the questions a bit
differently, it is hard to make perfect
comparisons, but we can use the report
from the AAU study as far as possible.
For example, if broken down by gender,
the AAU study found that 23.1 percent
of female survey respondents had
experienced “nonconsensual pene-
tration or sexual touching involving
physical force or incapacitation.”
At CC, a similar question yielded a
positive response from 23.2 percent.
The percentage of men reporting the
same experience was 5.4 percent in
both the AAU and the CC data. Indi-
vidual schools were somewhat higher
(30 percent of all students) or lower (13
percent of all students), but CC appears
to be right at the overall average.
On the positive side, another interest-
ing comparison is around the quality
of the college response. In the large
AAU survey, depending on the school,
just more than 75 percent of under-
graduate students think that school
officials take reports of sexual miscon-
duct seriously, while a full 92 percent
of CC students believe that. In another
set of questions about student satis-
faction with the process after having
reported an incident, the AAU data
suggest a 63.7 percent satisfaction rate
(based on number of incidents), while
at CC, the satisfaction rate was 85.3
percent (based on number of students).
The data are rich and complicated, too
much so for a short article, but the
bottom line is this – campus sexual
assault is ubiquitous. Any school that
says it has no problem with sexual
assault is either lying or kidding them-
selves. We at CC are not ignoring it
and we continue to make good efforts
toward eradicating it completely. So,
while we celebrate the ways in which
we are far ahead of other schools, we
also recognize the challenges that
remain, and are committed to work-
ing with students toward making CC
truly special – not only because of our
unique Block Plan, but perhaps also
as distinctive in that “rape culture”
would be stigmatized, where incidents
would be exceedingly rare, and where
the college’s response would be caring,
fast, and fair.
While we work on that, if you have
questions, please contact me, Gail
Murphy-Geiss, associate professor of
sociology and the college’s Title IX
coordinator. There is no statute of lim-
itations on complaints, so if you know
of an incident and want to report it,
it’s not too late. We’re always open
to hearing about your experiences
toward making CC a better place.
informing the group’s work with col-
leges across the U.S.
So, what about Colorado College?
We completed a climate survey in April
2015, but before even collecting that
data, we suspected we were doing well.
In fact, some of us wanted to invite
the Office of Civil Rights to come
to CC to see a model program, but
we weren’t quite that brave. Still, we
knew that we had been doing better
than most colleges for quite some time.
In particular, we had created a new
position and hired a sexual assault
response coordinator (SARC) in 2004
to address these concerns and since
then, we have seen steady improve-
ment. Over that time, we developed
what is now an excellent, cutting-edge
policy and process for reporting that
applies to all constituencies of the
college: students, faculty, and staff.
We have comprehensive training
programs attached to New Student
Orientation, as well as ongoing
throughout the year, and we have been
providing training for faculty and staff
as well. Our focus on “bystander inter-
vention” in the student programming
was in place well before it became
the standard nationally. And we have
long provided confidential resources
for pre-reporting conversations (or for
those who never want to report) with
of CC survey respondents
were familiar with CC’s
Sexual Misconduct Policy
of female CC survey
respondents experienced
nonconsensual sexual
contact compared to 5.4%
of CC male students
of CC survey respondents
believe that school officials
take reports seriously

10 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | DECEMBER 201510 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | DECEMBER 2015
ATHLETICS
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLERPHOTOBYSARAHSCHWEISS’16
PHOTOBYJESSICABENNETT
CC WOMEN’S SOCCER REPRESENTS
THE U.S. IN SOUTH KOREA
But the University Games were about more
than goals scored and winning and losing.
Like the Olympics, they brought the world
together. Ayers said she’ll never forget the
opening ceremony.
“Walking into that stadium with 40,000
people waving their hands and yelling
was amazing,” Ayers said. “It was hum-
bling to be among so many incredible
athletes. You could sense how important
it was, not just for us but for the South
Koreans and all the athletes.”
Haizlip said she’ll never forget the South
Korean people.
“The people are the kindest people I’ve ever
come across. They wanted us to experience
their culture. They were so proud, but also
inclusive and welcoming. Even the police
and taxi drivers were nice. They made us
feel safe and comfortable.”
It took only a walk down the street for
the CC women’s soccer team to realize
they weren’t in Colorado Springs anymore.
South Korea provided a culture shock.
It began with the food.
“There were all sorts of markets outside
and vendors were showing us live squid
and octopus,” said Kaeli Vandersluis ’15.
“A teammate of mine saw a vendor bite a
squid and pull off its tentacle and eat it.”
The Tigers had flown to Gwangju, South
Korea, in late June with the daunting but
honorable assignment to represent the
United States in the World University Games.
The United States International University
Sports Federation selected CC as the first
full collegiate women’s soccer team to
represent the U.S. (Teams usually comprise
star players from across the country.)
Jess Ayers ’15 said CC coach Geoff
Bennett told the team during the 2014 pre-
season that it would travel to South Korea
after the school year had ended.
prepared to play its first game. “We were
lined up next to the South African team and
all of a sudden they broke into song, and it
was this beautiful African music. We were all
crying. We had never heard anything like that
and it said so much about what the competi-
tion was about. It was a striking moment.”
Sixteen teams competed in the tournament.
The Tigers played six games and won two
against tough competition.
“The competition was better than we had
ever experienced,” said Ayers. “It was a
different level of soccer but that was one
of the challenges. As a team, we prepared
as best we could. It was a cool and hum-
bling experience to get to play against that
caliber of players.”
The team from France beat Team USA 5-0.
“We were shocked at how good they were,”
Vandersluis said. “We couldn’t even be mad
about it because they were all such beauti-
ful soccer players. Just great feet and skills.
We were amazed.”
“Geoff called us in and said he had a sur-
prise for us,” Ayers said. “We thought we
might be getting new gear or something.
Nobody guessed that we were going to
represent Team USA. Everybody’s jaw kind
of dropped. That was a cool moment.”
Women’s collegiate soccer is played in the
fall. To prepare for the summer competition
in South Korea, the Tigers practiced and
played against area club teams during the
spring. Five of the 20 Team USA players
were incoming freshmen just out of high
school. Recent college graduates also were
eligible to participate in the games. Sarah
Haizlip ’14, who last played for CC in the
fall of 2014, said she fought to regain the
conditioning she’d lost.
“My calves hurt, my feet hurt, even my
back,” she said. “I didn’t want to show up
and be out of shape. You can be in good
condition for running, but being ready to
play soccer is much different.”
Haizlip said the deeper meaning of the
games was driven home as Team USA
By Tim Bergsten

Athletics
PHOTOSBYBRYANOLLER
By Dave Reed and Jerry Cross ’91
CC SCORES ACROSS SPORTS
(24:35.5) and Allysa Warling ’19 (24.39.2) finished fourth,
fifth, and sixth, respectively. Allie Crimmins ’17 (25:04.5)
and Stefani Messick ’17 (25:28.9) finished ninth and 10th,
respectively, to clinch the team title. In addition to the six
runners who finished in the Top 10, Patty Atkinson ’17
and Corey Luna ’17 also earned all-conference honors
by finishing 13th and 14th, respectively. The eight all-
conference performers are the most ever by either the
men’s or women’s cross country teams at CC.
Men’s Cross Country Takes Second Place
Four Colorado College men’s cross country runners
earned all-conference honors after leading their team
to a second-place finish at the 2015 Southern Collegiate
Athletic Conference Championships in Sherman, Texas.

