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President Benson and his wife Marcy have been close and dear friends to me and my wife Yvonne for many years.ÌýThey have been tireless supporters of all four Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØcampuses,Ìýand we want to express our sincere appreciation for all they’ve done for the Boulder campus in particular. ÌýBruce received his degree in geology at Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder in 1964 and has helped our campus grow, gain more funding and be more recognized around the world. He’s also been a major donor and the Benson Earth Sciences building here bears his name. That’s a visible example of his contributions, but there are so many more.

During his tenure, he successfully increased financial aid from the institution from $88 million to $184 million; boosted research funding from $660 million to $1.03 billion; increased fundraising from $135 million to more than $400 million; growing CU’s endowment from $640 million to $1.2 billion; and increasing the overall budget from $2.2 billion to $4.5 billion. He is renowned for successfully optimizing the operations of Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØso that the costs of education can be held down.

With that strength in management of the entire system, Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder as a campus has been able to develop a dynamic strategy and underlying initiatives to be transformative in how we approach education.ÌýI am excited that our vision to be a leader in addressing the humanitarian, social and technological challenges of the 21st century through developing leaders, ensuring we have a positive impact on the world and beingÌýa top innovative university is taking shape. We have many initiatives advancing this vision such as Academic Futures, Foundations of ExcellenceÌý(the first-year experience project), and the Unified Student Experience Project to transform our IT interface experience for students.ÌýThis campus is leading the way in demonstrating how a public research university with low state funding can dynamically transform the model for being a highly impactful force for good in society.

As the Board of Regents determines the next steps for selecting our next president, my cabinet and I stand ready to provide our support and assistance.

Philip P. DiStefano
Chancellor