This week I have been back to Denver, Colorado for a variety of work activities. Mainly these have been visiting our international partners over here. Around St Patrick’s Day there is often an exodus of ministers and university leaders across the world to highlight the opportunities back in Ireland. It’s a key time of the year where everyone’s focus is on Ireland, and so it makes perfect sense to lean into that. Why Denver, you may ask? Well, because there was a huge anthropology conference here this week and so by combining this with a visit to our partners, I could hit multiple metaphorical snakes with a metaphorical staff at the same time. Also, Denver is one of my favourite US cities to visit. It has a relaxed, hipster vibe with fantastic colourful street art all over the place, and is situated within a beautiful part of the country. This week, unfortunately, has been uncharacteristically hot, getting up to 31 degrees which has been a challenge for someone whose bodily metabolism has now adjusted to the Irish climate. I was actually asked if the weather is like this in Ireland – my words said “No” but my face said “Have you lost your damn mind?”.
First up, I had a visit to the University of Denver to meet their international office staff and a bunch of students who will be joining us in the fall semester. There’s also always so much you can take away from seeing how other universities set out their services and campuses since we all largely address the same sorts of challenges regardless of where we are based. What struck me about their campus was how open it seemed, with plenty of green spaces. There was also a lot of little ‘pockets’ of space with chairs and tables for students to hang out in, check their emails or eat some food. They used a lot of that dead space that a campus can have really well. The other thing that I have been thinking about is how they have two (2!) ice rinks on campus. I don’t even have one, which seems like a shocking oversight. I’ll be going straight Estates as soon as I get back.
The other key partner I visited here was the Colorado School of Mines, which is a prestigious STEM-focused university. On the surface it seems very different to Maynooth University, but actually there are a lot of similarities in terms of the feel of the place. It is situated in a small town called Golden which is about 25 minutes outside of Denver (like Maynooth to Dublin) and they place a lot of emphasis on industry partnerships and experiential learning (as we do too). Oh, and like us, they have a museum on campus as well. Although theirs is much more rock-centric than ours.
Like I said, the other reason for coming over to Colorado has been to come to a conference. I’ve not been to the AABAs for quite a few years now, mainly because my research has been so forensically-focused that I’ve tended to head to the AAFS instead. But now that my research has broadened a bit more this is a much more relevant conference. Honestly, I’ve read more posters on leg morphology this week than I have during the entirety of the rest of my career. What have I become?
My favourite session was on education and featured some really interesting case studies of learning and teaching interventions. There was everything from the use of VR to demonstrate egg fertilisation during reproduction, to the 3D printing of teaching staff’s own skeletons, to information literacy in bio anth students, to the use of Open Educational Resources (which was a bit of a depressing talk frankly, as we were shown that US students spend on average between $300 and $800 per semester on books – the use of OER books instead increased module completion rates and boosted the module average from a C to a B showing how access to resources influences outcomes. Interesting but not surprising results, and it felt somewhat alien given that in the UK and Ireland institutional deals through our libraries (an issue in itself I acknowledge) mean access to key books and journals are free for the student).
It says something about how my career has shifted over time that I’d rather go to an L&T session than the parallel session on forensic taphonomy. In fact, I was chatting to one person who, when I told her that I’d moved into university administration said “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that…”. I had to explain that no, actually, I really enjoy it. But I don’t think she believed me.
In true Columbo style, just one more thing before I go. Because, as my children frequently point out to my face, I’m a bit of a nerd, I do like to visit the museums of the places I go to to learn a little more about the history of the place. I had a little free time one evening and so popped into the History Colorado Center. It’s an excellent museum, and I wanted to highlight the sobering exhibition on the Sand Creek Massacre and the event leading up to it, and falling out of it. This massacre remains the deadliest day in Colorado’s history, and it changed Cheyenne and Arapaho people forever when at sunrise on November 29, 1864, the US Army attacked a camp of mostly women, children, and elders on Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado murdering more than 230 peaceful people. The University of Denver was founded in 1864 by some of those responsible for the massacre and it’s attempted cover up, reminding us of the sometimes complex histories of the universities we work for and with.