Conor Terhune ’17 led the way for the Tigers with his
second consecutive seventh-place finish at the conference
meet. He covered the 8k course in 28 minutes, 43.8
seconds. Jacob Rothman ’16 followed in eighth place
with a time of 28:48.8, while David Eik ’19 placed 10th
in 29:26.6. Joining those three runners on the all-
conference team was Tucker Hampson ’16 (29:53.6),
who finished 14th.
Soccer’s Schweiss Leads Mountain West
Sarah Schweiss ’16, who struck for six game-winning
goals in conference play, was voted Mountain West
Offensive Player of the Year and first-team all-conference
in a ballot of the league’s head coaches.
Despite being the focus of every opponent’s defensive
game plan, Schweiss led the Mountain West in total shots
(89), shots per game (4.45), and game-winning goals (6)
during the regular season. She also tied for second
in goals (10) and finished fourth in points (22).
Schweiss also was named the espnW National Player
of the Week this season and earned Top Drawer Soccer’s
Goal of the Week for her game winner at Air Force that
clinched a spot in the 2015 Mountain West Championships.
Coors Field Hosts CC-DU
Hockey for “Battle on Blake”
In just less than two months, in-state rivals Colorado
College and the University of Denver will participate in a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The schools will play an
outdoor hockey game at Coors Field in Denver on Saturday,
Feb. 20, 2016. Dubbed the ‘Battle on Blake,’ this will be
the first collegiate hockey game ever played at Coors Field
and marks the first time that CC and DU have faced off in
an outdoor match.
The game will be played one week prior to the Colorado
Avalanche hosting the Detroit Red Wings at Coors Field as
part of the Coors Light NHL Stadium Series.
The two schools first played on Jan. 6, 1950, and have
battled for the Gold Pan Trophy since 1993. The Tigers
have hoisted the hardware 12 times in 23 years.
To stay updated on the “Battle on Blake” game, please
visit 2cc.co/battleonblake
For tickets to CC home men’s ice hockey games, please
visit 2cc.co/CCTigerHockey
Volleyball Sweeps Conference Honors
The CC volleyball team swept all four of the Southern Colle-
giate Athletic Conference’s top individual honors after com-
pleting the most successful regular-season in program history.
Courtney Birkett ’16 was named Player of the Year,
Sophie Merrifield ’16 was selected Backrow Player
of the Year, and Myca Steffey-Bean ’19 was tabbed
Freshman of the Year. Rounding out the recipients
was Rick Swan, who was voted Coach of the Year.
Birkett won the SCAC Player of the Year award after
recording eight triple-doubles, which ranked third in
the nation. Merrifield was honored as the SCAC Backrow
Player of the Year after leading the Tigers with 663 digs
and holds the school record with 2,490 career digs, which
ranks second in SCAC history. Steffey-Bean became
the fourth consecutive Tiger to be named SCAC Freshman
of the Year, joining Emily Phillips ’12 and current
teammates Abbe Holtze ’13 and Sarah Barker ’14.
Swan led CC to a program-best, regular-season overall
mark of 33-2 as well as a perfect 14-0 SCAC record, the
first undefeated regular-season champion since 2009.
He guided the Tigers to their 18th consecutive appearance
in the NCAA Division III playoffs this season.
Women’s Cross Country Defends Title
Leah Wessler ’17 captured her second consecutive SCAC
Runner of the Year award and the CC women’s cross
country team successfully defended its team title at
the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Champion-
ships Oct. 31 at Stone Creek Golf Club in Sherman, Texas.

Wessler, who was CC’s first-ever individual champion
last season, became the first female runner to defend
the SCAC title since Natalie Shaffer of DePauw University
in 2003 and 2004 by covering the 6k course in 24 minutes,
8.2 seconds.

CC won the meet by placing five other runners in the Top
10. Katie Sandfort ’17 (24.33.5), Leah Veldhuisen ’19
2015 SCAC WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
COACH OF THE YEAR: Rick Swan
2015 SCAC WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Courtney Birkett ’16
2015 SCAC WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL FRESH-
MAN OF THE YEAR: Myca Steffey-Bean ’19
2015 SCAC WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL BACKROW
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Sophie Merrifield ’16

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
Emma Krakoff ’16, left, and Assistant
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Amy Dounay ’96 are collaborating
on research aimed at identifying
new medicines to treat African sleeping
sickness. They also are pictured on
the opposite page.
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
W
hether involving students one-on-one in professional research projects or having difficult conversations about depart-
mental shifts, Colorado College faculty members contribute to the workings of the campus in many different ways
and the college administration is committed to supporting these efforts through the strategic plan.
Read on to meet the 13 new tenure-track faculty members joining the CC community this year, and to get a peek into what exactly
happens outside the classroom (even if the classroom at CC, as we know, isn’t all that traditional itself).

PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
Ask a variety of current Colorado
College students what they’ve learned
most from working collaboratively
with faculty on research projects
and the common answer is patience.
Patience is key, no matter the depart-
ment or area of interest. It plays a role
whether a student is digging through
pages of historical literature, testing
chemical compounds, or transcribing
manuscripts into a digital format.
Of course, it’s just one of many skills
students learn. And students aren’t
the only ones growing through this
process. As Jane Murphy, co-direc-
tor of CC’s Summer Collaborative
Research Program (SCoRe) and
associate professor of history, said,
the model of student-faculty collab-
oration is not just rewarding in the
amount of work that can be com-
pleted toward a specific agenda, but
it can facilitate new types of ideas
and relationships.
“The beauty of the Block Plan is we’re
all about each other, the 26 of us in
a room, but what happens outside
that in each other’s lives, I don’t
think we see a lot of,” Murphy said,
adding that research projects give
students an opportunity to experience
a professor’s day-to-day life outside of
the classroom, and vice versa.
Chemically engaging
In the natural sciences, student-faculty
collaboration at institutions of higher
education has a long-standing history.
Take, for instance, CC’s Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry:
It’s not only a graduation requirement
for majors to complete research with
a professor, but it’s also an expectation
for faculty to mentor students in this
way. Assistant Professor of Chemistry
and Biochemistry Amy Dounay ’96
explained that it’s just understood
to be a part of what undergraduate
training involves.
“This is where students learn the most.
They get their book work and a little
lab work in the classrooms, but those
labs are usually set up for success. …
It’s different for students to come in
and do real research where you don’t
really know what the outcome’s going
to be. Where no one knows. I don’t
have the answer hidden away in my
answer key.”
Emma Krakoff ’16 is one of about
a dozen students to have worked
with Dounay since the professor
arrived at CC three years ago. Krakoff
and Dounay have collaborated on
Dounay’s research directed toward
identifying new medicines to treat
African sleeping sickness, a disease
that affects a fairly small number of
people in Africa, but one that, more
importantly, no big pharmaceutical
companies are working on.
Krakoff came into the project at the
very beginning, and Dounay set her
on a path of searching the literature,
figuring out what route might work,
and then adapting that choice to their
specific situation at the college and
ordering the necessary chemicals.
Making compounds came next.
As Dounay said, “Dumping everything
together and heating it up is easy. Fish-
ing it out and figuring out what it is,
is the hard part.”
Krakoff agreed. “I didn’t quite know
if what I was doing was working.” But,
she added, “It’s definitely given me
exposure to research and what it’s like
to go through a research project from
start to finish. … Amy was very good
Take NoteStudent-faculty research collaborations enhance
the CC experience
By Kirsten Akens ’96

