Dear Colleagues:

It is a distinct honor to be appointed as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. I am grateful to President Parsons for her confidence in me and to each of you for your trust and support during my tenure at CSU, particularly over the past few months. When I stepped into the interim role in January, I made a commitment to this community to listen, advocate, support, and engage with optimism and transparency. I have done my best to live up to that pledge with integrity and sincerity, and I will continue to do so.

As we are near the end of a demanding semester and academic year, I want to express my appreciation for your grace, commitment, and hard work. These past few months have tested our community in profound ways, from necessary budget reductions to shifting federal landscapes and other pressures. I am keenly aware that navigating these challenges has required immense effort from each of you.

But I remain hopeful the summer will bring a personal reset for all of us.

“Here Comes the Sun,” written by George Harrison for the 1969 Abbey Road album, is an anthem of relief and hope, symbolizing the end of a long, arduous period among band members. Harrison composed the song during a break from stressful Beatles business meetings, marking a moment of personal freedom and the arrival of a change of seasons with its promise of resilience and renewal.

For more than 150 years, we have proven our strength, resilience, and spirit, overcoming adversity to remain one of the top academic and research institutions in the nation. In addition to our reputation and rankings, Colorado State University has a proven ability to manage difficult challenges such as the 1997 flood, the 2008 recession, and the 2020 pandemic. Time and time again, we have been tested, and we have pulled together to find a way forward – to find the sun.

While our current budget situation differs from those events, they similarly require us to come together in new ways. As we navigate through this moment in time, I ask that you hold onto our successes as a reminder of who we are. Students come here because of you, the quality of our programs, and our dedication to their success. You represent the very best of our institution’s proud legacy.

Our Resilience: Even with constrained resources, you have found creative ways to maintain our mission and student learning momentum.

Our Future: As we turn toward the summer, we are beginning to see light through a more sustainable, if challenging, path forward. We are emerging from this year stronger and ready to face what lies ahead.

Your dedication to our students and to the pursuit of knowledge in the face of financial and other headwinds has been humbling. As we prepare to close out this academic year, my thoughts are full of extreme appreciation and admiration for you as our faculty and staff who sustain us.

As I thank our community and wish you an excellent summer, I want to continue a tradition I’ve always done with the College of Health and Human Sciences which is to share a song that sums the year up for me. In this case, it has been the messages in Here Comes the Sun – the movement into light, the hope the sun elicits. “Sun and Water” by Alison Brown is probably one of my favorite versions – only instrumental, and synchronizing “Here Comes the Sun” with “Waters of March” (and water is something we wish for, too!). It is a harmonious blend of finding light and wishing for refreshment.

I hope you sing along loudly and however and wherever you find joy, meaning, and bliss this summer, that this sentiment rings true: Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.

Thank you for everything you do, and everything you are to CSU.

Sincerely,

Lise M. Youngblade, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice President