College of Arts and Sciences

Like Colorado ‘resisters,’ CU casts a wary eye at AI

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:17:20 +0000

Like Colorado ‘resisters,’ CU casts a wary eye at AI Rachel Sauer Mon, 09/28/2026 - 14:17

Katherine Eggert

But a liberal-arts education in the classical sense is the best guarantor of AI’s potential benefits and our best defense against its likely harms

With artificial intelligence, resistance is not futile. It is critical.

But as AI reshapes the world and even threatens to kill us all, it is not enough to resist. We must also understand and adapt. Emerging leaders of society need knowledge and wisdom, which higher education is uniquely poised to gather and share.

AI-resistance has sprung up in Colorado and beyond. There’s an AI Resist List, and even tech titans like Bill Gates are warning about the “most dangerous tool ever invented.” Additionally, AI “conscientious objectors” at the ��ñ�� raise critically important concerns about AI.

��ñ�� information science graduate student Mirakle Wright is studying the resistance. She observed a disconnect between common reports (that most people are eager to adopt AI) and the real world (fellow CU students often shun AI).

When she strove to understand why, she found that most of her research subjects objected to AI’s environmental harm and its data-privacy breaches, along with its contribution to cognitive decline and its role as a “giant plagiarism machine.”

"Humans need new, careful thinking, and this is what we foster. A liberal-arts education in the classical sense is the best guarantor of AI’s potential benefits and our best defense against its likely harms."

Most students Wright studied “said something like the university is supposed to foster intellectualism and debate and analysis, and that AI is the complete opposite to that,” the Denver Post reported.

All these concerns, which are expressed on campuses nationwide, are valid, as are fears about AI’s looming effect on the workplace. AI could affect 300 million jobs worldwide, Goldman Sachs has reported. It could obliterate 9.6 million jobs in the next two to five years, the American AI Job Risk Index predicts.

This is distressing, but it does not mean the university should isolate itself from AI. We are obliged to focus on the future, which, like it or not, will include AI. That’s why ��ñ�� scholars, scientists and artists are teaching students how to manage AI ethically, strengthening our grasp of how humans can best manage AI, and exploring new frontiers in artistic expression.

And that’s why, when the CU system’s initial contract with OpenAI for a CU-specific ChatGPT prompted well-founded critiques of the agreement’s shortcomings, the university drew upon the expertise of our own faculty to create new AI-literacy training material for CU students and employees.

Peer-reviewed studies have shown that AI “without guardrails” harms learning. But ��ñ�� faculty are reinforcing the guardrails to ensure that the tool augments but does not supplant learning.

��ñ�� Philosophy Professor Robert Pasnau ponders ways in which AI can responsibly augment scholarship. Writing in The Wall Street Journal recently, he argued that AI can help scholars understand the humanities in ways never before possible, as long as humans decide what questions are most important:

“Rather than see AI as an excuse to think less, I see it as an opportunity to think harder and to broaden and deepen our understanding.”

And Teresa Nugent, ��ñ�� associate teaching professor of English, exemplifies efforts to ensure AI literacy. She teaches a course about writing in the age of AI and urges students to test the accuracy of AI’s textual analysis and to probe how (or whether) AI should be incorporated into their field of study.

When a college or university is committed to a broad liberal arts education —as the ��ñ�� College of Arts and Sciences is—students are exposed to a broad array of disciplines, giving them academic breadth and depth, the ability to think critically, and the capacity to make powerful new intellectual and creative leaps that could never be anticipated by predictive analytics.

Humans need new, careful thinking, and this is what we foster. A liberal-arts education in the classical sense is the best guarantor of AI’s potential benefits and our best defense against its likely harms.

Like the AI critics, I worry that humans are losing cognitive muscle, reading capacity and analytical prowess. But I am heartened by our faculty’s work to weave AI into their teaching, research and creative work, and by their efforts to do so judiciously, ethically and wisely.

Together, we can ensure that our future is shaped by careful human reason and creative human invention, not by algorithms that have done the thinking for us.

Katherine Eggert is interim dean of the ��ñ�� College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of English. She has also served as vice chancellor and senior vice provost for academic planning and assessment.

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But a liberal-arts education in the classical sense is the best guarantor of AI’s potential benefits and our best defense against its likely harms.

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Activist is in it for the long haul

Rachel Sauer — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:02:05 +0000

Activist is in it for the long haul Rachel Sauer Sun, 09/27/2026 - 13:02

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Disability-rights activist Stephanie Thomas to give keynote at ��ñ�� disability symposium Sept. 28

When she was 17, Stephanie Thomas was involved in a tractor accident in New Hampshire that resulted in a spinal-cord injury and began using a wheelchair.

She didn’t want to learn how to drive. But at the time, public transportation across the nation was not accessible to people with disabilities. “Paratransit” systems were sometimes available but offered limited services.

“You could only go so many times a week, for certain kinds of trips, such as to the doctor. They often weren’t compatible with living life; going to the grocery store was not a priority.” says Thomas, a long-time disability-rights advocate who is now the archivist for the well-known organization ADAPT’s online museum.

Activist Stephanie Thomas will give the keynote speech at the ��ñ��’s 2026 Access, Innovation & Disability Symposium on Sept. 28.

She will give the keynote speech at the ��ñ��’s 2026 Access, Innovation & Disability Symposium on Sept. 28.