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
about giving me balance. Helping me out but giving
me the opportunity to be independent.”
“We have not discovered the cure-all yet,” Dounay
said. “Normally for drug discovery you go through
many, many cycles of this.” But her goal is that by
next summer, “we still may not have the drug but
hopefully we’re at least seeing some improvement
and will be able to publish a nice paper within the
next year or so.”
Trial and error
On both the humanistic social sciences and human-
ities side of things, student-faculty collaborative
research projects are a bit newer to the game.
“The [Andrew W.] Mellon Foundation has played
a role in quite explicitly calling on the humanities
and humanistic social sciences to engage, and the
field has,” said Murphy, thanks in part to the New
York-based foundation’s grant-awarding to institu-
tions of higher education specifically in support
of strengthening humanities and arts programs.
“We’re not deeply behind the curve, but we’re not
far ahead … there’s definitely room to expand this
program,” said Murphy.
And for her, that’s exciting. This past year she brought
in her first student, Siena Faughnan ’16, to collabo-
rate on research she’s been conducting about Islamic
scholars of the rational sciences. Murphy’s process
until then involved close readings, note cards,
and then a simple Filemaker Pro data set. When
the digital humanities grants came to her attention,
she wondered if there was a way to integrate
better software into what she was doing. She asked
Faughnan, who was interested in applying computer
science to history, to research possible options.
“[Jane] had compiled a data set from this collection
of biographies of Islamic scholars and I was working
on figuring out how we could use that with soft-
ware in order to create a visual of it so that we could
understand how all of these people were connected
with each other and how tight-knit or loose-knit the
community was and who were central figures in it,”
said Faughnan. “It was a lot of trial and error. A lot
of the time was spent looking into different software
programs that deal with social network analysis and
seeing how other people had done this kind of work.
And then when we finally decided to use this specific
program, I had to make sure that data was able to
be entered in this program.”
It was, and according to Murphy, it generated some
interesting initial findings. And even though it won’t
replace the more close reading and critical work that’s
central to historical analysis, it does add tools —
a topic she’ll present a paper on to the Middle East
Studies Association in Denver this fall, likely with
Faughnan in attendance.
It’s also inspired a student in unexpected ways.
“I want to hypothetically work in museums,” said
Faughnan. “And it gives me a lot of ideas about how
I could apply computer science to make museums
more interactive and engaging, and a more visual
experience for visitors or online guests.”
Composing cred
Fifth-year senior Connor Rice ’16 also combined
digital technologies and humanities in his research
collaboration with Assistant Professor of Music
Ryan Bañagale ’00. Bañagale, who sits on the
editorial board for University of Michigan’s
Gershwin Initiative, has been creating a series
of critical editions — scholarly musical scores —
of the composer’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue.”
Rice spent most of his summer hours going
through digital images of the original manuscript
housed in the Library of Congress, as he said, “note
by note, line by line, page by page,” and entering
more than 20,000 individual notes into the notation
program Finale. As he did this, the music and com-
puter science double major wondered if he could
use his coding skills to increase efficiency.
He designed a very concise reference software pro-
gram that allowed Bañagale to search for a certain
measure in “Rhapsody in Blue,” pull up multiple dig-
ital images of that measure, and compare them at the
same time on one screen. It was a definite improve-
ment over opening individual image files and trying
to figure out where he was in the score. Rice plans to
further develop a stand-alone software option that
other researchers can use in their work on additional
editions for the Gershwin Initiative.
Bañagale has worked on research with a handful
of students since he began in his role four years ago,
perhaps driven by the fact that as a graduate of CC’s
class of 2000, he himself benefited from a student-
faculty research collaboration. Theatre Professor
Tom Lindblade, who was Bañagale’s advisor at the
time, helped him to secure some funding for a project
focusing on creating new musical theater.
“I had never thought about creativity as being
something you could study or think about or talk
about in those ways. That project ended up being
a part of my graduate admissions paper writing
sample, which helped me get into grad school —
and land me back here.”
SCoRe Numbers
According to Associate Professor of History Jane
Murphy, co-director with Associate Professor
of Biology Phoebe Lostroh of what’s known as
SCoRe (Summer Collaborative Research Program),
117 students engaged in undergraduate research
during summer 2015, both on- and off-campus.
Multiple sources of funding provide the same
stipend of $4,000 to individual students for
10 weeks of full-time research. Those sources
include: the Centennial Faculty Student Col-
laborative Grants and Mellon Faculty Student
Collaborative Grants for humanities and human-
istic social sciences, additional Dean’s Office
funding for research in the different academic
divisions (natural sciences, social science,
humanities), departmental grants, and external
grants. In addition, the Dean’s Office awarded
$35,000 for summer student-researcher housing.
Associate Dean of Academic Programs and
Strategic Initiatives Emily Chan noted that
“hands-on research is a core part of the CC
educational experience, and the stipend relieves
students from needing to take on a full-time job
so that they can fully immerse themselves in the
research experience.”

Colorado College welcomed 13 new tenure-track faculty members at the beginning
of the 2015-16 academic year.
MEET THE NEW
FACULTY MEMBERS
Anthony Bull
Associate Professor of
Human Biology and
Kinesiology: Bull examines
the effects of physical
activity and energy balance
on health and performance
in humans.
Lynne Gratz
Assistant Professor of the
Environmental Program:
Gratz’s research focuses on
the atmospheric chemistry,
transport, and deposition
of air pollutants, such as
mercury and ozone, over
local and global scales.
Nadia Guessous
Assistant Professor
of Feminist and Gender
Studies: Guessous is
an anthropologist of
postcolonial and trans-
national feminism, who
works on questions of
religion and secularism,
subjectivity, and affect
in the Middle East and
North Africa.
Olivia Hatton
Assistant Professor of
Molecular Biology: Hatton
is a molecular and cellular
immunologist who studies
how Epstein-Barr virus
hijacks normal B cell bio-
logy to evade immune detect-
ion and transform healthy
cells into cancerous cells.
Jessica Hoel
Economics and Business:
Hoel is an international
development and
experimental economist.
Jean Lee
Environmental Program:
Lee’s research focuses
on sustainable development,
ecological economics, and
community-based natural
resource management.
Ammar Naji
Comparative Literature:
Naji teaches elementary
Arabic, intermediate Arabic,
and introduction to anglo-
phone Arabic literature.
Christina Rader
Economics and Business:
Rader studies how people
make decisions, with a
particular focus on how
they use (or don’t use)
advice from other people
to improve their decisions.
Jamal Ratchford
Assistant Professor of Race,
Ethnicity, and Migration
Studies and History: Ratch-
ford’s teaching and research
interests include sports
and popular culture, race
and racism, ethnic studies,
gender, and black freedom
movements in the U.S.
Michael Sawyer
Assistant Professor of Race,
Ethnicity, and Migration
Studies: Sawyer’s work
employs philosophy,
literature, history, and
art to take stock of the
revolutionary theory and
praxis of marginalized
subjects.
Jeffrey Trevino
Music and Technology:
Trevino’s research
focuses on computational
representations of music
notation for Internet
applications.
Tina Valtierra
Education: Valtierra studies
thriving career-long urban
educators and applies their
wisdom to her work in
teacher preparation.
John Yasuda
Assistant Professor
of Political Science:
Yasuda’s research focuses
on Chinese politics,
regulatory governance,
and comparative political
economy.

