Dear Colleagues:

I’m writing this afternoon just to thank all of you for the support and encouragement you’ve given me over this past year. It’s no secret that I came into the interim position under uncomfortable circumstances, but your insights, advice and help have made this transition far smoother than it ought to have been. I’ve relied on your institutional knowledge and history — on your gentle critiques and tough questions — as I’ve daily learned more about the complexities of this organization and the remarkable people who sustain it. I have no way to express how grateful I am for your friendship and trust, other than to pledge to do my best to live up to it in my role as president.

Even after several months of on-the-job-training, my perspective on the president’s role hasn’t changed: My job is to support you by ensuring we have the resources, advocacy, and organizational leadership and structure to sustain a high-quality, competitive, and collegial environment for higher learning. At times, my job will also be to challenge the status quo and to push us to be better in ways that will serve our students and our academic and land-grant missions. In doing so, my hope is to always be working in partnership with you — and I invite you to challenge, to push back, and to keep me and all members of the President’s Cabinet accountable. I’ve observed, over the years, how easy and sometimes tempting it can be for any educational administrator to get caught up in the pressures and demands over in the Administration Building and to lose touch with the heart and soul of the University — the interests, needs, and concerns of our faculty, students, and staff.

So in offering my thanks today, I’m also asking for your continued assistance in keeping our University administration open, candid, and accessible, true to the character of Colorado State University and in keeping with the responsibilities and expectations of a public university.

I’m humbled and honored by this opportunity to serve as president, and I look forward to working collaboratively in support of what I hope will be a productive, fruitful and rewarding era in the long, successful life of this great institution. Thank you again.

-tony

Dr. Tony Frank
President