16TH PRESIDENT
Six months into the job, Parsons leads with an eye to access and excellence
Interview by Coleman Cornelius
July 17, 2023
SHE WAS AN undergraduate at Colorado State University, is the parent of a current student, and was a longtime leader at the Fort Collins campus and at the CSU System. Now, Amy Parsons has returned to CSU as the university’s 16th president.
The Board of Governors of the CSU System hired Parsons in December, and she started her job as university leader in February.
Parsons guides a top-tier public research university with student enrollment of about 33,000, employees numbering 7,600, an annual budget of about $1.4 billion, and CSU Extension offices serving counties across Colorado.
Trained as a lawyer, Parsons worked for several years as a litigation attorney in Denver, then joined the CSU legal team. She rose to vice president of operations at CSU, then became executive vice chancellor of the CSU System – in both cases, managing major initiatives while hewing to the land-grant mission of service to students and the state. Parsons also taught courses in a CSU master’s degree program. After 16 years in leadership roles at CSU and the CSU System, Parsons worked for several years as CEO of an international e-commerce company based in Denver and now, has returned to Fort Collins.
Her first months on the job have been a whirlwind of meetings and events with students, faculty, staff, alumni, policymakers, and Colorado community leaders. Amid those interactions, Parsons sat down with STATE magazine to discuss her goals as CSU president.
STATE: Now that you’re approaching six months into the job of president, what are your top priorities for Colorado State University?
PARSONS: Student success is always going to be a top priority, with a focus especially on the undergraduate student experience, which is something the university is founded on. We’re part of the land-grant tradition in this country, which is based on access, and it’s something we always have to pay careful attention to. That’s the starting point.
We also have to maintain access all the way through to graduation, the ultimate success for a university student. That means investing in the undergraduate journey and making sure students have pathways to get through in four years. This maintains affordability and ensures the degree they get at the end of those four years makes them ready for whatever they want to do next, whether that’s going into their professions or going further with a graduate degree. We have to ensure the entire spectrum of access all the way through to success – making sure a valuable degree at an affordable price in four years is attainable for everyone who enters.
“Land-grant institutions were established on the premise that anyone who has the desire and the talent to achieve a four-year degree should have access to the best education in the world. That was a radical idea at the time, and I think it’s still radical today. ”
STATE: What are the big challenges facing public higher education today, specifically the big challenges facing CSU?
PARSONS: One of our biggest challenges is the public perception of the value of a college degree. It is crystal clear that earning a four-year degree is the single greatest indicator of somebody’s future success, not just in their professions, but also in their lives as a whole. People who graduate with four-year degrees are more likely to own their own homes, more likely to start their own businesses, more likely to vote, more likely to volunteer in their local communities, more likely to be really engaged citizens. It’s not just about enabling your first job after college, although that’s very important. It really enables you to have the choices you want to have in life and to be healthier and happier and contribute to society. The American dream is based on upward mobility economically and socially, and we know that a four-year degree is the single most powerful tool to enable that upward mobility for most people.
Not only is a college degree valuable, but it also is affordable. The public perception is that it is unattainable financially, that everyone who graduates has a mountain of debt. Those perceptions just don’t hold true when it comes to CSU and when it comes to most public four-year institutions. The reality is that close to 50 percent of the students who graduate from CSU have no debt at all. And for those who do have debt, it’s in the range of $26,000, with an extraordinarily low default rate because most students are able to get good jobs and pay off those loans in a reasonable time. Students who enter CSU in the lowest income bracket don’t pay any tuition or fees at all, and they haven’t for a long time. The truth is that a degree from CSU has tremendous value, and it’s affordable.
STATE: Why should a student consider attending a residential research university like CSU when there are many other options available?
PARSONS: Providing students with the option to attend a large, diverse research university is a uniquely valuable proposition. I am a firm believer that America’s public universities are key to a healthy, thriving democracy. Where else are you able to come as a young person and be exposed to such a diversity of people and views? Students come from all over the country and all over the world with very different lived experiences and different viewpoints politically, sociologically, ideologically. It really is a melting pot of ideas and people – of faculty, staff, other students, all in the mix together, no matter what you’re studying. That helps make you a better citizen of this country when you graduate. If we’re doing our jobs right, we are exposing our students to a variety of viewpoints on a variety of issues and helping them understand how to have civil and productive dialogue on issues on which they may completely disagree. Teaching students how to civilly relate to one another, that’s what we need in this country if we’re going to make progress on so many issues.
Additionally, a research university offers world-class faculty and researchers who are at the leading edge of their fields. We really invest in undergraduate research at CSU, and it’s shown that when undergraduates engage in research in an area of interest, they persist, they graduate at higher rates, their grades are higher, and they’re more successful when they leave because they are exposed to such greatness in the fields they’re part of. They are part of the creation of new knowledge that didn’t exist before. When they graduate, they take that entrepreneurial spirit with them wherever they go, and that absolutely contributes to success, regardless of the industry they’re entering. Being around such creativity, such excellence in the field, inspires students.