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
Tracy Coleman, professor and chair of religion
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
W
hen more than 500 students signed a diversity and inclusion petition co-authored by Han Sayles ’15
and Amairani Alamillo ’16 and submitted it to campus administrators last spring, the guiding
message was in regard to curriculum. The first point of the petition read: “The College needs a diverse
curriculum; a commitment to including marginalized and/or outsider perspectives needs to be reflected in the syl-
labi of every single department or program on Colorado College’s campus.”
Courageous Curriculum
CC’s Religion Department Stands Out

he college’s written response,
via a letter co-signed by Pres-
ident Jill Tiefenthaler and
three faculty members, stated
that while some faculty do
include these perspectives
in their syllabi and some
engage the topics of race, class,
gender, and ability in their
courses, “departments can
certainly do more to expand
and diversify the authorities
and literatures they teach
and to include and examine
the formation and evolution
of their disciplines.” The
letter also stated that, within
the college’s base value of
academic freedom, “we
will encourage and support
department plans to initiate
these discussions and we will
facilitate conversations across
departments and programs.”
One department that has been
identified as a model — both
by students and the admin-
istration — is the Religion
Department. Chaired by Prof-
essor Tracy Coleman, the
department currently consists
of one part-time and five full-
time faculty members, who
together offer expertise in
a wide variety of religious tra-
ditions and geographic areas.
Religion classes are cross-
listed profusely with programs
across campus, ranging from
Asian Studies and Race, Eth-
nicity, and Migration Studies,
to Feminist and Gender Stud-
ies and Classics.
Coleman is extremely clear
about one thing when it comes
to being held in high regard:
“I think we have one of the
most diverse curricula on the
college campus, but it didn’t
all happen since I became
the chair. It’s been happening
for a long time. … It came
from the will of the faculty
based on what we thought
was important in our disci-
pline and in the world today
and also what we considered
to be genuine student interest.”
wouldn’t have brought to the
religious studies classroom.
It was definitely hard. So over
time, after I taught the class
for a few years, I suggested
maybe we should think about
hiring an Islamicist.”
There was some resistance
among her colleagues, she said,
not because they didn’t see the
value, but because they thought
the department wouldn’t
get another new position.
But the proposal was submit-
ted. Finances were a concern
so it was denied for a few
years until a retirement in
another department opened
up funds to hire Peter Wright
in 2008, expanding the faculty
to five full-time members.
Wright is associate professor
of religion, specializing in
Islamic studies.
The next department retire-
ment to take place was that
of David Weddle (now pro-
fessor emeritus), an expert in
Christianity and American
religious traditions. Faculty
had many conversations about
how they wanted to replace
that position. The decision
was to bring in someone who
specialized in global Christi-
anities, with expertise in the
global south — Latin America,
Asia, Africa, etc., where Chris-
tianity is expanding today.
This wasn’t the only focus
faculty decided they wanted
to integrate into the Religion
Department, though.
“We wanted to diversify our
department methodologi-
cally as well. Most of us are
textualists, even though we
have spent significant time
in the countries in question,”
Coleman said. “So we wanted
to hire an anthropologist
or a sociologist. Someone
who works in the field with
living people who are repre-
sentatives of these religious
traditions, because our stu-
dents were really interested
in contemporary practices.
We therefore wanted some-
body who had expertise
in social scientific methods
and who could help students
if they wanted to engage
in field research for their
senior theses, for example.
Or if they wanted to go to
graduate school and do that
kind of work in the future.”
The conversations and plan-
ning paid off. In 2013, CC
hired Devaka Premaward-
hana, assistant professor of
religion, and an anthropolo-
gist who specializes in global
Christianities with expertise
in Africa and South America.
A year later Pam Reaves would
be hired to fill a vacancy and
round out the team, as an
assistant professor focusing
on early Christianity and
biblical studies. Reaves, too,
emphasizes the diversity of
beliefs and practices found in
early Christian communities.
“We really span the globe,”
said Coleman. “Our linguis-
tic expertise is quite diverse,
geographic expertise diverse,
expertise in religious tradi-
tions — world religions if
you want to call them that —
is quite diverse.” But it took
almost 20 years and a com-
mitted desire to change,
“because course offerings are
based on faculty expertise.”
It also took some different
thinking about what a college
department can be.
Coleman explained that one
of the things that makes the
Religion Department different,
both at CC and from other
colleges and institutions,
is that faculty doesn’t focus
primarily on Europe and the
United States. “We don’t priv-
ilege the West or the Western
canon, if you will.”
Instead, people who have
expertise in Africa, Latin
America, the Middle East,
and South and East Asia all
“have an equal place at the
table. An equal voice in
departmental decisions,
an equal voice in curricular
development, an equal voice
in assessing student interest
and in deciding what and
how we should teach in order
to exemplify the values of our
discipline and to educate stu-
dents responsibly for life, and
for whatever professions they
might undertake.”
She added that in looking
at religion departments
around the country, this kind
of equality is “pretty radical.”
“People sometimes cling tena-
ciously to a more traditional
model of academia that privi-
leges the West,” said Coleman.
“We let that model go in favor
of the wider world. We’re
glad we did, and so are our
invested students.”
“About 20 years ago, our
department was very differ-
ent,” she added. “Faculty were
all men, all white, all Christian,
and all formally trained in a
field within Christian studies,
some ordained in a Christian
denomination as well.”
In the late 90s, when Professor
Doug Fox, who had been with
the department since 1963,
planned to retire, Coleman said
faculty wrote a proposal stating
its hopes that with his retire-
ment, two new positions could
be created — one for East Asia,
and one for South Asia, a net
addition of one full-time posi-
tion for the department.
It was approved. David Gar-
diner, who specializes in East
Asian religions and Buddhism,
came on in 1998. A professor
in South Asian religions was
hired shortly after, though she
was wooed away by another
college. Coleman would replace
her in 2001, with expertise in
South Asia and Hinduism.
And then 9/11 hit.
“The first time I taught Intro-
duction to Islam was in Block
3 of 2001, so very shortly after
9/11, when the teaching of
Islam became far more chal-
lenging for everybody whether
they were formally trained
in Islamic studies or not.
I had some training but not
enough, I felt,” Coleman said.
“Students had all kinds of
questions about contemporary
politics that they normally
“I think we have one of the most diverse curricula on the college
campus, but it didn’t all happen since I became the chair. It’s been
happening for a long time. … It came from the will of the faculty
based on what we thought was important in our discipline and
in the world today and also what we considered to be genuine
student interest.” – Tracy Coleman, professor and chair of religion

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
When Owen Cramer went to Oberlin College in the late 1950s, he planned
to pursue chemistry. Tim Fuller attended Kenyon College around the same time,
ready for pre-med.
The two Chicagoans settled in, started studying, and soon found passions leading
them elsewhere.
By 1965, that “elsewhere” was Colorado College. Cramer, a Homerist who could
recite Latin like “a mad priest,” was hired to restart a defunct classics program.
Fuller, a political philosopher with eyes only for liberal arts education, would
broaden the focus of the Political Science Department.
A half century, of course, is no small chunk of time; as Cramer notes, Rome
became the center of the world between 220 B.C. and 167 B.C. And over the last
50 years, he and Fuller have moved to their own exalted spots at CC. They’ve
served on countless committees, including the one that created the Block Plan;
hired other longtime faculty members; and helped send thousands of students
into successful careers of their own.
“They are iconic, they are enduring; they anchor the college’s values and mission,”
said Sandra Wong, dean of the college and dean of the faculty.
50Years with
Owen Cramer &
Tim Fuller
By Kirk Woundy | Photos by Bryan Oller
“They are iconic, they are enduring; they
anchor the college’s values and mission.”
– Sandra Wong

