Mark Kennedy went back to school early this summer, spending his first day on the job as the University of Colorado’s new president Monday zooming across the Front Range for an action-packed tour of each of the school’s four campuses.
Kennedy’s initial welcome to CU’s campuses was rocky, as he faced protesters and concerned faculty, staff and students opposed to or unsure about the former Republican congressman’s qualifications to lead the largest university system in Colorado.
After outgoing president Bruce Benson’s retirement last week, Monday marked Kennedy’s first official day of listening and learning.
“There is so much to learn that each opportunity to do so opens up my eyes even more to the great things that are happening,” Kennedy said after leaving the Boulder campus.
Kennedy visited a cybersecurity building, the Ent Center for the Arts and a sports medicine center at CU Colorado Springs; the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility and Marcus Institute for Brain Health at CU Anschutz; the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at CU Boulder; and CU Denver’s College of Engineering and School of Education and Human Development.
On the second leg of the journey, CU Anschutz administrators got to their feet as Kennedy entered a conference room where Dr. Terry Fry briefed the small audience on cell-based therapies helping heal children with cancer.
Kennedy threw a white coat over his CU-coordinated black suit and gold tie, and donned safety goggles for a tour of the hyper-regulated facility controlled for its temperature, humidity and pressure — and quarantined to prevent contamination.
As Kennedy witnessed research and innovation unfolding on the campuses he was newly in charge of, he said a common thread emerged that excited him: the seemingly endless possibilities and potential in joining forces across departments, disciplines and campuses.
“I’m struck by the ecosystems growing and developing on each campus and the interdisciplinary exchanges that can take place,” Kennedy said.
Down the street from the biomanufacturing facility, Dr. James Kelly walked Kennedy through the work the Marcus Institute for Brain Health does for veterans, athletes and some civilians suffering from traumatic brain injuries.
Don Elliman, CU Anschutz’s chancellor, said he and his staff selected some of the most exciting things happening on campus to show off to Kennedy.
“We thought these would be good ways to get Mark engaged in cutting-edge, interesting innovations happening here on the Anschutz campus,” Elliman said. “We wanted to show that we’re here to serve. It’s not about us. It’s about the people we serve.”
Kennedy noted that all of the “ecosystems” — from CU Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics partnership with NASA to the service-oriented work happening at the Marcus Institute for Brain Health — make the sum of CU’s parts even greater.
“We are literally saving lives that otherwise would have been lost,” Kennedy said about the research happening on CU campuses. “On these tours, I’m looking to just pull together a couple of examples of the amazing things and try to be able to more clearly enunciate how much pride we as a state should take in having such a great university system.”
