Ties to university run deep

Forever Buffs.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on my personal as well as professional connections with the University of Colorado-Boulder. The “Forever Buffs” initiative of the CU Alumni Association rings true. The program seeks to encourage connections among CU-Boulder alumni and students, and with the university overall.

It’s been 25 years since I graduated from CU with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1988. (That milestone just dawned on me at this writing.) CU-Boulder is where I landed after completing four years with the U.S. Marine Corps, and I count my years at CU among the best of my life. (And it’s where I met my wife of 23 years.)

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Since returning to Boulder to run the Boulder County Business Report in 2008 after five years at the Denver Business Journal and 13 years at the Northern Colorado Business Report in Fort Collins, I’ve found myself thinking almost daily about CU – past and present – for one reason or another.

I’m on campus or involved with CU a lot. Here are some of the CU-related activities I’ve had on my calendar in recent weeks:

• Various trips to see my son, Tommy, now a junior at CU, majoring in journalism. While my journalism courses focused on news writing, editing, mass-communication law and other topics, he undoubtedly will study the challenges facing journalism in the wake of the decline of daily newspapers. We try to have lunch once a week, often in the Alferd Packer Grill (not all that much different in terms of food fare than when I attended CU.)

• CU Buffs Kickoff Luncheon, Aug. 29. It’s always a fall highlight to attend this annual celebration of CU athletics and pep rally for the football team. This year, the Business Report was able to distribute our new Buffalo Kickoff Fall Football Preview to the more than 900 attendees at Balch Fieldhouse. We even had a Colorado State University grad at our table. She was a great sport (although I don’t think she joined in the CU fight song.)

• CU’s home football opener against Central Arkansas. My family attended this game, walking through the beautiful campus and joining a crowd of mostly students singing the fight song afterwards as we exited Folsom Field.

• Conference call with CU and city of Boulder officials to discuss Net Zero Cities, a two-day event that we organize in concert with the Northern Colorado Business Report, the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, and the Colorado Clean Energy Cluster. This event might come to Boulder in 2014.

• Discussions with officials from CU-Boulder, as well as the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Colorado State University, about the next edition of Research Colorado, highlighting research initiatives at the three schools, as well as other research institutions in Colorado.

• Read with interest reports of CU-Boulder’s new Office of Industry Collaboration and a similar initiative systemwide. (See related editorial.)

And on and on. CU represents an integral part of the Boulder and Colorado economies. But some ties run deeper.

Christopher Wood can be reached at 303-440-4950 or cwood@bcbr.com.