On a fall day, elementary education majors in Melissa Braaten’s class are busy — busy as beavers, one might say — building mock beaver dams out of water and natural materials in small bins. During this exercise, budding teachers role-play teaching young learners in their future classrooms, asking questions and analyzing beavers’ role in ecosystems.

The climate science lesson is modeled after one that Braaten’s community partners teach at  in Boulder County as part of  (C4CA). In this particular lesson, student scientists (lovingly referred to as “beaver believers”) study real beaver habitats in the local waterway, where the dams create wetlands habitats for other species and maintain lush surroundings important for the increasingly drier state of Colorado. 

Launched by retired fifth-grade teacher Tiffany Boyd (MEdu’92), C4CA brings together retired and practicing teachers, community members, local climate change experts and youth to work together toward climate solutions.

In C4CA, kindergarten through high school students learn about environmental justice issues and play an active role in climate solutions — from sharing flood-mitigation ideas with city council to working with open space officials to address fire risks.

Braaten, an associate professor of STEM education and associate dean for undergraduate and teacher education in CU Boulder’s School of Education, is a research partner for C4CA and documents how science teaching is powerful when it’s relevant to students’ lives and civic action. 

With Braaten as the connector, C4CA educators visit her elementary education classes to share real-world examples and create C4CA’s own “ecosystem” of current and future teachers working together to support young people’s scientific inquiry and leadership in climate solutions.

“A central ingredient for C4CA’s success is that it takes everyone working together to make a change,” Braaten said. “Teachers credit its partner mentorship with inspiring and sustaining their efforts to help children be civic actors working for environmental justice — not only as future adults, but in the immediate present as vital members of our community.” 

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Photo by Kristen Boyer/Boulder Valley School District 

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Heard Around Campus

“Coach Mac was an incredible man who taught me about the importance of faith, family and being a good husband, father and grandfather.”

– CU Boulder Athletic Director  on Jan.10, 2025. Coach Mac was among the most successful head coaches in all sports in CU Boulder’s 135-year athletic history. 

Incarcerated at Risk in Climate Disasters

U.S. prisons are unprepared to safeguard the incarcerated from extreme heat, floods and other climate-related threats, according to a CU study with accounts from nearly three dozen formerly incarcerated people. Researchers found that vulnerabilities in infrastructure, insufficient emergency protocols and lack of oversight leave inmates at heightened risk during disasters. The team hopes their study will inspire more research around climate change adaptation, mitigation and prevention while also considering the voices of incarcerated people.

CU Buys Shuttered Louisville Movie Theater

CU Boulder that housed the Regal Cinebarre movie theater, which closed last May. The site, purchased for $10 million, is intended for a mixed-use, transit-oriented development that includes university housing. The property is seven miles from campus.

New Quantum Facility in Boulder

CU Boulder is spearheading and providing leadership and resources to a new 13,000-square-foot quantum facility in east Boulder. The effort is in partnership with , and , a tech hub with a coalition of 120 organizations. The facility will include collaborative office space for early-stage quantum companies and state-of-the-art scientific equipment. 

Digits: Europa Instrument 

The Surface Dust Analyzer, designed and built by the CU Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics team, launched to Jupiter’s Europa moon aboardspacecraft to collect data that may determine whether the moon has conditions that could support life.

6

Years to get to Europa

35 pounds

Weight of CU apparatus

$53 million

Instrument’s cost

16 miles

How close Europa Clipper will be to the moon’s surface

~1.9B

Number of miles Europa Clipper will travel across the solar system 

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When it comes to getting to class at CU Boulder, “not having a car” would be a tough sell for tardiness — the university prefers students not to have one at all. 

“We have a whole toolbox of programs to prevent students from needing to bring a car to campus,” said Brandon Smith, CU Boulder assistant director of sustainable transportation. 

Most of these offerings are free. All students receive  (RTD) bus passes and also have access to the university’s electric Buff Buses, , CU NightRide, bike repairs on campus and summer bike storage. A CU ski bus even offers students trips to several ski resorts for $25 round trip.

And Buffs take advantage. In an average week, Buff Buses log about 30,000 boardings, 90% of which are students. In 2023, students rode RTD more than a million times. From January 2023 to November 2024, students took more than 1.3 million trips on BCycle bikes. 

The payoffs for sustainable transportation are big. 

“More than 60,000 commuters travel into Boulder per day, and 80% of these are single occupancy vehicles,” said Smith. “However, less than 12% of students drive solo to campus. Imagine what Boulder and campus parking, traffic and air quality would be like if we didn’t have programs that got most students out of single-occupancy cars.”

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Photo by Casey A. Cass

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For many CU Boulder alumni, the university is more than just the location of their college experiences. It’s a part of their lives today. They want other CU students and alumni to experience this deeper connection too, starting with embracing themselves as “Forever Buffs.”

“Your journey as a Forever Buff begins when you enroll on campus,” said Ryan Chreist (Kines’96,MPubAd’09), Alumni Association executive director. “The day you graduate, you join the larger Forever Buffs community of over 300,000 who live all over the world. It is a way to have a relationship with the university and your fellow alumni for life.” 