No access at Harvard

When Thomas arrived at Harvard University, there were only nine disabled students on campus, and there was no accessible public transit or other accommodations to assist them.

“I had to learn how to drive, and I was sort of annoyed by that,” she says.

She became interested in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibited disability discrimination in federal programs or activities and disability rights more broadly.

It was the time of anti-war protests, civil rights, women’s rights.

“It wasn’t surprising, at least not to me, that disability rights just began to be thought of as a thing,” she says.

She got involved on campus—“nothing revolutionary, just advising on accessibility”—and began to learn of egregious examples of discrimination: A deaf woman who spoke seven languages was not allowed to be a language major because a required language lab used audiotapes; a student who had a seizure when fire-alarm strobes went off was unable to evacuate and was left behind; and the university’s disabled student-services advisor’s office was located on an inaccessible second floor.

“Nobody could get to the guy,” Thomas says. “But nobody wanted to anyway; he was that much of a jerk!”

After graduation, she took a job at EPOCH (now known as VOLAR), an independent-living center in El Paso, Texas. Her boss sent her to a meeting of a coalition of local organizations working together on state-level issues in San Antonio.

“I met my husband Bob Kafka there, and we hit it off right away,” Thomas says.

Access, Innovation & Disability Symposium

Learn strategies to create equitable opportunities for members of the campus community of all abilities.

What: 2026 Access, Innovation & Disability Symposium

When: Sept. 28 - Oct. 1

Who: All are invited

Learn more

She also recalls seeing a brochure from ADAPT with the image of a bus sticking out of a toilet bowl and the slogan, “Don’t flush, organize!”—a takeoff on labor organizer and musician Joe Hill’s famous aphorism, “Don’t mourn, organize!”

Feeling patted on the head

When Jim Parker, a friend of the couple, attended a training sponsored by ADAPT, a national grass-roots community that organizes activists to engage in non-violent direct action to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities and started in Denver, he was energized by the experience. So, he, Thomas and Kafka decided to start ADAPT of Texas.

“They were forcing people to face up to the problem, and Bob and I got excited,” she says.

At a public hearing in Austin, she worked hard on her testimony, putting in many hours of research, only to “feel patted on the head, thank you, sweetheart, and don’t let the door hit you on the butt as you leave.”

But when Bob started testimony from the same notes as his wife, he stated that he was with ADAPT, and Thomas noted that the reaction was very different.

“That name was a cattle prod to people on the committee. They sat up straight and said, 'Whoa!' When I saw that being a member of ADAPT could do that, I wanted in!” she says. The couple started ADAPT of Texas and began organizing local actions such as working on access to transportation, kerb cuts and more. At the same time, they got involved with the Atlantis Community, an independent living center in Denver.

“Before there were kerb cuts, you just had to drop into the street and cross your fingers,” she says. “You had to learn what restaurants you could get into, where you could shop for clothes—it was all very hit or miss.”

Bathrooms were not accessible, there were no interpreters and people with disabilities were often relegated to nursing homes. “There was just no expectation that disabled people belonged in society,” Thomas says.

Congress changed the landscape with the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability and protects those with disabilities in employment, public services and public access.

But the current presidential administration is undertaking sweeping changes that will undermine much of the progress of the last three and a half decades, Thomas says.

Stephanie Thomas (third from right) at a groundbreaking event with Accessible Housing Austin. (Photo: Accessible Housing Austin).

Special education is being moved from the U.S. Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services. “That’s horrible,” she says. “That department has nothing to do with education.

Meanwhile, scheduled deep cuts to Medicare, critical to millions of people with disabilities’ lives, won’t kick in until after the mid-term congressional elections in November, a ploy to keep voters from taking that into consideration in casting their votes, she says.

And the Department of Justice has issued an advisory arguing that neither the U.S. Supreme Court's 1999 decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which held that people with mental disabilities have a right to live in the community rather than institutions, nor Section 504 requires states to provide services to people with disabilities “in the most integrated setting appropriate.” Although not binding, the advisory is expected to guide federal agencies under the current administration.

“Hundreds and hundreds of people have been working for the last four decades to get people the right to live in the community,” Thomas says. “Nobody is forced to live in community; you can still live in a nursing home if you want. But this is taking that right away from everyone else.

“People will become second-class citizens if they need assistance to get their pants on or go to the bathroom. It seems like we should be past that by now.”

Get involved

Thomas says the first step to fighting the trend against disability rights is to get involved.

“People need to vote, to speak up,” she says. “This is not the time to put your head in the sand.”

She’s concerned that national and local protests about civil rights seldom mention disability rights. She partly blames the easy “clicktivism” of social media for the shift.

“It’s a lot easier to write a post or send an email and call it done—and that doesn’t get in the face of the people who actually have power, which is what you have to do,” she told the magazine New Mobility in July.

And she fears that the ever-expanding list of disability conditions is having an effect on public awareness and concern.

“Once everybody becomes disabled, you’re no longer a distinctive minority, and you start to water down your rights legally,” she told New Mobility.

Stephanie Thomas will give the virtual keynote speech for ��ñ��’s 2026 Access, Innovation & Disability Symposium at 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28. Register for the speech here.

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Disability-rights activist Stephanie Thomas to give keynote at ��ñ�� disability symposium Sept. 28.

