Be represented.

Fall 2025 Tri-Chair Letter

Eryn Van Poole — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 22:21:45 +0000

Fall 2025 Tri-Chair Letter Eryn Van Poole Tue, 09/23/2025 - 16:21

Hello Staff and Research Faculty,

Welcome to the start of a new semester! While fall is usually a busy and exciting time, we recognize that the past few weeks have been deeply unsettling for many in our campus community. The recent swatting incidents have understandably left many feeling anxious, vulnerable, and uncertain. Please know that we see you, we hear you, and we are actively working with campus leadership to share your comments and concerns about these recent events. To help us better advocate for your needs, we request that you please share your feedback on our website and take a few minutes to complete this newsletter’s survey. We also encourage you to explore the many resources �鶹��Ѱ��offers to support your wellbeing, and to lean on and check in with your colleagues and friends—community and connection are more important than ever.

In addition to employee safety and wellbeing, our priorities this year include promoting our Resolution to Reaffirm and Commit Support for a Positive Work Environment for the Transgender, Intersex, Non-Binary Community, strengthening our relationships with you—our constituents—and ensuring your needs are represented as we engage with new campus leadership. We always encourage your feedback on how Staff Council can better serve staff and research faculty, so please don’t hesitate to reach out via our website or join us at a full council meeting.

Next, we would like to extend congratulations to Jasimine Evans, who was named an Honorary Lifetime Representative of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Staff Council. Jasimine’s leadership within Staff Council and contributions to the staff and research faculty experience on campus cannot be understated, and we are so grateful for her service, dedication, and support. Congratulations, Jasimine!

Finally, to all staff and research faculty, thank you for everything you do—both seen and unseen, acknowledged and behind the scenes—to support students, collaborate with colleagues, and make �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder a better place to work and learn. We wish you a season of abundance, inspiration, and continued success throughout the fall semester.

Warmly,

Crystal, Leah, and Jessica

Welcome to the start of a new semester!

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Invite Staff Council To Your Staff and Research Faculty Meetings! We will bring the treats!

Christopher Marelli — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 15:58:36 +0000

Invite Staff Council To Your Staff and Research Faculty Meetings! We will bring the treats! Christopher Marelli Tue, 09/23/2025 - 09:58

Staff Council's outreach and events committee would like to celebrate all the hard work staff do, where you do it: in your departments! Fill out this form, and one of our staff council reps will be in contact to get treats and/or small swag items at your next staff meeting. This program will be running all year, so there will be opportunities for all departments that want to participate.

Staff Council's outreach and events committee would like to celebrate all the hard work staff do, where you do it: in your departments!

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Join Us in Advocating for Research Faculty!

Christopher Marelli — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 15:55:35 +0000

Join Us in Advocating for Research Faculty! Christopher Marelli Tue, 09/23/2025 - 09:55

We're excited to kick off committee work for the 2025–2026 academic year! As a special committee of Staff Council, our aim is to strengthen outreach and communication efforts about Staff Council with Research Faculty and deepen advocacy for Research Faculty. Our committee meets on the first Wednesday of every month from 12:00–1:00 p.m., and everyone is welcome to attend—we’d love to have your voice at the table.

Learn more and get involved!

We're excited to kick off committee work for the 2025–2026 academic year!

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Staff Council Committee Meetings

Christopher Marelli — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 15:18:59 +0000

Staff Council Committee Meetings Christopher Marelli Tue, 09/23/2025 - 09:18

Looking for ways to be more involved with Staff Council? Feel free to join one of our Staff Council Committee Meetings or our Monthly Full Council Meeting :

1st Week of Month
Tuesday @ 9:00am - Front Line Staff Committee
Tuesday @ 11:00am - Awards and Staff Recognition Committee
Wednesday @ 12:00pm - Research Faculty Special Committee

2nd Week of Month
Tuesday @ 11:00am - Experience and Elections Committee
Tuesday @ 12:00pm - Committee for Belonging, Equity, Accessibility and Mattering
Wednesday @ 12:15pm - Full Council Meeting
Thursday @ 11:00am - Communications Committee

3rd Week of Month
Tuesday @ 10:00am - Blood Drive and Community Service Committee
Thursday @ 3:30pm - Outreach & Events Committee
Friday @ 10:00am - Payroll, Benefits, Retirement and Legislative Committee

Looking for ways to be more involved with Staff Council?