For alumni like Rochelle Maki-Williams (Psych’96; ExecMBA’11), being a Forever Buff means more than staying actively involved with the university — it means nurturing future generations of Buffs. Since 2011, Maki-Williams has volunteered for the , the and , a group dedicated to supporting CU Athletics. As a Denver Forever Buffs chapter leader, she’s also helped raise scholarship money for local high school students. 

Maki-Williams’ bond with CU is personal. It’s where she met her husband, T.H. Williams (A&S’95; ExecMBA, MFin’04), built lasting friendships and created cherished memories. 

“Being a Forever Buff is something I live every day,” she said. 

For Royer Lopez (Mktg’18), “being a Forever Buff is about creating endless possibilities — for yourself and others.” 

His involvement is wide-ranging. He holds roles on the Leeds GOLD Board and the Forever Buffs Advisory Board, volunteers as a Leeds School of Business mentor and helps host reunions for the Multicultural Greek Council. Plus, he attends every CU football home game with his family. 

Through his many CU connections, he aims to create a broader impact and ensure that future Buffs have expanded opportunities. Lopez, a first-generation college student, is passionate about helping other first-generation students and often recruits interns from Leeds. 

For Maki-Williams and Lopez, being a Forever Buff is more than a point of pride — it’s a lifelong commitment to give back, stay connected and make an impact. 

Become involved with the Alumni Association to connect with other Forever Buffs. Visit .

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Photo courtesy Rochelle Maki-Williams

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Last fall’s Día de los Muertos “Altar Crawl” invited the CU Boulder community to engage with several altars honoring the lives of deceased loved ones. Altars were located across campus, including in the Guggenheim Building, the Koenig Alumni Center, the CU Museum of Natural History, the Center for Community and the Miramontes Baca Education Building. The crawl — hosted by the Forever Buffs Latinx group, the BUENO Center, the Latin American and Latinx Studies Center, UMAS y MECHA, Sigma Lambda Beta and the Center for Inclusion and Social Change, among others — highlighted the cultural significance of the day with moments of remembrance and celebration. 

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Photo courtesy Daniela Martinez Carpizo; Nelson R. Castro; Karla Rosete Nunez

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When a CU Buffaloes football player gets injured, coach Deion Sanders enlists a team of professionals to ensure a swift recovery. That’s what professor James Brody does with students at the College of Music’s Musicians’ Wellness Program (MWP).

that 90% of professional musicians experience playing-related pain or injuries due to misuse or overuse, and 80% of college-aged musicians report stress, anxiety or depression tied to their craft.

In response, Brody founded the MWP in 2003 to help students prevent and recover from injuries, sustain peak performance and maintain robust mental health throughout their careers.

“It became glaringly obvious this was a necessity when students came to me with injuries 20 years ago,” said Brody. “I was committed to finding ways to make a difference.”

The MWP was among the first of its kind, predating the National Association of Schools of Music’s 2005 mandate requiring music programs to address wellness. Since its inception, Brody and the MWP have expanded services and recently shared their work at three international conferences.

The program teaches performance psychology and exercise techniques for breathing, hearing and vocal health. It also includes on-staff therapist Matthew Tomatz, who provides therapy sessions to support students’ emotional well-being, including managing performance anxiety.

After 47 years of teaching, Brody will retire as director of the MWP on July 31, leaving behind a legacy that will continue to positively influence the health of College of Music students, faculty and staff — and wellness aspirants across the globe.

“The fact that we’ve already helped so many to continue to do what they love is truly gratifying,” he said.

With a search for a new director underway, Brody hopes the program will receive expanded funding to introduce initiatives like a certificate in musicians’ health, onsite physical therapists and medical professionals and hearing protection devices for students. But one thing’s for sure: Brody’s revolutionary vision ensures the program’s lasting impact on future generations of musicians. 

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Photo courtesy Stacy Nick/KUNC

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Colorado is famous for generous levels of sunshine — and CU is looking for ways to harness those rays for more than just vitamin D.

In one of the latest steps by campus leadership to drive down emissions and increase energy efficiency, the university is scheduled to begin construction next summer on the East Campus solar array, a two-acre, ground-based panel system with a $7.8 million price tag. The project will be the largest of CU Boulder’s 16 existing solar arrays, all of which are located on Main Campus buildings.

“We’re aiming to source about 10 percent of our electrical usage from renewables,” said Chris Ewing (EnvDes’96), vice chancellor for infrastructure and sustainability at CU Boulder. “This project will get us up there closer to 4 or 5 percent, halfway to our goal.”

The 1.1 megawatt ground-mounted solar array is projected to offset 1.4 million kilowatt hours annually, amounting to about 1.3% of CU Boulder’s annual electricity usage.

The project supports CU’s Climate Action Plan, which aims to reduce campus emissions 50% by 2030 and completely decarbonize by 2050.