O
wen Cramer spent his senior year of high
school abroad, in Athens. At Oberlin Col-
lege, he deepened his knowledge of Greek,
studied German, “reactivated” his middle-school
Latin, and even served as an emergency French
teacher. After graduate studies in classics at the
University of Texas at Austin, he came to Colorado
College — a place he said he’d never heard of before
being contacted for an interview.
Clearly, the man has no fear of educational exper-
imentation, which made him and CC an excellent
match in 1965.
At a college whose classics program had been
mothballed for a decade, the 23-year-old Cramer
immediately operated as his own department.
He shared space with history faculty, and his
first courses, in Greek and Roman history, were
cross-listed.
He also tackled Latin, as Jenny Holland ’72 remem-
bers well. Newly enrolled in 1968, she had some
background in the classics — and near-certainty that
they were irrelevant in the tumultuous modern era.
That alone would have made her first meeting with
Cramer inauspicious, but she also mistook the youth-
ful professor for another student. No matter.
“He assigned me a book by Apuleius called ‘The
Golden Ass,’ which was written in Silver Age Rome
about a total Roman counterculture,” recalled
Holland, who now as a music teacher strives to help
young people make similar connections. “I was kind
of blown away.”
It was no cursory nod to the present. Outside of class,
Cramer was putting in time as a draft counselor
and as a member of the El Paso County Democratic
Central Committee. At the same time, he also was
serving on CC’s Academic Program Committee,
which sought to establish the school’s operational
goals for the 1970s, and general objectives for the rest
of the century.
“We were building utopia for after the war,” he said.
“And the war wasn’t even over by 1974.”
But if the committee couldn’t control that, it could
establish the Block Plan. Longtime CC professor
Glenn Brooks would call Cramer “a steady source of
fresh ideas” during that time, though Cramer prob-
ably gained more attention for an episode in which
he read Homer’s “Iliad” aloud, sunup to sundown,
over three days with a group of students at various
campus venues.
“He’s definitely a maverick,” said fellow Classics
Professor Marcia Dobson, whose presence at CC
is actually another testament to just that.
In the ’70s, Cramer was eager to expand the depart-
ment. To enhance his chances, he led dozens of
students in independent study blocks — up to 36
OWEN CRAMER, PROFESSOR OF CLASSICS
at a time, he remembers — so that he could tell
administrators, “I have this heavy teaching load.
I need staffing relief.”
Dobson was his selection, and she turned down other
offers to join Cramer at CC. She remembered, “I said
to myself, ‘I could learn more from this man about
classics in two years here, even if I leave after that,
than I could going anyplace else in the country.’”
Of course, neither of them has gone anyplace else.
They established a major in classics in the ’80s, and
expanded the department with a third tenured posi-
tion 20 years later.
Along the way, Cramer has helped establish, and
direct, CC’s Comparative Literature program. He
has chaired the Romance Languages and Spanish
departments. He has sung in the Colorado College
choir, contributed music criticism to local media,
and served on neighborhood boards. He and his wife
Becky have raised four kids.
Cramer said sometimes he and other longtime
professors talk about how their careers may have
unfolded at big research universities. But he has no
regrets about having taken a chance on CC back in
’65, and no plans to stop teaching anytime soon.
“This,” he said, “is as good as it gets.”

A
t a conference in England this fall, Paul
Franco ’78 ran into Tim Fuller, his col-
lege professor from 40 years ago. They got
talking about movies, and Fuller said he’d recently
watched “Her” and “Ex Machina,” at his students’
recommendation.
“He said, ‘Whenever a student suggests that I watch
something, I always do,’” said Franco, who’s a
professor of government at Bowdoin College.
“And I thought, ‘That is the secret formula for keeping
in touch with students.’ ... He remains ceaselessly
curious about them and interested in what they have
to say.”
That, Franco believes, helps explain Fuller’s youth-
fulness and effectiveness as a professor. And it’s
evidence of what another alum, Todd Breyfogle ’88,
considers Fuller’s devotion to carrying on “the con-
versation of mankind,” as Michael Oakeshott would
phrase it.
In Fuller’s story, Oakeshott, the 20th-century British
political philosopher, is a presence almost from the
beginning. While researching a paper on Thomas
Hobbes in his sophomore year at Kenyon College,
Fuller picked up an edition of Leviathan with an
introduction by Oakeshott. He devoured all 60 pages
that Saturday afternoon, and said, “On Monday
morning I went to the professor ... I said, ‘Well, I’ve
decided that I want to go to graduate school in this
subject and teach it.’
“Now, did I really know what I was talking about?
Probably not.”
But through his graduate career at Johns Hopkins
University, nothing changed his mind. “I was
interested in observing politics as the kind of drama-
tization of the human condition,” he said. “The place
where the human condition shows itself in its most
public form.”
It was at Hopkins that Fuller met longtime CC pro-
fessor Glenn Brooks through a mutual acquaintance,
right when Brooks and company were seeking a pro-
fessor of political theory. Fuller interviewed, got the
job, and moved West to the first coed undergraduate
environment he had ever experienced.
As a new professor, Fuller said, he pressured him-
self to construct elaborate lectures “that had way
more material in them than you could deliver in a
50-minute period.” Then one day in class, he looked
up from his papers and saw a sea of glazed faces.
“So I put down these notes,” he remembered. “I walked
out in front of the podium and I just asked them what
they thought. And that changed everything.”
The changes were actually just beginning, with the
Block Plan he helped create taking effect in 1970, and
the college preparing for its 1974 centennial. For that
latter celebration, Fuller invited Oakeshott to speak
on campus, and the philosopher accepted. It started
a relationship that deepened until Oakeshott died
in 1990, and that Fuller has honored with extensive
published work since.
Fuller wrote in depth about his Oakeshott connec-
tion for CC’s 125th
anniversary memoir collection,
in part to express gratitude for the opportunities
the college has afforded him over the years. That con-
cept comes up again when he talks about his turns
as dean and acting president in the ’90s and 2000s,
respectively.
“I never wanted to become a professional administra-
tor,” he said, “but I was very happy to serve in those
various capacities simply because I owe the college
a lot.”
His bond to CC includes his wife Kalah having
earned an MAT degree here, and having two daugh-
ters graduate from the college in the ’90s.
Today, Fuller said he sees no reason to stop teaching
and writing, and continues to feed a passion that falls
somewhere in between the two. For decades, he
has held an informal “political theory discussion”
group in his home, inviting any interested students
in to talk about great literary works. “Sometimes
I choose what we’re going to read,” he said, “some-
times they choose.”
With Tim Fuller, it would be hard to imagine it any
other way.
TIM FULLER, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Professors Cramer and Fuller
were honored at a ceremony at
Homecoming 2015, where many
colleagues, friends, and former
students came to wish them well.