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Staff Council Committee Accomplishments

Eryn Van Poole — Mon, 19 May 2025 21:17:51 +0000

Staff Council Committee Accomplishments Eryn Van Poole Mon, 05/19/2025 - 15:17

Boulder Campus Staff Council recognizes all staff members who reached a career milestone in the 2024 - 2025 academic year. You are an integral part of the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus, and we sincerely thank you for your service and dedication. Read more about the staff career milestones.

We'd also like to recognize the four awardees of the Chancellor's 2024 Employee of the Year award: Miki Brooks, Janelle Henderson, Sally Lowell, and Jeanne McDonald and University of Colorado Staff Council (UCSC) 2025 Staff Excellence Awardees: Kai Amey and Estrella Lastre. This year's winners represent incredible dedication to the students, faculty, and staff of the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus.

Awards and Staff Recognition (ASR) Committee

We honored a total of 767 �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder university staff, classified staff, and profession research assistants and research associate members for their years of service: 318 for five years; 205 for ten years; 83 for fifteen years and they received a $25.00 gift card; 67 for twenty years and they received a $50.00 gift card; 53 twenty-five years and they received a $75.00 gift card; 29 for thirty years and they received $100.00 gift card; 7 for thirty-five years and they received a $150.00 gift card; 2 for forty years and they received a $150.00 gift card.
We honored the four Chancellor’s Employees of the Year and the two University of Colorado Staff Council Staff Excellence Award winners with a gift bag made up of Staff Council swag and purchased items from the bookstore.
ASR planned and launched the successful revival of the Brightest Buffs recognition program in spring 2025! This refreshed initiative was brought to life to honor the creativity, dedication, and innovation of our incredible staff community. So far, we've launched a brand-new website featuring a recognition form and an optional public spotlight for honorees, giving them the opportunity to share their stories with the broader campus community. Recipients are also awarded a �鶹��Ѱ��gold star pin as a token of appreciation. Thanks to campus-wide collaboration and enthusiasm, Brightest Buffs is already creating a meaningful platform to celebrate the people who make �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder thrive.

Belonging, Equity, Accessibility and Mattering (BEAM) Committee

BEAM has purchased a Little Free Library (LFL), the first to be established on the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus. The nearest LFL is on the hill, in downtown Boulder, and east of 28th Street, so it will fill a much needed void in the area. The long-term plan is for the LFL to float between major hubs on campus indoors, like the C4C, the UMC, Williams Village, etc. to allow all staff, students, researchers, and faculty to visit easily. BEAM is planning a ribbon-cutting for the LFL's first location and hope to fill it with books that celebrate and affirm the LGBTQIA+, transgender, intersex and non-binary community for the inaugural opening.
BEAM presented a resolution to the full Staff Council on April 16, 2025 called "Reaffirm and Commit Support for a Positive Work Environment for the Transgender, Intersex, and Non-Binary Community" co-authored by Kathleen Stutzman and Rose Smith. This resolution was adopted by Staff Council and will be presented to leadership on campus. This resolution affirmed the positive steps that have already been established on campus to support a positive work environment for the transgender, intersex and non-binary community over the past few years, and provided an outline of recommendations to the administration to improve morale and safety for this community.
In collaboration with UCSC and Dr. Kelsey Draper of Infrastructure and Resilience, BEAM is co-sponsoring the screening of This Is [Not] Who We Are on campus during the month of June 2025. This movie is directed and produced by Dr. Beret Strong and Katrina Miller and explores the lived experiences and discrimination of Boulder's Black citizens both historically and in contemporary times.
The Many Voices: Co-Creating �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder summit on April 21st, was sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Office of Leadership Support and Programming, and all four of CU's shared governance organizations. Staff Council tri-chairs, as well as the BEAM committee members attended planning meetings throughout the past year, and helped to solidify the goals and content of the summit. Dr. Adrianna Kezar (Director of the Pullias Center of Higher Education at the University of Southern California and Dean’s Professor of Leadership and Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education at USC) and Dr. Ángel de Jesus González (Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Fresno State University) facilitated the day long event, focusing on the Shared Equity Leadership model. This model has been adopted by the campus as a collaborative approach to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, by emphasizing shared decision-making, representation and continuous learning.