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��ñ�� celebrates topping out of new chemistry and applied mathematics facility

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 20:46:06 +0000

��ñ�� celebrates topping out of new chemistry and applied mathematics facility Rachel Sauer Thu, 09/24/2026 - 14:46

(Left to right) Irene Blair, dean of the Division of Natural Sciences; Joost de Gouw, chair of the Department of Chemistry; Braulio Baptista, partner at ZGF Architects; Mark Hoefer, chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics; Katherine Eggert, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. (Photo: Patrick Campbell/��ñ��)

New facility will support research and teaching in fields including analytical spectroscopy, environmental chemistry, computational mathematics and the statistical sciences

��ñ�� on Wednesday, Sept. 23, marked a major milestone in the construction of its new Chemistry and Applied Mathematics (CHAP) facility, celebrating the topping out of the building with university leaders, project partners, faculty and staff.

The ceremony recognized completion of the building's structural frame and provided an opportunity to honor the many people helping bring the project from vision to reality.

"The progress we celebrate today reflects the dedication and collaboration of countless individuals who have helped advance this project," said ��ñ�� Chancellor Justin Schwartz. "The Chemistry and Applied Math facility will be transformational in supporting the next generation of discoveries, learning opportunities and interdisciplinary partnerships at ��ñ��."

Learn more in ��ñ�� Today

New facility will support research and teaching in fields including analytical spectroscopy, environmental chemistry, computational mathematics and the statistical sciences.

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Boulder Builds Peace event emphasizes that peace is possible

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 23:37:17 +0000

Boulder Builds Peace event emphasizes that peace is possible Rachel Sauer Tue, 09/15/2026 - 17:37

Keynote speech and panel discussion sponsored by the ��ñ�� Peace, Conflict and Security Program and Boulder Rotary Club will be Thursday in the CASE auditorium

Tonni Ann Brodber, head of the Secretariat of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), will be the keynote speaker Thursday at Boulder Builds Peace, a community event focused on contemporary peace building and conflict resolution.

The event, whose theme is “Peace Is Possible,” is a partnership between ��ñ�� Peace, Conflict and Security Program (PACS) and the Boulder Rotary Club. It will feature Brodber’s keynote address as well as a panel discussion with Sarah Sokhey, a ��ñ�� associate professor of political science who will focus on citizen engagement and peacebuilding; Bernard Amadei, a ��ñ�� distinguished professor emeritus of civil, environmental and architectural engineering who will discuss technical approaches and reconstruction; and Gaea Logan with the International Center for Mental Health and Human Rights, who will discuss mental health infrastructure and peacebuilding.

Faculty, staff, students and community members are invited to attend Boulder Builds Peace, which will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday in the Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE) auditorium on the 4^th floor.

“For students who are thinking about careers in diplomacy and international relations, security related topics or just peace building and activism broadly, this is a really great opportunity to hear from a keynote speaker and a group of panelists who do this work professionally,” says Michael English, associate teaching professor and PACS director. “I think it will help students to imagine what those careers look like, and there will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions.

“I do think there is a lot of uncertainty as to what the future of diplomacy looks like, so this is an opportunity hear from people who can share what those uncertainties mean.”

Brodber brings deep experience in advancing gender equality, resource mobilization and working alongside civil society around the world, including in Haiti, South Africa and Fiji. She previously served as representative of the UN Women Multicounty Office in the Caribbean and as team leader for the Advancing Gender Justice in the Pacific program with the UN Women Fiji Multicounty Office, among other international roles.

This is the third year that PACS has partnered with the Boulder Rotary Club to host Boulder Builds Peace. “What’s nice about the entire peace initiative that the Boulder Rotary Club is doing as a whole is that it focuses on talking about peace from the bottom up,” English says. “It’s thinking about the individual and building inner peace and then scaling up. Our event is very much focusing on what peace looks like internationally, but this is very much the time to be engaging with these issues and bringing people to them in whatever capacity they’re able.”

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Keynote speech and panel discussion sponsored by the ��ñ�� Peace, Conflict and Security Program and Boulder Rotary Club will be Thursday in the CASE auditorium.

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The weather’s hot, the books are cool

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 21:31:07 +0000

The weather’s hot, the books are cool Rachel Sauer Mon, 08/03/2026 - 15:31

There’s still plenty of time to dive into a summer reading list, and College of Arts and Sciences authors can meet every reading mood

Friends, it’s hot out—don’t-touch-the-steering-wheel, try-to-fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot, with scant relief in the forecast.

It’s the sort of weather that calls for a hammock in the shade and a good book. So, even though we’re well into summer and perhaps starting to think about heading back to school, it’s not too late to dive into a summer reading list.

If you’re looking for some recommendations to see you through the rest of summer, the College of Arts and Sciences can help. Our faculty and alumni have written books that cater to a fascinating range of interests—from Roman temple robbery to a middle school student trying to figure things out to an exploration of Colorado’s eeriest places.

So, what are you in the mood to read?

Reading vibe: Creepy but make it Colorado

Suggestion: Eerie Colorado: Mountain Folklore, Monsters and Tales of the Supernatural, by Jack Daly, a lecturer in the ��ñ�� Program for Writing and Rhetoric.

Daly explores all things supernatural, unexplainable and unnerving in the Centennial State. Beyond simply organizing these legends in one volume, Daly also grapples with the role supernatural folklore plays in the historical and contemporary culture of Colorado.

