CSU LIFE
FACULTY & STAFF
SEPTEMBER2019 2019 DECEMBER
Incredible feat by CSU Facilities Management CSU Facilities Management crews take on the monumental task of readying Canvas Stadium for the football game on Nov. 29 as well as clearing the roads of ice and snow after record snow fall. Photo courtesy of CSU Athletics See more photos from November at source.colostate.edu.
McConnell speaks from the heart at inauguration By Tony Phifer As Joyce McConnell spoke Thursday, Nov. 14, during her investiture ceremony and saw her 93-year-old mother, Bessie, and 90-year-old father, Harvey, sitting in the audience, she couldn’t help but think about her journey to become CSU’s 15th president. The granddaughter of immigrants, McConnell’s passion for education – and commitment to access to it – was formed early and reinforced by family throughout her life. “My grandparents emigrated to the United States from Greece speaking only Greek and with little schooling,” she said. “But they valued education above all else because they understood its transformative power. They had 10 children who were forbidden to drop out of school, even when the family needed money. “(My aunts) tell me I am the fulfillment of my grandfather’s dream, because I am now in a position to see that transformative power of education is available to a whole new generation of students.”
CSU President Joyce McConnell accepts the ceremonial mace from Faculty Council chair Tim Gallagher. Photo by William A. Cotton
Friends from far and wide
On the job since July 1
McConnell’s investiture in the Griffin Concert Hall at the University Center for the Arts was the showcase event of a three-day celebration of the inauguration of CSU’s first female president. The 90-minute ceremony included diverse music and a solemn ceremony, and was attended by McConnell’s executive leadership team, deans, faculty, staff, students and friends and family from across the country. A contingent of 20-plus people from West Virginia University, where McConnell had served as provost prior to being named last spring to replace Tony Frank as CSU’s president, made the cross-country trek to see their colleague officially assume the leadership of one of the nation’s premier land-grant institutions. Included in the entourage was WVU President Gordon Gee, who proudly proclaimed that McConnell is the 23rd person he has mentored who has served as a college president. Frank, who became full-time chancellor of the CSU System after stepping down as president, said he knew shortly after the search to find his replacement began that McConnell was the right person for the job. He told the Board of Governors “to find someone with a love for the land-grant mission, and they found it in Joyce,” he said.
While McConnell was officially passed CSU’s mace of leadership during the ceremony, she’s been hard at work as president since July 1. She’s faced several challenges in her early tenure but already is building and enhancing important relationships. “We can choose to transform Colorado State University, and to do so with the urgency that we know is warranted,” she said. “We can be bold, we can be curious and we can be courageous. I believe this what we must do, and it is what we will do, to continue to fulfill our promises to our students, faculty, staff and the state of Colorado for another 150 years.” To see photos and video from the three-day celebration of McConnell’s inauguration, go to source.colostate.edu