Blood Drive and Community Service Committee

The Blood Drive and Community Service Committee, along with long-time partner Vitalant, hosted blood drives in October, December, February, and April. Between these four drives, over 742 units of blood were collected to be used by those in need in the community. Each unit of blood donated has the possibility of saving three lives, meaning that the cumulative effort could save 2,226 lives.

This effort involved recruiting students, staff, faculty, and community to commit to helping be a positive force in the community.

The committee also partnered with Meals on Wheels Boulder to create Valentine’s Day cards.

The committee is focused on continuing to host successful Blood Drives on campus and expanding community service opportunities that directly impact our community and support the staff on our campus.

Communications Committee

Partnered with 20+ campus organizations to send out three newsletters during the academic year to over 6,000 staff and research faculty.
1. Received 613 individual responses from four newsletter surveys relating to Wellness Barriers, Why Stay/What to Change at CU, Prescription Challenges, and Staff Council Priorities/Future Goals.
Collaborated with the ASR committee to launch the Brightest Buffs Program.

Experience & Elections (ExEl) Committee

The committee updated the Elections Code to make it clearer and to reflect current practices. The proposed changes were voted on and adopted in April 2025.
The committee successfully proposed a name and scope change from the Elections Committee to the Experience and Elections Committee to include new responsibilities around onboarding and supporting Staff Council Representatives.
The committee facilitated successful voting processes for new Staff Council Representatives and Officers for the 2025-2026 year.

Front Line Staff Committee

This year, Front Line Staff was voted in as a full standing committee! This not only has allowed the committee to be more secure in our future, but has reaffirmed Staff Council's commitment to supporting, uplifting, and celebrating our frontline staff across campus. This year, we welcomed our very first frontline staff council member. We hosted two lively roundtable discussions with frontline staff in multiple languages and heard critical feedback from them about their jobs around campus. This year, we started outlining a white paper to bring frontline staff concerns to campus leadership. We continue to champion language access for all frontline workers on campus. We have repeatedly connected with supervisors on campus on how to support frontline staff. This has been a great year, and we can't wait for what next year has in store!

Outreach & Events Committee

The Outreach & Events Committee hosted Staff Council’s annual Staff Appreciation Breakfast and food drive on December 12, 2024. As with previous years, the event was well attended with over 1,100 staff attending this year. Campus leadership once again did an outstanding job volunteering in their serving roles and Chip the mascot even came by to say hello. The generosity of staff with food donations supported several food pantries in the area with welcome donations before the holiday season. This event is continually one of Staff Council’s most successful offerings and it is a highlight of our year.

We also collaborated with campus partners to host an all day event for all �鶹��Ѱ��employees to bring their kids to work for a day of discovery and fun! We are proud of how many campus units joined us in offering activities for little buffs in addition to the Kickoff Party hosted by our committee. Almost 200 little buffs showed up with their parents to the kickoff party and enjoyed ice skating, snacks, games, activities and pictures with Chip and his Dad, Chip Sr.

Payroll, Benefits, Retirement & Legislative (PBRL) Committee

Raised awareness with HR about issues related to the uneven process for performance management across campus, created a survey regarding staff and the performance management system to be shared with campus in the May newsletter. HR shared concerns and committed to continuing to work on improvements to this process for staff.
Partnered with �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder MyLeave Replacement Initiative to discuss payroll in arrears as they move into the Design phase.
Spoke with Jess Doty at health and wellness to better understand current benefits & perks landscape to see what is available for staff and if changes should be made.
Met with Kelly Reel about salary transparency and checked where the compensation framework initiative project is at.
Continued to staying informed on the HR Blueprint project and kept in touch with HR regarding how it's being developed.