Reading vibe: Thinking about the Roman Empire

Suggestion: Stealing from the Gods, by Isabel Köster, a ��ñ�� associate professor of classics whose research focus is the history, religion and literature of the Roman Republic and the early Empire.

Ancient Romans often plundered temples in their wars of conquest—sometimes openly and with astonishing scale. Large statues and famous works of art were carried away from foreign lands to Rome, treasuries were emptied and sacred spaces were stripped bare.

Yet, despite how frequently these robberies occurred, Romans still expressed sharp moral outrage about it—not for the plundering itself, but for particular individuals accused of committing it for the “wrong” reasons.

Reading vibe: Remembering forgotten histories of choice and liberal religion

Suggestion: God Bless the Pill, by Samira Mehta, a ��ñ�� associate professor of women and gender studies and director of the Program in Jewish Studies.

It's time to remember the often-forgotten history of mid-20th-century Protestant, Jewish and Catholic leaders and believers who embraced birth control as part of God’s plan. In fact, many denominations that were “skeptical to disapproving” in the early 20th century came around to supporting and advocating for birth control and family planning.

Reading vibe: The "A" in AI could also stand for "art"

Suggestion: Lily in a Codebox, by Lee Frankel-Goldwater, an assistant teaching professor of environmental studies at the ��ñ��.

In the summer of 2023, Lee Frankel-Goldwater was heavily immersed in Boulder’s poetry community. He was also very aware of the waves that ChatGPT was making in the tech world.

"I started doing some experiments and playing with this AI to see what it could do poetically,” says Frankel-Goldwater. He was already certain AI was going to change everything, and he wanted to see how it might be used to explore new realms of poetics.

Reading vibe: Feeling like a mango

Suggestion: Confessions of a Mango, a mid-grade novel by Katheryn Lumsden, a ��ñ�� molecular, cellular and developmental biology alumna, and Nathan Pieplow, an associate teaching professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric.

Pieplow says it was important to them to write a book that was realistic and relatable: The parents may be occasionally clueless, but they want what’s best for their kids. The teachers and administrators at the school are supportive, and the other kids may be squirrelly sometimes, but they’re otherwise normal, decent kids.

“I grew up in Boulder and my husband and I are raising our kids in Boulder, and the parents here are fantastic, but sometimes there can be this feeling of life or death if you don’t do well (in school),” Lumsden says. “There isn’t a lot of room to fail, and people sometimes won’t even say the word ‘fail’ to kids. But it’s important that kids know sometimes they’ll fail and it’s not the end of the world.”

Reading vibe: Gloriously alive

Suggestion: How it Feels to Be Alive: Encounters with Art and Our Selves, by Megan O'Grady, an assistant professor in art and art history and a former art critic at The New York Times.

“I have often been bludgeoned by art’s beauty, energized or pulverized by its emotional content, vacuum-sealed within its force-field," O'Grady says. "I’ve looked at it and thought, This is exactly what it feels like to remember someone I lost, or, This is what love is, a tenderness toward existence.”

Additionally, she contends, art “provokes unanswerable questions about how to live in a fragmenting society. It enacts transfers of energy, joy and defiance. It suggests new forms of connection and belonging.”

Reading vibe: More reading, please

Suggestion: The Novel Experience, by Helmut Müller-Sievers, a professor of Germanic and Slavic languages and literature.

Helmut Müller-Sievers has an idea to help reignite students’ interest in taking literature courses: Rather than teaching novels as a source of knowledge, academics should encourage young readers to pay attention to the experience of reading.

“Every experience is novel, and every novel is an experience,” he says.

Reading vibe: Science can happen anywhere!

Suggestion: A Life of Science—In Gyms!, a memoir by Doug Seals, a distinguished professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology who chronicles more than four decades in biomedical research.

Imagine a biomedical research laboratory. Chances are, visions of gleaming equipment, climate-controlled rooms, and the hum of precision instruments come to mind.

But what if that lab was really a century-old gymnasium plagued by electrical outages, noise and temperatures that swing with the seasons? Those are just some of the challenges Doug Seals faced while establishing one of the most productive aging research programs in the country.

Reading vibe: Walking through the garden

Suggestion: The Garden, a work of poetry by Julie Carr, professor of English and creative writing and chair of women and gender studies.

Questions of what to do about violence and the spiritual paralysis it can cause let Julie Carr down wandering paths of mystical tradition, of memories of her uncle, of dreams of fire in the dry Colorado grass, of imaginings like fragments of broken glass. And she arrived at The Garden, her recently published book that weaves fractured narratives into reoriented themes of time, war, Jewishness, memory, techno-biology, friendship and grief.

Reading vibe: A road trip through memory

Suggestion: Music for Leaving, a novel by Erika Randall, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education and professor of dance

Meet Eleanor Murphy: She's 61 and on a road trip of reconciliation and reclamation across I-70, a small duffle bag and her childhood hopeless chest of failed dreams beside her on the seat of a 1960s Dodge truck.

On a journey to connect with her sister and her estranged daughter, Eleanor considers themes of longing, relief and hope—sometimes given voice through items she connects with like a peach pit, her engagement ring and a dashboard hula dancer. Along the way, she learns that though leaving is often seen as failure, sometimes it is its own superpower.

Keep reading!

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There’s still plenty of time to dive into a summer reading list, and College of Arts and Sciences authors can meet every reading mood.