POINT OF VIEW
A
top private liberal arts school, Colorado College exists among a system
of elite institutions. My orientation to the campus was filled with a pleth-
ora of friendly faces and dynamic personalities. This place is different
from what I am accustomed to at other larger public universities. Here, the focus
is entirely on the student and providing the best liberal arts education. Period.
Yet, amid this beautiful campus surrounded by mountain views and fresh air,
I stand in the middle of two different climates: one identifies me as a person of
color among a vast majority of white people, and the other exists within
the covert nature of privilege and ignorance that surrounds the campus. Now
at first, I blamed myself for feeding into presumptions about a place that has been
nothing but kind to me. Bonds of true friendship are already forming with my
colleagues here. Nonetheless, these feelings are not without basis.
My history of being the “other” resonated with me today as I walked to Rastall.
As a young, black male, I often find solidarity within groups of people who look
like me and come from similar backgrounds. However, that solidarity was not felt
SOLIDARITY
& DIVERSITY:
Being theOther
at CC. I wasn’t just looking for people of color. I was looking for myself. I wanted
to engage other young, people of color who came from poor backgrounds and
excelled in life by playing the “stats game.”
Now, what is the “stats game”? Well, I’ll put it this way. I am a black male from
West Philadelphia. I grew up in a single-parent household and attended Saint
Joseph’s Preparatory School. While other students tended to drive Escalades and
BMWs to school, I rode on two forms of public transportation every day and
afternoon. Graduating from the Prep with national awards in Honors Greek and
Latin, I attended Penn State University (Main Campus). Having just suffered from
the loss of a close friend, Richard Johnson, who was shot and killed weeks after
graduation, I performed horribly my first semester, receiving a 1.6 GPA.
With a mindset of not becoming a statistic — one that shows black males as the
largest percentage of college dropouts — I graduated with a B.S. in four years.
I attended graduate school and worked full-time, receiving an M.P.A. with dual
graduate certificates. At the age of 23, I began my Ph.D. in Public Affairs.
By Prentiss Dantzler

Prentiss Dantzler
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
It stands at the nexus of understand-
ing oppression and solidarity within
a confined system of privilege and
ignorance. It reminded me of my own
personal quest as the “other” and how
even with many accomplishments,
my identity would never be white-
washed. My skin color is not just a
reminder of who I am, but also where
I came from. This paradox of under-
standing one’s self within a broader
system of subjugation shifts the para-
digm of a liberal arts education.
Kedhar’s essay shifts the pendulum
of how social movements are formed
and maintained as outlets of expres-
sion and purpose. Her thinking
stretches beyond criticism and encour-
ages members of our community to
self-actualize and question their own
contributions to inequality. Kedhar,
myself, and other faculty are playing
the “stats game.” We are uniquely dif-
ferent from the majority in terms of
race, class, gender, sexuality, and able-
ness. We no longer subscribe to one
idea of who and what a professor is.
In this respect, CC creates an envi-
ronment for growth. Through their
participation in the Consortium of
Faculty Diversity in Liberal Arts Col-
leges, I was chosen by the Department
of Sociology as a candidate for the
Riley Scholars-in-Residence program.
An initiative designed to increase
faculty diversity, this program does
not simply aim to colorize, woman-
ize, or sexualize the faculty. It seeks
to address issues related to the often
whitewashed, heterosexual male-dom-
inated field of academia. It stands on
the principle that a more inclusive and
diverse faculty body provides a better
educational environment for students.
It is not until one experiences a differ-
ent culture, a different place, a different
mode of communication that he or
she can truly know thyself.
With recent actions taken such as
the presence of Paul Buckley and
The Butler Center, the increased
number of Riley Scholars, as well as
the increasing diversity of the student
body of CC, social change is well on its
way. This dualistic approach to identity
extends beyond me. It extends to CC
as an institution of higher learning
proactively taking steps under the
direction of President Jill Tiefenthaler
to create a more inclusive commu-
nity. Even within the realm of debate,
disagreement, and conflict, there is
something to be learned. The value
of a liberal arts education, the environ-
ment of critical analysis and discourse,
and the transformative experience
privileged and ignorant members
of our community undergo positions
us far past our aspirant institutions.
So as I work on my syllabus for my
inequality course, I am reminded
that my “otherness” is welcomed and
appreciated here. As Rapper J. Cole
said, “There’s beauty in the struggle.”
PRENTISS DANTZLER is a Riley Scholar-In-Res-
idence and a visiting assistant professor in the
Department of Sociology. His research interests are
poverty and inequality, neighborhood change and
community, and the intersections of race, class,
gender, and sexuality.
“A more inclusive and diverse faculty body provides a better educational environment
for students. It is not until one experiences a different culture, a different place,
a different mode of communication that he or she can truly know thyself.”
This past summer, I received a M.S.
and recently, I finished my dissertation,
which I defended in early October.
I am currently 27 years old.
I don’t offer this information to gloat.
I offer it as a signal to anyone who
reads this that they too can achieve
great things in their life regardless
of the obstacles in front of them.
Life is a race to the finish line. How-
ever, many forget that the starting line
is not the same for all individuals.
The “stats game” refers to this dynamic.
Less than two percent of the popula-
tion with the identity of a black male
can call themselves “Dr.” That number
is even lower when you control for
my age and background. Statistically,
I was not supposed to make it here.
Yet, I am reminded of high school.
Within the walls of the Prep, a private,
Jesuit high school, students of color
played dual roles. Most on academic
scholarships, we excelled. Yet, our per-
sonalities reflected the neighborhoods
from which we came. We didn’t do the
same things as our white counterparts.
While their parents took them travel-
ing during breaks, our parents worked
two or more jobs to keep the house
afloat. Many of us were the first in our
families to go to college.
However, with all of these accomplish-
ments, I still felt like the “other” at CC.
This was not due to the institution at
all. My role in professional circles and
academic conferences reinforces this
idea of being an outsider. It is here
where my presence reflected a larger
system that privileged some over
others. With the growing climate
of racial tension in this country, CC
seems somewhat familiar.
Entering my new office, I found an
envelope filled with information about
the college, including a copy of the
Colorado College Bulletin. Flipping
through the pages, I stumbled upon
a section called “Reaction to Ferguson
Essay.” Finding the original essay and
subsequent responses, I was somewhat
disheartened at the criticism. Anusha
Kedhar’s depiction of thematic polic-
ing and rebellion paints a vivid and
artistic construction of current events.

PHOTOBYBRYANOLLERPHOTOBYEVANSEMON
PHOTOBYLEAHMILLIS
To learn about our other Faces of Innovation, go to www.coloradocollege.edu/facesofinnovation
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
PHOTOBYBRYANOLLER
When Eboni Statham ’17 was looking at schools, she
knew she wanted to be part of a college radio station,
so CC’s student station “Sounds of CC” attracted her
right away. Once she was a student, she was drawn
into CC’s vibrant scene of student bands and music
shows. She became a DJ at the station, then moved
into a staff role as events manager. From there, she
says, she “just went crazy,” taking a leadership role at
the station and helping The SOCC realize its poten-
tial on a campus that’s wild about music. She helped
to start a band management program, assisting stu-
dent bands with buying equipment, promotions, and
teaching them how to run sound at performances.
David Amster-Olszewski ’09 didn’t grow up think-
ing about solar energy, but during his four years at
Colorado College, it became the thing that excited
him the most. In 2011, Amster-Olszewski started a
renewable energy company called SunShare, which
has solar gardens that “grow” energy for business
and residential utilities customers in Colorado
Springs. At the time that he started the company,
he didn’t have an office, so he signed the forma-
tion agreements in Tutt Library, which was fitting,
because CC was one of SunShare’s first customers.
Economics Professor Dan Johnson studies the
process of innovation, particularly as it applies to
economics, and he found that one of the best ways
for him to learn is to do it. He calls himself a “serial
entrepreneur” and has started three companies
aimed at increasing efficiency in their respective busi-
ness areas. One of these is BookCheetah, which
is a free, student-to-student textbook marketplace.
As editor-in-chief of the journal Science, Marcia
McNutt ’74 is helping the academic scientific com-
munity to be forward looking and embrace change.
The journal is charged with advancing science for
the benefit of mankind. “Right now, we’re facing
many challenges: growing population pressures,
disease, climate change, wars. Through maximizing
the efficiency and the contributions of the scientific
establishment, we can face those challenges and
hopefully solve them.”
In some areas of Panama, nine out of 10 people live
on less than a dollar a day. Maria Barsallo Rubio ’07,
whose roots are in Panama, saw that artisans in those
communities were producing beautiful, handmade
items; the problem was their only customers were
people who happened to come to the village and stop
at the residents’ huts. So Barsallo started DESDE to
give artisans in marginalized communities access
to a local and international marketplace. DESDE
is Spanish for “from,” and represents to Barsallo
empowerment and transparency to the label of origin.
Five New
Faces of InnovationBy Jennifer Kulier

