I want to assure our university community and the people of Boulder that we will not tolerate this type of behavior by our students.
We have taken a number of serious and far-reaching athletic reforms in the last three years here at CU 聳 measures that have placed our intercollegiate athletic programs under the control of our academic leadership. These reforms have been enacted with enthusiasm and passion by the leadership and the staff of intercollegiate athletics. We can ill afford to see our hard work and shared values undone by poor choices on the part of even a small number of our student-athletes.
I support the tough stance we have taken in our student affairs division against students who engage in violence, destruction of property and/or acts of provocation. I also support, in full, any measures that head football coach Dan Hawkins and athletic director Mike Bohn might enact to confront the problem of violence directed at, or engaged in, by our student-athletes.
This problem is not limited to a small number of our student-athletes, however. It is a problem we see manifested in campus communities across the country. We have seen it in Boulder just this week with high school students hosting 聯fight clubs.聰 We have seen it from time to time in confrontations among our students that are based on petty squabbles and that too often end up with stitches, surgeries and long recoveries.
We will not tolerate this type of behavior at CU 聳 it is counter to the values of our student body. We were recognized just last month with a presidential award naming us one of the top three schools in the nation for students engaged in community service. We are also ranked third in the nation in the number of students involved in the Peace Corps. Each day, hundreds of our students work to improve themselves, their communities and the world. This is who we are.
CU聮s many supporters have my pledge that we will continue to challenge all at CU to create an environment in which all students and members of our community can feel safe, and can engage one another on a more human level.
G.P. 聯Bud聰 Peterson, Chancellor
University of Colorado at Boulder