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Benson Center receives $3 million National Endowment for the Humanities award

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:38:09 +0000

Benson Center receives $3 million National Endowment for the Humanities award Rachel Sauer Thu, 07/23/2026 - 15:38

Award will establish endowment to support innovative academic program at ��ñ�� integrating study of the Western tradition with American history, government and civics

The Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the ��ñ�� has received a $3 million Endowments for Advancing the Humanities Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The award, which is matched by $3 million in private philanthropic commitments, will establish an endowment to support the development of an innovative multidisciplinary academic program at ��ñ�� integrating the study of the Western tradition with American history, government and civics. This endowment will advance ��ñ��'s educational mission by creating a permanent source of funding that expands undergraduate curricular and co-curricular opportunities, strengthens faculty recruitment and retention, deepens K-12 partnerships and bolsters public engagement.

"This award confirms the central role of the humanities at ��ñ��," said Katherine Eggert, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “The award’s impact will extend throughout the College of Arts and Sciences. We look forward to working with faculty across the college to enrich educational offerings for all ��ñ�� undergraduates through this opportunity."

This program will build on ��ñ��’s existing academic strengths and foster a vibrant and multidisciplinary intellectual community dedicated to the study of the Western tradition and its ongoing influence on our world today."
— Joseph Porter, Benson Center director of undergraduate studies

Joseph Porter, Benson Center director of undergraduate studies, associate teaching professor and the awarded proposal's principal investigator, said, “This program will build on ��ñ��’s existing academic strengths and foster a vibrant and multidisciplinary intellectual community dedicated to the study of the Western tradition and its ongoing influence on our world today. I am confident it will deepen countless students' understanding of texts, events, people and ideas that have profoundly shaped the modern world.”

Endowment income will support humanities faculty in different departments and programs who will expand the Benson Center's course offerings and develop a multidisciplinary curriculum focused on the Western tradition and American history, government and civics. This curriculum will introduce ��ñ�� students to texts, events, people and ideas that have profoundly shaped America and the Western world—from the classical and Biblical traditions through the American founding to the modern age.

The program will introduce students to enduring tensions and questions within the Western tradition and deepen their understanding of both past and present through critical study of influential and transformative texts. It will equip them with the historical literacy, analytical skills and civic understanding necessary for thoughtful citizenship.

“Grants from the National Endowment support organizations and scholars working to illuminate and educate about the great ideas and events of the past,” said NEH Acting Chairman William English in an announcement of the awards. “As we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary this year, NEH is proud to help foster robust public engagement with our national history, ideals and intellectual achievements through funding for an array of exhibitions, preservation projects, books, education initiatives and advanced research.”

The transformative award marks a significant milestone in the Benson Center's mission to expand humanistic study of the Western tradition at ��ñ��.

“We are deeply grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for its support, as well as to the many alumni, donors and friends whose longstanding dedication, hard work and generosity have made this award possible,” said Taylor Jaworski, Benson Center interim director and associate professor of economics. “This award will strengthen the Benson Center and advance its mission of bringing together faculty and students from across ��ñ�� with shared interests in the Western tradition.”

“We look forward to developing a distinctive academic program at ��ñ�� that will inspire humanistic and civic education for decades to come,” Porter said.

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Award will establish endowment to support innovative academic program at ��ñ�� integrating study of the Western tradition with American history, government and civics.

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‘What my great-grandmother saw at Little Bighorn’

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:49:24 +0000

‘What my great-grandmother saw at Little Bighorn’ Rachel Sauer Tue, 07/14/2026 - 09:49

Bradley Worrell

��ñ�� Center of the American West former board member Rick Williams shares family insights into the historic battle and offers thoughts on how perceptions have changed over time

For many Americans, the Battle of the Little Bighorn is remembered as “Custer’s Last Stand”—a dramatic clash of armies on a Montana hillside where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and more than 200 soldiers of the 7th Calvary were killed on June 25, 1876.

For Rick Williams, an Oglala Lakota/Northern Cheyenne Native, historian, Indigenous rights advocate and ��ñ�� Center of the American West former board member, the battle was never just a chapter in a history book.

It was a story passed down through his family in hushed tones, told by his great-grandmother in her native Lakota and Cheyenne and translated into English for him by his grandmother.

For Rick Williams, an Oglala Lakota/Northern Cheyenne Native, historian, Indigenous rights advocate and previous board member of the ��ñ�� Center of the American West, the Battle of Little Bighorn was never just a chapter in a history book.

“I’m probably one of the few people living today who has a direct connection with someone who was there,” says Williams. “My great-grandmother was born in 1869 … and she was a little girl in the Cheyenne camp during the Battle of the Little Bighorn; she witnessed what happened.

“Growing up, my grandmother and great-grandmother would tell these stories, but they always warned me not to repeat them. They believed they could still get into trouble, possibly from the public or maybe with the government,” he adds. “Even in the 1950s and 1960s, there was still a fear surrounding (Native American) discussions of what happened at Little Bighorn, because Custer was still revered.”

With this summer marking the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine recently spoke with Williams, who shared his family recollections and why he’s encouraged to see that American perceptions of the battle and Native Americans have changed over the years.

Question: What did your great-grandmother tell you about the battle? What details differed from historical accounts?