One thing I’m focusing on is really working with the community colleges across the state to make sure that students who start there and want to finish with a four-year degree understand their academic path and their financial path and that we smooth those paths as much as we possibly can. That’s part of our access mission.
STATE: As we know, CSU is among the landgrant institutions President Abraham Lincoln established nationwide with a mission to educate children of working-class families in fields including agriculture, mechanical arts, military tactics, and classical studies. That focus later expanded to include research and statewide outreach. Today, what are CSU’s core responsibilities as a contemporary land-grant university?
PARSONS: The land-grant mission was completely revolutionary when it was adopted in 1862. I don’t think people realize how radical it was. Land-grant institutions were established across the country on the premise that anyone who has the desire and the talent to achieve a four-year degree should have access to the best education in the world – regardless of privilege, background, gender, race, or any other factor. That was a radical idea at the time, and I think it’s still radical today.
We need to double down on the message that we are accessible for everyone, and we want everyone. No matter what their background is, they are welcome at CSU. We are an inclusive environment for students and will support them. We are uniquely positioned to carry out the land-grant mission with both access and excellence. There’s a report that was issued last year called “The Equity/Excellence Imperative” from the Boyer 2030 Commission, which was convened by a national association based here at CSU. It says excellence without equity isn’t excellence, and equity without excellence is an unfulfilled promise. I think that sums it up. We have to provide both, and we have to invest in both.
STATE: Our land-grant mission includes educational outreach and outlying research centers tailored for rural Colorado communities. How is CSU working to strengthen its connections to rural Colorado?
PARSONS: We’re fortunate to have a great CSU Extension network across the state that is dedicated to delivering the university’s research-based resources to local communities. In addition, our Agricultural Experiment Station operates eight research centers in different parts of Colorado, all focused on agriculture and natural resources in their regions.
A couple years ago, our CSU System Board of Governors made an exciting investment of more than $8.5 million in a new Rural Initiative that is being delivered by CSU Extension. The initiative has already worked closely with rural communities to identify local needs and priorities. From there, they developed four focus areas, and we have staff delivering new services around those areas, which are accessible education, improved health, vibrant communities, and thriving economies in food and agriculture. As part of the Rural Initiative, the CSU System has a new broadband project that is working to help local communities attain federal grants to pay for new broadband service. That high-speed internet will be very important for economic development in our rural communities. These programs should also help us deliver new online educational content, which, again, will support education and local economies.
We’re always dedicated to helping K-12 kids thrive through Colorado 4-H. And we’re investing in new scholarships for rural kids so that there’s an affordable, attainable path for them to come to CSU. We want these kids to know they are welcome, wanted, and supported when they come to CSU, that we’ve got resources for them. These are future leaders of the state, so we need to continue to invest in them.
“Our institutions provide access to higher education for a wide range of students, with a wide variety of needs and interests, and we work together to prepare the talented workforce that Colorado needs to thrive in a global economy.”
STATE: Let’s talk about CSU’s role as the flagship campus of the CSU System. How do Colorado State University, CSU Pueblo, and CSU Global fit together to serve Colorado?
PARSONS: Put together, our institutions provide access to higher education for a wide range of students, with a wide variety of needs and interests, and we work together to prepare the talented workforce that Colorado needs to thrive in a global economy.
CSU Pueblo is federally designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, which makes it eligible for federal grants aimed at helping students of color succeed in college. It is a smaller campus and a regional institution that trains students for workforce needs in Southern Colorado and beyond. CSU Global serves a unique population, as well, with students who are working adults – many who didn’t finish their degrees earlier and are coming back to complete. These students need fully online learning to succeed. And then you have CSU, a top-tier research university with an international reputation in many scientific fields, which serves a large residential undergraduate population.
I think for any student in Colorado, regardless of age, regardless of where you come from and what your discipline is, you will find a path within the CSU System. The beauty of it is that if you’re a student who starts at one of our universities, you can transfer to another and finish at a different place. So, we’ve got the starting line for any student in Colorado, and we have the finish line for any student in Colorado. I think we’ve got something for everybody within the three.
STATE: How do you see the new CSU Spur campus in Denver as helping the university serve Colorado and its needs?
PARSONS: The Spur campus is a one-of-a-kind place. We have these three beautiful buildings based on our foundational programs in food, water, and animal and human health. And the doors are completely open, so the public can come in. If you look at CSU as a land-grant institution offering outreach and access, CSU Spur fits squarely into that mission because it’s providing wide access, taking our research and our academics out from Fort Collins and delivering them through a new place in the heart of Denver.
It’s also a way of investing in K-12 students, hoping that when they come to Spur and they see our faculty and our staff and our researchers at work, that they’ll be inspired, that they’ll see themselves in those people and start to get on the path of college and becoming the professionals they want to be. I hope every K-12 student in Colorado gets to come through Spur and gets inspired about their future.
Photo at top: Colorado State University President Amy Parsons, pictured in the Administration Building on campus. Photo: RJ Sangosti / The Denver Post via Getty Images.
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