Tony Frank: On “The Why”

On opening weekend alone, more than 107,000 people ventured to the National Western Center for the National Western Stock Show. It was also our opportunity at the CSU System to celebrate the first full year of operation for our CSU Spur campus, where we’re showcasing learning and discovery around food, water, and health all year long in our Terra, Vida, and Hydro buildings.

The thousands of people who experience CSU Spur for the first time during the Stock Show certainly come away with a sense of awe and appreciation for what this complex brings to our community. But they may not fully understand the “why” of Spur…why the State of Colorado saw the urgency of investing in this one-of-a-kind public campus, and why CSU sees it as core to the future of educational access and equity in Colorado.

Spur was designed to scratch a lot of itches: we wanted to build ag literacy in urban populations, have a strong CSU presence in the Denver metropolitan region, and honor our long-term livestock and equestrian partnership with our colleagues at the National Western Stock Show. But underpinning all of that was a foundation designed to reach a set of young people whose gifts and talents will be deeply needed by our society as we address any number of great global challenges. In fact, I hate the very idea that we might leave a single person behind who has the talent to succeed in college and the desire and motivation to do so. And yet students whose parents didn’t go to college (“first-generation students”) are at a demonstrable disadvantage in attending college, and once there, succeeding. Changing that dynamic is the big “why” that underpins Spur. Our team recently put together a short video to help explain this “why” – and I’m pleased to share it here as a reminder of how Spur can have an impact far beyond this special time every January. Thanks for watching.