Williams: According to my great-grandmother’s account, she and a cousin had been playing near the river when (Cheyenne) scouts warned them to return to camp. Instead, they stopped where they could watch what was happening. …

According to those accounts, warriors were concealed along the river and ambushed Custer’s force as it crossed. The attack created immediate confusion and disorganization. Some soldiers were thrown from their horses and others fled up nearby draws and ridges.

As soldiers attempted to retreat uphill, another group of Lakota or Cheyenne warriors arrived from a different direction after hearing the gunfire. That left Custer’s men with no avenue of escape. That’s why the traditional image of a carefully organized ‘Last Stand’ doesn’t fit some Native accounts. The soldiers never had the opportunity to establish an effective defensive formation.

There are many versions of what happened, and every story seems to have several variations. But one thing is clear: The battle was far more complicated than the traditional narrative suggests. …

One story my great-grandmother told me was children at the camp going among the dead cavalry men after the battle. The children would open the soldiers’ money belts and throw the contents into the air. She said, ‘I didn’t know it was money. If I had known, I would have saved some.’

These were oral stories I learned firsthand.

Later, I told that story at a history conference in Billings. A prominent historian said it couldn’t be true. He argued that Custer’s men wouldn’t have been carrying that kind of money in the field.

By then, I had done extensive research in military archives. I learned that every military post kept monthly reports called post returns. When I examined the records from Fort Lincoln, I found that just before the expedition left, Custer had drawn two months’ pay for his men. The records also noted that the money was distributed before moving into the campaign area. So, the documents supported my great-grandmother’s story.

Beyond Custer’s Last Stand: The forces that led to the Battle of the Little Bighorn

The Battle of the Little Bighorn has long occupied a unique place in American memory. Often remembered through images of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer making a heroic last stand against overwhelming odds, the battle has been mythologized in movies, books and popular culture for nearly 150 years.

But according to ��ñ�� historians Thomas G. Andrews and Noah Ramage, that familiar story obscures a much larger and more complex reality.

Andrews, faculty director of the Center of the American West, says that rather than a simple clash between the U.S. Army and Native Americans, the battle (which many Indigenous people refer to as the Battle of Greasy Grass) emerged from shifting alliances with Native nations amid a backdrop of competition for territory, economic transformation and mounting pressure on Northern Plains tribes. To understand what happened at the Little Bighorn on June 25-26, 1876, Andrews argues that it is necessary to understand the forces that led up to it.

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Question: Are there other notable details from your grandmother’s account or from your own research on the battle that differ from the traditional narrative?

Williams: Part of my research suggests a gap between the public narrative and what Native people remember. For example, there was a claim that Custer’s body was not mutilated because he was respected by Native people. However, accounts passed down in my family tell a different story. …

The Cheyenne knew who Custer was. Unlike some other groups, they had prior history with him, particularly after the Washita campaign. There was an old story that after the peace ceremony, a Cheyenne spiritual leader emptied pipe ashes onto Custer’s boots and warned him never to come among their people again or he would be killed.

According to Native accounts, Custer was shot in the river (at Little Bighorn) … and a Cheyenne warrior then cut out his heart, held it up and declared that (the spiritual leader’s) warning had finally been carried out. You’ll never find that story in most written accounts. It’s an oral tradition that was passed down within families. …

Another thing that often gets overlooked in history is Native intelligence and military skill. The military capabilities of the Native nations were routinely underestimated. Yet, at Little Bighorn, they demonstrated superior knowledge of the terrain, superior scouting and effective coordination.

History is complicated. If you really wanted a complete understanding of Little Bighorn, you’d need accounts from the Lakota, the Cheyenne, the Crow scouts (for the cavalry), (Custer’s subordinate Captain) Reno and everyone else involved. No single narrative tells the whole story.

Question: Why do you think the accounts of Native Americans who were present at the battle were not given the same credence—at least initially—as secondary accounts regarding Custer and his men, who did not live to tell their stories?

Williams: For many years, historians largely ignored or dismissed Cheyenne accounts. One reason was simple: The Cheyenne used a different directional system. Their cardinal directions were based on Bear Butte—one of their most sacred landmarks. When historians translated Cheyenne stories using conventional directions, the stories seemed inaccurate.

In the 1980s, after a fire at Little Bighorn exposed new archaeological evidence, archeologist Richard Fox studied the battlefield extensively. Working with researchers familiar with Cheyenne traditions, he found that when the directional references were properly understood, Cheyenne accounts matched the archeological evidence remarkably well. In some cases, they were more accurate than any other version of events.

Question: Do you think American public perceptions of the battle have changed in your lifetime?

Williams: Absolutely. Fifty or 60 years ago, criticizing Custer publicly was difficult. Many people viewed him as a heroic figure, and there were passionate defenders of that interpretation.

I think that’s one reason my grandmother cautioned me not to repeat certain stories; there was a real concern about how people would react.

Over the years, Native perspectives have gained greater recognition. The interpretation at the battlefield itself has changed, and the visitor center now presents a more balanced story.

From a Native perspective, outsiders were entering and occupying someone else’s homeland. History sounds very different when viewed from that angle."

The archeological work done after the battlefield fire was especially important because it challenged longstanding assumptions. At the same time, Native voices became harder to ignore.

Question: Are there still elements of the historical narrative regarding western expansion before and after the battle that you think are largely unchanged in American culture?

