What is fueling YOU this semester?

Aug. 19, 2024

Dear Roadrunners,

Welcome to a new semester and fresh academic year at Metropolitan State University of Denver! I talk often about the flywheel – each small success for our University builds momentum, making it spin faster and surpass the initial effort. Applying the right effort in the right areas leads to compounding wins over time.

I cannot emphasize enough that our people fuel the flywheel.

MSU Denver is a people-centric operation – about 70% of our expenses go directly to our people, and 100% of classes are taught by faculty. I look forward to sharing about our wins all along the flywheel and recognizing the people fueling it at Fall Welcome Back on Aug. 29.

This fall also brings arguably the most polarizing election season most of our students have seen in their lifetimes. Elections carry many strong feelings and opinions but also an opportunity for our University to emphasize the importance of civil discourse, openness to different perspectives, and the importance of voting!

MSU Denver has a strong history of voter engagement and civic participation. In the last presidential election, MSU Denver’s voting rate was 75.4% – significantly higher than the national university average of 66%. Our role and responsibility are to be a source of information and a place for conversation. You’ll be hearing more from Larry Sampler and the team with resources and guidelines to help ensure we’re all advocating responsibly.

Every time I set foot on campus, I’m reminded of what a special place this is and how lucky I am to work with all of you. If you have ideas of how to make MSU Denver even better, please share them in the Idea Catcher!

Be brilliant,

Janine Davidson, Ph.D.
President