The 10 most-read CU Connections features of 2020
Editor’s note: Beginning in mid-March, the year 2020 took on a shape that none of us recognized. The pandemic’s impact across CU was apparent in many ways, and CU Connections is one such example. For much of the year, news of how COVID-19 was affecting work life at CU was prevalent and prominent in our website posts and weekly emails. Our Spotlight section, usually home to the popular Five Questions interviews and other features, more frequently focused on the activity of leadership and shared governance groups. Many of these news stories were the most-read of the year on the CU Connections site. However, as we do each year with this retrospective, we’ve omitted the stories reporting then-recent developments in order to highlight the most popular feature stories with more lasting themes, including commentaries from faculty and staff and celebrations of achievements by CU community members.
1. Reflections on race and the times (June 4)
I joined CU about a month ago and at the time my family was still mourning the death of Breonna Taylor, a frontline, essential worker and first responder to the COVID-19 crisis. She was wrongfully murdered in her home.
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2. Distinguished Professors: Meet CU’s 12 newly honored faculty members (Dec. 10)
The University of Colorado has added 12 new members to its roster of Distinguished Professors for 2020. The designation is the highest honor awarded to faculty across the CU system’s four campuses.
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3. CU Faculty Voices: A reflection on ageism in the time of coronavirus (April 16)
We are practicing social distancing in a retirement community. The spread of COVID-19 highlighted the topic I have been mulling over for some time now: ageism, or the discrimination against people of older age.
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4. CU Faculty Voices: The time has come to stop supporting for-profit journals (March 19)
Let’s not beat around the bush: The for-profit academic journal system is a flawed scam, and as a university, we need to stop treating it like the end all, be all of publishing, particularly for emerging and early career scholars.
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5. 2020 Class of Boettcher Investigators includes five University of Colorado researchers (May 28)
The Boettcher Foundation has announced its 2020 class of Boettcher Investigators, including five University of Colorado biomedical researchers.
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6. Five questions for President Mark Kennedy (Feb. 27)
Mark Kennedy became the 23rd president of the University of Colorado in July 2019. He came to CU after successful careers in business, government and higher education.
7. CU community members honored for multi-faceted leadership (Sept. 24)
Three University of Colorado community members have been named recipients of the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Award, among the highest honors bestowed at the state’s largest institution of higher education.
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8. Champions of diversity, equity and inclusion honored (Sept. 10)
The University of Colorado President’s Diversity Award selection committee has announced its 2020 award and commendation recipients, who will be recognized in a virtual award reception at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15.
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9. University of Colorado Staff Council celebrates excellence across system (Oct. 1)
The University of Colorado Staff Council (UCSC) honored 10 exceptional employees across the system during a virtual awards ceremony.
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10. Five questions for Daniel Jacobson (Nov. 12)
Daniel Jacobson began work as the first endowed director of the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization in August 2020, following a national search.
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