JOHN
NOVEMBRE
’00
PEAK PROFILE
PHOTOBYJOHND.&CATHERINET.MACARTHURFOUNDATION
E
veryone calls it the
“genius award.” The
official title is the Mac-
Arthur Fellowship, and it’s
a cool $625,000, five-year sti-
pend with no strings attached.
Among this year’s recipients,
“24 Extraordinarily Creative
People Who Inspire Us All”:
John Novembre, a biochemis-
try major who graduated cum
laude from Colorado College
in 2000.
“I’m tremendously honored
to have received the award,”
Novembre said when the
award was announced in late
September. “One of the first
things I did … was to email
Ralph Bertrand [professor of
molecular biology] and Jim
Ebersole [professor of organ-
ismal biology and ecology] to
thank them for the mentor-
ship they gave me at Colorado
College and beyond.”
Novembre, who grew up
in Colorado Springs, credits
CC projects on subjects such
as the genetics of oaks for
spurring his interest in popu-
lation genetics.
“When I reflect on what is spe-
cial about Colorado College
and how it has served me, two
great things jump to mind:
The liberal arts tradition —
with its emphasis on broad
learning, problem solving,
and clear writing — has been
a bedrock for me. The second
is the adventurous spirit of
CC. It is a continual inspira-
tion to think outside the box
and live more creatively.”
He also formed lifelong
friendships at CC — what
he calls a “great tribe.”
His work as a computational
biologist and associate pro-
fessor of human genetics at
the University of Chicago has
led to new ways of exploring
geography, genomic diversity,
and demographic structure.
The data visualization and
analysis techniques he’s
developed are providing new
knowledge of human history,
population structure and
migration, and the origins
of genetic diseases.
“I love that it’s so interdis-
ciplinary — there are days
where the focus is on algo-
rithms, other days, statistics,
other days, molecular genetic
processes, other days human
history, languages, archaeol-
ogy, and disease. Being at
an undergraduate liberal arts
college really prepared me
well for this.”
Novembre earned his Ph.D.
from the University of Cali-
fornia at Berkeley in 2006.
He was a National Science
Foundation postdoctoral
fellow in bioinformatics
at the University of Chicago
(2006-08) and was affiliated
with the University of Califor-
nia at Los Angeles (2008-13).
Early in his career, Novembre
discovered flaws in principal
component analysis (PCA),
the traditional way to analyze
the geographic distribution
of genetic diversity. This called
into question the interpreta-
By Rhonda Van Pelt
tion of PCA waves as clues to
large-scale migration, leading
to work with collaborators
to cement the correlation
between shared ancestral geo-
graphy and genetic parallels
among Europeans.
The team’s research verified
the importance of location in
determining DNA patterns
and demonstrated the use of
genetic sequencing to pin-
point ancestry within a couple
of hundred miles.
Novembre went on to develop
a new technique to estimate
recombination rates using
ancestry blocks of admixed
populations (in other words,
not ancestrally homogenous
populations). Recombination
is the basic process in which
parental genetic material is
combined in a person before
it’s passed to the next genera-
tion. The recombination rate
describes how many recombi-
nation events — points on the
genome where genetic mate-
rial switches from one parent
to the other — happen over
time in a group.
He and his collaborators
identified the breakpoints
(crossovers that change
ancestry) of African and
European ancestry to extrapo-
late the recombination rates
in African-American genomes
(representing a largely West
African and European admix-
ture only a few hundred years
old). Their research has pro-
vided more detailed genetic
maps for African-Americans,
improving studies on the
genetic origins of disease and
global genetic diversity.
“Sometimes we’re directly
involved in disease research,
but more often we’re working
on gaining a global under-
standing of human genetic
diversity that informs us
about our past and helps us
know the stage upon which
heritable disease plays out,”
Novembre said.
The MacArthur grant will
give Novembre and his team
of about eight people more
time to focus on research.
“Right now we are facing the
challenge of how to extract
the abundant information in
whole genome sequences in
an efficient manner. We’re
drinking from a fire hose,”
he said.

From left: DEAIRA HERMANI ’17,
CHLOE SHARPLES ’16, HANNAH
JEAN SHAPER ’16, EMMA WHITE-
HEAD ’16, and ANNIKA KASTETTER
’17 of the women’s comedy troupe
Eggs Ovariesy perform at the Taylor
Theater during Family Weekend.
Photo by Niyanta Khatri ’17
STUDENT
PERSPECTIVE

CC Environmental Program Technical Director Darren Ceckanowicz, left, and ERIC
NEUMEYER ’16 use a drone to get a detailed assessment of how trees are spaced at tree line
on Pikes Peak. It’s part of research to better understand factors impacting changes in the
tree line.
Aerial Imaging Elevates the Science and the Education
PHOTOBYMEREDITHPARISH’16
By Pattye Volz

