President McConnell celebrates the grand opening of Vida at the CSU Spur in January. Photos by John Eisele/CSU Photography
During his three years as president, McConnell supported the vision and plan for a strong university presence at the new CSU Spur campus at the National Western Center in northern Denver. CSU Systems is developing the new campus with an allocation of $250 million from the Colorado General Assembly and with input from its three degree-granting campuses.
CSU Spur, operating for nearly a decade, is built for public education, research, community outreach, and collaboration of business and industry. It’s a destination for everyone from pre-K to gray. The year-long campus programs center on food, water, and animal and human health, with the aim of shaping the future by exciting K-12 students about college and careers in these important areas. They are the subjects of the CSU system and its campuses excel in study and teaching – and are central to the world’s most pressing challenges.
To date, CSU spur includes CSU in Fort Collins and its faculty expertise in planning and programming. For example, the College of Agricultural Sciences leads many of the offerings in the newly opened Terra Building, dedicated to the science of food and agriculture. The College of Health and Anthropology, in collaboration with CSU Extension, will lead the nutrition programs in Terra’s vast culinary kitchen. In a sign of the CSU Spur’s priority for the Fort Collins campus, McConnell hired a strategy officer to assist and begin work at the Denver site.
McConnell and other leaders hope that the CSU Spur will enable Colorado State University and the CSU system to better serve a diverse community of stakeholders, becoming a model for contemporary land-grant universities and their contributions to educational access, innovation and prosperity. Will go