NEW! Research Faculty Special Committee

In the May Staff Council meeting, a special committee to serve interests of Professional Research Assistants, Senior Professional Research Assistants, Research Associates, and Senior Research Associates was ratified by a majority vote.

The committee will assemble through the 2025-2026 academic year with the goals of:

Enhancing outreach and education efforts about Staff Council with Research Faculty, particularly through translating Staff Council and standing committee efforts for Research Faculty constituents.
Providing understanding and perspective on �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder policies, procedures, and funding of Research Faculty for Staff Council members.
Promoting and advocating for equitable and proportional representation of Research Faculty as elected or appointed representatives on Staff Council.
Supporting the implementation and evaluating the effectiveness of the Research Faculty special committee.

Be on the lookout for future communications and contact ginnie.hershbarger@colorado.edu or kate.cochran@colorado.edu for more information, with questions, and if you are interested in joining the committee.

We'd like to take a moment to share the accomplishments of our committees within Staff Council from this past year.

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Staff Council election results: Meet your new 2025 representatives

Eryn Van Poole — Mon, 19 May 2025 20:50:05 +0000

Staff Council election results: Meet your new 2025 representatives Eryn Van Poole Mon, 05/19/2025 - 14:50

Staff Council is excited to announce the winners of the 2025 - 2026 �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Staff Council elections, as well as announce our new officers. We are deeply grateful to all the candidates willing to take the time and make the effort to be involved!

If you were not elected, or were unable to run but are still interested in volunteering your time with Staff Council, we encourage you to contact Staff Council directly. Any �鶹��Ѱ��Staff, Research Associate, or Professional Research Assistant employee can participate and can benefit from networking opportunities, event volunteering, and professional development through committee work. No prior experience or specific time commitments are required.

Elected Representatives

The following representatives were elected by popular vote during our election cycle by you, the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Staff, Research Associates, and Professional Research Assistants. In the event that the top elected candidate is unwilling or unable to fulfill their duties, a runner-up (if available) is named in their place.

Area-specific

These are staff members elected by popular vote to represent a specific "area" of campus. If you are unsure what area your position is covered by, visit our Area Breakdowns page or our Representatives page.

Area 1, Sara Abdulla
Area 2, Claudia Numan
Area 3, John Carlson
Area 4, Rob Blacker
Area 5, Vanessa Dunn
Area 6, Vacant
Area 7, Sarah Safadi
Area 8, Tom Klenow
Area 9, Jessica Sandoval
Research Faculty: Kate Cochran

Elected At-Large

Elected At-Large are staff members elected by popular vote to serve the entire �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder system, rather than a specific area.

Crystal Cyr
John Tran
Chris Marelli
Claudia Acosta Lopez

Appointed Representatives (At-Large)

These are staff members appointed by the Staff Council Elections committee to serve as representatives for a 1-year term. Appointed representatives include former elected representatives as well as those who were runners-up in their elections for specific areas.

Alisha Stewart
Brian DeWolf
Gena Welk
Jacob Henry
Megan Henning
Nicole Morris

Officers

Officers are nominated and elected by �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Staff Council representatives after the general elections are complete. The majority of these positions are 1-year terms.

Tri-Chairs

Leah McDaniel Parvez, 2 Year Term
Jessica Sandoval, 1 Year Term
Crystal Cyr, 1 Year Term

Co Vice-Chairs

Ginnie Hershbarger
Megan Varra

Treasurer

Yasmine Ortuno

Secretary

Cameron Brooks

University of Colorado Staff Council Elected Delegates

Alisha Stewart
Alternate: Natalia Johnston

Staff Council is excited to announce the winners of the 2025 - 2026 �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Staff Council elections, as well as announce our new officers.