Williams: One issue that still bothers me is the language some people use when talking about western expansion. The traditional story often describes settlers moving peacefully into empty territory and being attacked by savage tribes. But native people lived on that land already.

From a Native perspective, outsiders were entering and occupying someone else’s homeland. History sounds very different when viewed from that angle.

Question: If Little Bighorn had ended differently, do you think the history of the West would have changed substantially?

Williams: That’s difficult to answer. The battle took place in 1876—the nation’s centennial year. Because of that timing, the event became highly symbolic. It captured the nation’s attention in a way that few other battles could have.

Had the outcome been different, perhaps some things would have changed, but larger forces were already in motion. There was tremendous pressure for western expansion. Public attitudes toward Native people were deeply entrenched. Government policies were already moving in certain directions. Even without Little Bighorn, many of those forces would still have existed.

For generations, Native nations experienced policies designed to assimilate, relocate or absorb Native peoples into mainstream society. Those policies affected nearly every aspect of life.

Even today, many tribes remain constrained by federal systems that affect their ability to govern themselves and develop their economies.

Question: Some 150 years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, do you have thoughts on how the American public views Native Americans?

Williams: Despite everything, I believe one thing has improved dramatically: People don’t view Native Americans the same way they did 50 or 60 years ago. For much of earlier American history, Native people were often portrayed as enemies, obstacles or relics of the past.

Today, more people are willing to listen. They’re looking at the historical record and saying, ‘We didn’t get this completely right.’ That’s encouraging.

I hope the next 50 years involve more than simply acknowledging mistakes. I hope they include real efforts to rebuild communities and create opportunities.

People sometimes talk about reconstruction efforts in other parts of the world after wars and disasters. Native communities have often needed similar investments but have rarely received them. There is still a great deal of work to be done.

But for the first time in a while, I think more people are willing to have an honest conversation about history—and that’s a good place to start.

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��ñ�� Center of the American West former board member Rick Williams shares family insights into the historic battle and offers thoughts on how perceptions have changed over time.

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Top image: "Indian Memorial" by Colleen Cutschall, a senior Oglala-Sicangu Lakota artist originally from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. (Photo: National Park Service)

A century later, a liberating education is still our mission

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:59:36 +0000

A century later, a liberating education is still our mission Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/20/2026 - 14:59

Daryl Maeda

A century ago, we needed informed citizens and clear thinkers; today, as the pace of change grows exponentially, we need them even more

Picture the scene when the Hellems Arts and Sciences building first opened as the hub of the humanities at the University of Colorado:

It was 1921, and the world was recovering from a deadly pandemic, Americans were isolationist, suspicious of immigration and deeply divided on issues of race. Also, economic uncertainty fueled doubts about the value of a traditional, liberal-arts education.

History might not repeat itself, but it sometimes rhymes.

This month, 105 years after Hellems opened, ��ñ�� officials celebrated its recently completed renovation, heralding the place as a nucleus of campus life, a common bond among most students and, still, the home to key disciplines in the humanities.

Today, we’re in the wake of a pandemic, with rising isolationism and contentious debates on immigration, race and a liberal-arts education.

Let’s discuss, starting with a definition of the “liberal arts,” which is important, given modern connotations of the term “liberal.” The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that a good education—one that prepared citizens to steer the ship of state—was the foundation of democracy.

Cicero argued that autonomous individuals who earn the respect of others must learn skills or practices to be effective citizens and stewards of democracy. He called these skills the artes liberales, which translates to the “arts of free people,” those with liberty—hence “liberal arts.” Cicero focused on rhetoric, literature, poetry, ethics, civics, logic, geometry, music, astronomy and natural science.

History has a home in Hellems Arts and Sciences, as does philosophy, English, linguistics, the Anderson Language and Technology Center and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

He described arts and sciences, essentially.

The fields we count as liberal arts have grown in the 2,000 years since then, but the gist—the idea citizens need all these skills to better participate in democracy and in life—is unchanged.

Today in the College of Arts and Sciences, the liberal arts—now with more subjects!—remain central to the education of all students. Across the nation, however, students and their families sometimes question the return on investment in a liberal-arts education.

As I’ve noted previously, it is true that those who earn degrees in engineering and business tend to command higher starting salaries than those who hold degrees in English or sociology. However, those with a liberal-arts degrees often enjoy mid-career earnings growth that can rival that of their friends in technical disciplines.

The monetary “return on investment” is compelling. But that’s not the only benefit, and this is not the first time we’ve had this debate.

George Norlin was president of ��ñ�� in 1921, when Hellems opened. He, too, responded to critics of a liberal-arts education, including Henry Ford, who famously said, “History is more or less bunk.”

Norlin penned an essay in which he argued that knowing only the present day was a kind of “prison” that kept a person from fully participating in civic and personal life. At the time, a liberal-arts education was called a “liberal education,” and he said this:

“A liberal education, or what we might better call a liberating education, has for its purpose … ‘a breaking of prison walls which leaves us standing, of course, in the present but in a present so enlarged and enfranchised that it is become, not a prison, but a free world.’”

Norlin rejected the “war-cry of charlatans” who demand that universities neglect liberal education and “become places of apprenticeship for jobs.”

He added: “Let there be more schools for the training of artisans—the more the better—but let the colleges and universities remember that, whatever else they may be called upon to do, their first business is to keep civilization alive and moving from vitality to vitality in each generation.”