“We’re in the midst of a climate crisis, and we need to do our part to reduce our carbon emissions,” said Ewing. “The other part of the argument is that it makes good business sense. If we invest in solar panels now, that’s 1.1 megawatts of power that we don’t have to worry about month after month. It will pay for itself after 20 years.”

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Photo by Glenn Asakawa

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For the last 13 years, every CU Boulder graduate who has cheered on the Buffs has done so under the banner of the Pac-12 athletic conference.

But why? Perched where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, Boulder is easily the easternmost school consistently playing against the likes of USC, Stanford, Oregon and other historic teams that make up the traditionally West Coast grouping.

Let’s rewind. In 1947 — the early days of modern conference play — Colorado held its own as a chartering member of the Big Eight. The historic sports conference was composed of geographically contiguous Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State. But in 1996, the conference realigned and expanded southward to form the Big 12, adding in Texas schools like Baylor and UT Austin.

At the time, the energy around the Big 12 was electric. “It was an iconic combination of Midwest grit and southern resilience,” said former women’s basketball captain Kami Snyder (Psych, Jour’01). “It might be 15 degrees with snow flurries, but there was a game to play, and it was time to ball.”

However, in 2011, on the heels of a shaky Big 12 and shifting revenue priorities, the Buffs were ready to head west, accepting a Pac-10 invitation alongside Utah — creating the Pac-12.

13 years later, . In 2023, the board of regents at CU voted unanimously to approve the conference switch back to the Big 12, effective for the 2024–25 season.

This decision, which followed the announcement that UCLA and USC were leaving the Pac-12, was designed to create future stability for the Buffs, with the added bonus that student-athletes will enjoy better time slots and shorter travel for some road games.

And while the switch comes with a hefty projected annual television revenue package for CU, former chancellor Philip DiStefano and athletic director Rick George maintained after the announcement that money wasn’t the only factor in the decision.

“The national exposure that joining the Big 12 provides will shine a spotlight not only on our incredible student-athletes, but also on our groundbreaking research that really changes the world,” said DiStefano.

Online, the Big 12 celebrated CU’s return with a two-word statement released through Commissioner Brett Yormark:  

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Photo courtesy CU Boulder Athletics

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This fall, the incoming class of 2028 moved into CU dorms, charged their laptops for class and downloaded syllabi via smartphones. To prove just how much time flies, here are the stories that were shaping the world in 2006, the year many of these first-year students were born.

Politics:

• Democrats win control of both the House and Senate in midterms.
• Samuel Alito is sworn in to the Supreme Court as an associate justice.
• The War in Iraq continues into its third year.

Tech:

• Twitter, now known as X, launches and cofounder Jack Dorsey posts first-ever tweet: “just setting up my twttr.”
• Google purchases YouTube for $1.65 billion.
• The PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii hit consumer markets.

Science & Climate:

• Pluto is downgraded to a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union.
• NASA’s Stardust mission ends, making it the first spacecraft to bring samples from a comet to Earth.
• California passes the Global Warming Solutions Act.

Culture:

• High School Musical airs for the first time on Disney Channel.
• NSYNC’s Lance Bass comes out as gay in a People magazine cover story.
• Pop star Britney Spears and then-husband Kevin Federline file for divorce.

Top Music & Film:

• “Bad Day” (Daniel Powter)
• “Temperature” (Sean Paul)
• “Promiscuous” (Nelly Furtado and Timbaland)
• “You’re Beautiful” (James Blunt)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
• Cars
• X-Men: The Last Stand 

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Collage by Connor O'Neill

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Peek inside the human genome and, among the 20,000 or so genes that serve as building blocks of life, you’ll find flecks of DNA left behind by viruses that infected our primate ancestors tens of millions of years ago.

Scientists have long considered these ancient hitchhikers, known as endogenous retroviruses, as inert or "junk" DNA that were rendered harmless millennia ago. But new CU research shows that, when reawakened, they can play a critical role in helping cancer survive and thrive. The study also suggests that silencing certain endogenous retroviruses can make cancer treatments work better.

“Our study shows that diseases today can be significantly influenced by these ancient viral infections that, until recently, very few researchers were paying attention to,” said Edward Chuong, an assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at CU Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute.

After slipping into the cells of our primate ancestors, these invaders coaxed their unknowing hosts into copying and carrying their genetic material — passing their DNA on to future generations.

While endogenous retroviruses can no longer sicken their hosts or spread like live viruses, they can act as switches that turn on nearby genes, with both good and bad results.

On the plus side, they contributed to the development of the placenta, a critical milestone in human evolution. Chuong’s research also shows they can switch on genes that help us fight infection.

However, endogenous retroviruses also have a dark side.

Chuong’s latest study found that a lineage known as LTR10 is remarkably active in about a third of colon cancer tumors, where it appears to fire up genes that inflame cancer.

The good news: When those viral relics are silenced, the cancer-promoting genes go dark too, and tumor-shrinking treatments become more effective.

As a leading researcher in the burgeoning field, Chuong hopes that by better understanding these oft-neglected bits of the genome, scientists can come up with new ways to treat modern-day illnesses.

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Photo by Glenn Asakawa

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