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Letter from our Chairs - May 2025

Eryn Van Poole — Mon, 19 May 2025 20:37:23 +0000

Letter from our Chairs - May 2025 Eryn Van Poole Mon, 05/19/2025 - 14:37

Greetings, all.
As we close out another academic year, we want to take a moment to reflect on the incredible progress and resilience shown by our �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder community. It has been a year of significant change—some anticipated, some unexpected—and through it all, our campus has responded with steady determination and a deep commitment to one another.

We are incredibly proud of what we've accomplished together. Staff members and research faculty across every department and unit have worked tirelessly to support our community. Your dedication and commitment have been essential to sustaining and enhancing �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder as a place where all can thrive. Thank you for your continued hard work, creativity, and commitment to making �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder a better place for everyone.

In alignment with the Staff Council mission to advocate for the rights of staff and research faculty to improve morale and promote diversity, inclusion, cultural competency, and respect in conducting organizational business and initiatives, Staff Council recently adopted a resolution that Reaffirms and Commits Support for a Positive Work Environment for the Transgender, Intersex, and Non-Binary Community. This resolution outlines specific actions �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder can take to demonstrate a genuine and ongoing commitment to equity and belonging for transgender, intersex, and non-binary staff members. These actions reflect our shared values and the importance of ensuring that every member of our campus feels respected, safe, and valued.

Staff Council representatives will be meeting with campus leadership to discuss the resolution further, and strategize next steps for moving key actions into motion in the months ahead. We are excited about the potential for real, meaningful change and grateful to everyone who contributed their voices and advocacy to this effort.

Looking ahead, we are filled with optimism. Staff Council has built strong momentum this year, and we are confident that this energy and spirit of collaboration will carry forward into the next cycle. We will continue advocating for staff interests and advancing initiatives that contribute to a more inclusive, supportive, and empowering workplace.

Thank you again for all you do. Here's to a year of progress—and to the promise of what lies ahead.

Crystal, Jessica, and Mike

We want to take a moment to reflect on the incredible progress and resilience shown by our �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder community.

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Brightest Buffs Recognition Program

Eryn Van Poole — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 21:02:00 +0000

Brightest Buffs Recognition Program Eryn Van Poole Mon, 01/27/2025 - 14:02

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Staff Council is excited to continue Brightest Buffs, an initiative designed to highlight the unique and innovative experiences of our diverse staff community. We want to recognize professional experiences that reflect your creativity, contributions, or impact, and we encourage you to share them with us! You can nominate a staff member or nominate yourself to be recognized as a Brightest Buff. Nominations will be shared in Staff Council bulletins and on the Staff Council website, with the nominee’s consent.

University Staff, Classified Staff, Temporary Staff, Professional Research Assistants and Research Associates can be nominated for the Brightest Buffs award.

Nomination Form

As part of the Brightest Buffs recognition, you will have the opportunity to be featured on the Staff Council website and will receive a Staff Council Branded Gold Star Pin!

Meet Your Brightest Buffs

The �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder University Staff Council wants to celebrate the unique stories and contributions of our staff! You can nominate a staff member or nominate yourself to be recognized as a Brightest Buff.

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Letter from our Chairs - Leading through Change

Eryn Van Poole — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 20:29:30 +0000

Letter from our Chairs - Leading through Change Eryn Van Poole Mon, 01/27/2025 - 13:29

Hello Campus Staff and Research Faculty,

We hope your Spring semester is off to a good start.

As we navigate a period of change and transition on our campus and across the country, the Staff Council Tri-Chairs, along with our Executive Committee, want to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to advocating for the needs and priorities of our �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder staff and research faculty community. Our campus leadership changes present both challenges and opportunities for our community and we remain steadfast in our dedication to advancing the goals that we have set forth to better your experience as a part of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

Our priorities continue to be:

Staff Advocacy: Ensuring that your voices are heard and that your perspectives are represented in key decision-making processes. We are committed to being strong advocates for your needs at all levels of the university.
Benefits Assessment: Evaluating the benefits offered to staff to ensure they are competitive, equitable, and supportive of your well-being and professional growth.
Transparency About Pay: Collaborating with campus Human Resources to provide transparent and clear communication about compensation practices. This includes advocating for equitable pay structures that reflect the value of your contributions to the university’s success.
Equitable Experiences: Fostering a welcoming and supportive environment where every staff member feels valued, respected, and empowered to thrive.

