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Dear students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences (LAS),

Welcome to a new academic year at UCCS! Fall brings renewed energy to our classrooms, studios, laboratories, performance spaces, and shared gathering places, and with it, an opportunity to reflect on what makes our college such a vibrant community.

In LAS, we believe a liberal arts education prepares students not simply for their first opportunity after graduation, but for a lifetime of meaningful work, engaged citizenship, creative expression, and continued learning. In our rapidly changing world, the preparation we provide in LAS is more important than ever. Of course, our students need the technical skill to adapt, but more importantly, they need deep knowledge, curiosity, ethical judgment, communication, creativity, and the ability to ask thoughtful questions about the world they hope to shape.

This past May, LAS chairs and directors gathered for a two-day retreat to consider the College’s future. A clear vision for the future of LAS emerged: LAS can become a model for human-centered, interdisciplinary education – one that helps students thrive in an AI-enabled world while reaffirming the enduring value of the liberal arts and sciences.

That vision builds on the strengths already present across LAS. Our faculty and staff create learning environments where students explore complex ideas, test assumptions, make discoveries, produce creative work, and connect knowledge to the needs of their communities. Across our varied disciplines, we continue to be committed to the freedom to pursue big ideas, the courage to ask big questions and engage in difficult conversations, and the collaborative work required to address the world’s most pressing needs.

In the year ahead, we will continue exploring how LAS can deepen these commitments. We will look for new ways to connect disciplines, strengthen our sense of community and belonging, and design educational experiences around important human questions rather than the boundaries that can sometimes separate fields of study. We will also continue to support the excellent teaching, research, scholarship, creative activity, and service that define our faculty, staff, and students.

To our new students, welcome to your new home. UCCS is a place where your questions matter, your perspectives enrich our community, and your education will invite you to see connections that may not yet be obvious. I encourage you to take intellectual risks, engage deeply with your classmates and professors, and make room in your studies for discovery.

To our returning students, faculty, and staff, thank you for the work you do every day to make LAS a place of rigorous learning, creativity, and care. Your commitment is the foundation on which our future is being built.

I look forward to all that we will learn, create, and accomplish together this fall.

Warmly,

Bret Amundson, DMA
Dean, College of Letters, Arts & Sciences
CU Colorado Springs