Norlin, after whom the university’s libraries are named, paraphrased Cicero in the inscription above the main library’s entrance: ‘Who knows only his own generation remains always a child.’”

Were we to update that statement today, we’d use gender-neutral language. But I hope, as Norlin did, that it will reflect the university’s core purpose as long as they remain etched in stone.

History has a home in Hellems Arts and Sciences, as does philosophy, English, linguistics, the Anderson Language and Technology Center and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

As he celebrated Hellems’ reopening this month, ��ñ�� Chancellor Justin Schwartz hailed the place as “where the ideas of the university take root, where perspectives are challenged and where intellectual confidence begins to take shape.”

The scholars in Hellems grapple with profound questions and promote critical thinking. The questions explored there have never been more important:

How do we apply the lessons of yesterday as we stride toward tomorrow? How do we find common cause across cultures and languages? How do we reason thoughtfully about what is right, true and ethical?

These are the questions the world must address, and our investment in Hellems demonstrates that the university honors this prime imperative.

A century ago, we needed informed citizens and clear thinkers. Today, as the pace of change grows exponentially, we need them even more. Embracing the wisdom of the past can drive us toward a better future.

Daryl Maeda is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the ��ñ��.

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A century ago, we needed informed citizens and clear thinkers; today, as the pace of change grows exponentially, we need them even more.

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Outstanding faculty and staff honored at 2026 recognition reception

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 22:41:46 +0000

Outstanding faculty and staff honored at 2026 recognition reception Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/16/2026 - 16:41

College of Arts and Sciences faculty and staff recognized for excellence in teaching, scholarship and other work at annual highlight of the academic year

Faculty and staff from across the ��ñ�� College of Arts and Sciences were honored at the Recognition Reception held Thursday afternoon in the Norlin Library.

College of Arts and Sciences Dean Daryl Maeda (left) with Shemin Ge (right), distinguished professor of geological sciences and winner of a 2026 College Scholar Award.

Deans of division Irene Blair, Sarah E. Jackson and John-Michael Rivera, along with College of Arts and Sciences Dean Daryl Maeda, honored faculty and staff for their outstanding achievements during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Awarded recognitions include:

College Scholar Awards
Kahn Family Community Teaming Fund
Kayden Awards
ASCEND Awards
Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction
Collaborative Access and Innovation Award
College Professor of Distinction
Sesquicentennial Scholars
CU Distinguished Professors
A&S Staﬀ Employees of the Year
Promotion to Full Professor
Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Promotion to Teaching Professor
Promotion to Associate Teaching Professor

See all recognized faculty and staff

Deans of division John-Michael Rivera (left), Irene Blair (second from right) and Sarah Jackson (right) congratulate Laura DeLuca, a teaching assistant professor of anthropology and ASCEND Award winner.

Dean Daryl Maeda (second from left) congratulates Gavin Liang (white shirt), faculty affairs coordinator and a college employee of the year.

Deans of division John-Michael Rivera (left), Sarah Jackson (second from left) and Irene Blair (second from right) congratulate Shelley Copley (right), a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and College Scholar Award winner.

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College of Arts and Sciences faculty and staff recognized for excellence in teaching, scholarship and other work at annual highlight of the academic year.

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College of Arts and Sciences names 2026 Van Ek Scholars

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:18:26 +0000

College of Arts and Sciences names 2026 Van Ek Scholars Rachel Sauer Wed, 04/15/2026 - 11:18

Twenty-six students receive one of the college’s most prestigious honors, recognized for their exemplary academic achievement and meaningful contributions to the campus and broader community

The College of Arts and Sciences has awarded the Jacob Van Ek Scholarship—one of the college’s highest honors—to 26 outstanding undergraduates.

Named in honor of Jacob Van Ek (1896–1999), the award commemorates his remarkable contributions to the university. Van Ek joined ��ñ�� in 1925 as a young assistant professor shortly after earning his doctorate from what is now Iowa State University. Within three years, he rose to the rank of full professor and, by 1929, was appointed dean of the College of Liberal Arts—a role he held until 1959.

The following students are this year’s Jakob Van Ek Scholar Award recipients:

Ray Anchordoquy: physics
Ben Braun: physics
Carlos Carale: neuroscience
Monique Castaneda: political science
Chelsea Elliott: speech, language and hearing sciences
Elizabeth Ervin: dance/integrative physiology
Amelia Gandhi: astrophysics and planetary sciences/geological sciences
Rachel Gaydos: speech, language and hearing sciences
Katherine Grisak: international affairs
Gianna Guido: Spanish/political science
Nadine Huseby: anthropology
PiperJo Jones: biochemistry/anthropology
M Jordan: anthropology
Deven Kukreja: political science/Japanese
Aris Larson: integrative physiology
Shea Musson: speech, language and hearing sciences
Jessica Nesbit: integrative physiology
Emmalyn Nono: neuroscience/linguistics/Chinese
Julia Renz: molecular, cellular and developmental biology/psychology/neuroscience
Soren Rollin: geological sciences/anthropology
Samuel Ruzzene: integrative physiology
Alexander Scholpp: economics, international affairs
Dhruv Seth: neuroscience
Annika Stephan: biochemistry
Piper Tocco: humanities/secondary education
Tvishi Yendamuri: biochemistry
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Twenty-six students receive one of the college’s most prestigious honors, recognized for their exemplary academic achievement and meaningful contributions to the campus and broader community.

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