We recognize that periods of transition can create uncertainty. We hope you will join us in identifying opportunities to strengthen our collective resolve to continue to work together on the issues that are most impactful to you and your colleagues. We are committed to ensuring that staff concerns remain at the forefront of university priorities during this time.

To achieve this, we invite you to engage with us in this effort. Your feedback, insights, and participation are essential to our success as a representative body. Whether through attending Full Council or Committee meetings, sharing your thoughts via our contact us page, or reaching out directly to your Staff Council representatives, your involvement allows us to better advocate for the issues that matter most to you.
In February, we are offering additional opportunities to engage with Staff Council. Please join us on February 12th from 12:30-1:00 pm (MST) via Zoom for a virtual Open House with your area representatives. This is a great opportunity to provide feedback about your experiences at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and raise issues or topics of interest with your representatives. If you are interested in joining Staff Council, we are also hosting 2 Staff Council information sessions in February to learn more about what it means to be a Staff Council representative.

As always, thank you for your dedication and contributions to our university. Together, we can ensure that our community continues to thrive and that your voices are heard.

With appreciation and commitment,

Crystal Cyr, Jessica Sandoval, and Mike Williamson
Staff Council Tri-Chairs

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Letter from our Chairs

Eryn Van Poole — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 16:37:09 +0000

Letter from our Chairs Eryn Van Poole Tue, 10/08/2024 - 10:37

Hello Campus Staff,

Happy Fall, and although it sounds odd to say almost a month into the semester, happy start to the academic year!

Although the Fall season and the academic year have just started, Staff Council has been hard at work since our new cycle began in July. Since July, we’ve established our officers for the year and are working on establishing our committee chairs, goals, and budgets. We’ve also had multiple meetings with campus leaders, including our first Shared Governance meeting with Chancellor Schwartz and the other shared governance groups on campus: �鶹��Ѱ��Student Government, Graduate and Professional Student Government, and the Boulder Faculty Assembly.

There’s quite a lot of change happening across campus. We acknowledge that change can be difficult, especially when multiple changes occur simultaneously. We want you to know that Staff Council and Staff Council leadership are working hard and that our mission and vision remain steady. Additionally, campus leadership continues encouraging and supporting our work as a shared governance body.

Staff Council has been working hard to determine our focus (foci) for the year. During our retreat in August, we identified some high-level themes that staff have voiced concerns about; from there, we’ve worked to narrow those high-level themes down to some more specific areas and have determined some actions that our Staff Council can take to start addressing some of these concerns. The three major themes and potential areas of action are as follows:

Increased transparency around compensation.
- Understanding the processes for pay, promotion, and hiring across the campus in an attempt to help staff better understand the landscape and help the campus move toward more consistency of processes.
Understanding staff needs and wants related to benefits and perks.
- Reviewing current benefits and perks offered, determining which benefits and perks staff want and use, identifying barriers to staff wanting to utilize the various benefits and perks already available.
Continued focus on employee wellness, especially regarding work fatigue and burnout.
- Creating better understanding of work modality requirements, expectations, and needs in service of creating a more equitable approach to work modality.

Finally, the Chairs have been participating in various campus committees to ensure staff voices are heard and considered when plans and decisions are being made. The chairs are currently serving on committees focused on sustainability, DEI, and civic engagement. If you’d like more information about the work being done in these committees, please contact us.

As always, we appreciate the work you do and the voices you bring to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. If you’d like to share questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,
Crystal, Jessica, and Mike

Happy Fall, and although it sounds odd to say almost a month into the semester, happy start to the academic year!

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