Noah Cutter ’16, left, and CC Director of Innovative Technology Matt Gottfried discuss
plans for modifying one of the unmanned aerial vehicles they built as part of the new drone
program that’s just taken flight.
PHOTOBYPATTYEVOLZ
C
ommon zip ties, chopsticks,
and floral tape combine
with high-tech software and
self-designed flying machines in
the impressive drone program CC
students and staff have launched on
campus and beyond. First field-tested
in 2014, the effort already has assisted
researchers in assessing the fossil
record of dinosaurs in Wyoming and
studying the microclimates of tree line
vegetation on Pikes Peak — all with
computer-programmed, unmanned
aerial vehicles.
“This technology is brand new. We are
figuring out the details, and it is allow-
ing us to get highly specific data,” said
Noah Cutter ’16, a geology major with
a minor in computer science. Cutter
helped develop the program with CC’s
Director of Innovative Technology
Matt Gottfried, magna cum laude geol-
ogy major Jessica Badgeley ’15, and
math major Nate Mankovich ’17.
The group’s work started from scratch.
“Matt, Nate, and I daydreamed about
what we could do, and what we would
need to make it happen,” Cutter said,
never imagining that they would end
up developing a quadcopter, a hexa-
copter, and a plane.
“I spent a lot of time down in that GIS
lab (Geographic Information Systems
lab in Palmer Hall) figuring out how to
put a drone together, plus finding the
right platform — what hardware and
software we would need,” said Man-
kovich, who put his experience to use
this summer working with a company
that provides images for Google maps.
The idea is taking off at CC. “There’s
lots of interest on campus in using
this for both research and teaching,”
Gottfried said.
He and the students designed the
hand-built drones to carry a camera
for a variety of imaging possibilities
useful for very specialized surveying
and digital mapping not otherwise
readily available.
“You can get this really high-resolu-
tion information specific to what you
are interested in and collect the data
during the timeframes you want,” said
Badgeley, the GIS paraprofessional.
She worked with the new drones on
Pikes Peak in the summer of 2014, and
said using a multi-spectral camera
allows imaging beyond the visual
range, such as the tracking of thermal
energy (temperature).
“There is a lot of data available through
government labs, from airplanes or
satellites but it’s often not at the scale
a researcher needs, and some is pro-
hibitively expensive,” Cutter said. “We
can get much more meaningful and
reproducible information, plus doing
it ourselves teaches so much — from
electronics and computer science to
physics and math.”
Starting from scratch
The team decided six rotors provide
the most stability for the CC drones,
which are not remote-controlled, but
fully programmed and then closely
monitored. “We always have someone
watching it, ready to switch to manual
mode and set it down safely when
needed,” Cutter said. Of course, that
doesn’t mean things go smoothly
every time.
“Some of the most simple things
were challenging in the beginning
because we didn’t know a small step,
but then we would figure it out.
We made these drones ourselves, so
every time they went in the air you
kind of held your breath,” Mankovich
said, recalling last summer’s Wyoming
trip where they experimented with
drones to map existing dinosaur digs
and look for potential fossil sites.
And yes, there were some crashes.
“But we improvised. Matt was cool.
He would say, ‘So, what can we do?’
We found chopsticks and foam in the
car, fixed it up, and were able to keep
flying,” Mankovich said.
The landing gear gets beat up the most,
according to Cutter, who said chop-
sticks work well for repairs. “We tried
lots of different tapes from Scotch and
hockey to floral. The floral tape works
the best.” He said foam helps dampen
vibration on the camera mount and
hot glue serves as a waterproof seal. “It
may not look great but these field-fixes
work,” he said.
Miroslav “Miro” Kummel, associ-
ate professor in the Environmental
Program, has turned to the drone pro-
gram for mapping tree crowns along
the tree line of Pikes Peak. It’s part of
his ongoing research to better under-
stand movement of the high-altitude
tree border due to climate change.
Gottfried noted this is the way the
program is meant to work — as a
support to researchers who want to
take this capability further for their
own studies. “We have a number of
platforms and are developing more.
We offer training, and the resource
is available for other faculty and pro-
grams on campus,” Gottfried said.
“This technology can be very useful
to the environmental scientist,” said
Kummel. In agriculture, for instance,
the right imaging could show when
plants are stressed and need additional
irrigation or fertilizer. Researchers
could monitor natural habitats and
track endangered species.
It also could help with post-disaster
planning by providing annual map-
ping of vegetation recovery after fires,
floods, or landslides. And Kummel
hopes to use thermal imaging from
drones to look at heat loss in architec-
ture. “With a 3D infrared image we
can calculate the exact heat loss from
a building.”
Dreams take flight
Kummel wants a drone readily
available so he can “dream up a
project and fly the next morning,”
as well as allowing his students to
come up with their own independent
research projects.
Right now, he’s planning to include
drone thermal imaging in a Block 4
course, Innovation in Environmental
Studies: Applying Drones, Remote
Sensing, and Startup Innovations,
that he is co-teaching with Patrick
Bultema, executive director of Innova-
tion@CC.
Integral to the program is education
about operating the unmanned vehi-
cles safely and legally. While debate
is ongoing about federal licensing
and regulating of drones, Kummel
said CC’s activity currently does
not require a license but has defined
restrictions, such as not traveling over
private property without permission or
near public roads or power lines.
For Cutter, his work the last two sum-
mers using drones to map geologic
sites in Wyoming with Associate
Professor of Geology Henry Fricke
has provided data for his senior
thesis. The whole effort has given him
direction.
“This is exactly the type of thing I
want to be doing. It’s brought together
the things I’ve been interested in all
of my life, such as computing, technol-
ogy, Earth sciences, biology, and the
environment,” he said.

CC HOMECOMING

2015
Sunshine and smiles were in no short supply at Homecoming 2015.
DISCOVER MORE ONLINE: Go online to see more photos from Homecoming 2015
and watch for updates on next year’s festivities at www.coloradocollege.edu/alumni
Photos by Bryan Oller and Tom Kimmell

32 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | DECEMBER 201532 | COLORADO COLLEGE BULLETIN | DECEMBER 2015
SONLATSA
JIM-MARTIN
’94, P’19
PEAK PROFILE
By Bret Wright
The Navajo Nation
covers nearly the same area
as New Hampshire, Massachu-
setts, and Vermont combined.
Although the Navajo population
is less, the number of grocery
stores located in the same
number of square
miles is just 13.
* Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and USGS
F
or Sonlatsa “Sunshine” Jim-Martin, food is
an important topic of discussion. The 1994
graduate (and parent to Zunneh-bah Martin
’19) grew up on the Navajo Nation near Tohlakai, New
Mexico — making her a first-hand witness to the nutri-
tional deficit experienced by many Native Americans.
Her studies at CC were the start of her journey
to help her people help themselves. She credited
Roberto Garcia, former director of admission,
for paving the way for her and other Native Ameri-
can students. “He actively recruited me, coming out
to the reservation to visit. He let us know that there
was a support system for us to succeed [at CC].
Had he not encouraged me, I feel I could not have
succeeded. He was like family.”
Another big impact on her CC experience was play-
ing for the Lady Tigers NCAA Division 3 basketball
team. It gave her an opportunity to appreciate
the possibilities of health and physical wellness,
and currently helps her teach Native American youth
about the benefits of being a college athlete.
After graduating with a degree in anthropology and
a minor in Southwest Studies, Jim-Martin traveled
to Oklahoma and Montana. Spending time on tribal
lands in each state, she observed the programs
and systems that were in place, and determined to
make a difference on her own. She went back to New
Mexico, and began work on tribal policy develop-
ment, first in human resource management, then in
tribal education, and on to social services and public
health. The latter introduced her to the nonprofit
aspect of public health, and that is where she found
her home, working to reduce food insecurity within
the Navajo Nation.
Now as the program manager for the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention-funded Racial and
Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH)
grant, Jim-Martin plans and institutes programs that
address health disparities in the Navajo Nation.
Data from the United States Department of Agricul-
ture identifies nearly all of the Navajo Nation
as a “food desert” — an area that is without access to
fresh, healthy, and affordable foods. For the Navajo,
this food desert spans about 27,000 square miles.
Jim-Martin said people there live in a feast-to-famine
pattern. “Because the area is poor, most people are
on assistance, so when the money comes in, they feast
on foods that don’t have a lot of nutrition. When they
run out, they eat very unhealthy, mostly things high
in starches. People just try to make it day by day.”
The direction Jim-Martin is taking the Navajo Nation
is one that makes sense to her, given her studies
and experience — including those from CC.
In particular, she said the passion her advisor Mario
Montaño, associate professor of anthropology,
expressed for food and anthropology allowed her
to consider options and resources in new ways.
Foods that Navajos lived on prior to colonialism,
she said, are vital to their well-being. Plants and herbs
that are wild and grow naturally and organically can
increase the overall health of the people. “Wild game
and hunting, restoring knowledge of how to do it and
the traditions that surround it — those are important
things. … Sheep, although a relatively new source
of protein, have become traditional. It’s not as healthy
as deer meat, but it’s better than starches.”
We work on making the mind, body, and spirit
healthy, she explained. “You can’t think clearly
if you aren’t getting proper nutrition. My passion
is to reintroduce indigenous foods to the Navajo
Nation. Good nutrition, and a re-establishment
of cultural traditions are keys.”
“Personally, I’m an activist,” added Jim-Martin.
“I’m involved in social justice work. I also grew up
in poverty, so I know that the issues are very complex.”

SEPTEMBER 25-27 Photos by Bryan Oller and
Niyanta Khatri ’17

CC-Bulletin-December-2015

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