From the Provost: Actively contributing to the greater good

As I reflect on all we have accomplished together during the previous year, the political controversies and the opportunities we’ve created, I can’t help but always ask whether what we’ve done has contributed to the greater good of our community.

This academic year, I believe firmly our university today is better than it was in August. Whether it is through establishing our strategic imperatives, increasing our focus on first-year students, providing greater services to faculty, BuffsUnited, or the incalculable daily actions of our faculty, staff and students, we all have a reason to be proud of what we are building.

Of course, like all public universities, we have our challenges, whether they be budgetary, technical or political, but I refuse to consider these to be obstacles. So long as we remain committed to improving and contributing to the greater good of our community, these potential problems are opportunities. As I’ve written before, I don’t believe there is more committed a group of faculty and staff and more talented a group of students anywhere.

CU Boulder is comprised of a wide range of creative and innovative students, staff and faculty, and as such, we will often have different opinions on how best to improve our community. However, I am confident as long as we have a shared commitment to doing so, we will make this university better for those who will come tomorrow.

To that end, I understand contributing to the greater good can sound somewhat amorphous and hard to grasp. So for the rest of the semester, I will do my part by asking myself every morning how I can make my community better today. At the end of every day, I will ask myself, "What did I do today to make my community better?"

That may not sound like much and perhaps even a little naive. However, if we have 40,000 people committed to daily action designed to improve our community, no matter how small, we can make an enormous difference, not only in the five remaining weeks of the semester, but in the future of the University of Colorado Boulder.

Russell L. Moore,
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs