Colorado State University held its annual Fall Address and University Picnic Sept. 23 with students, faculty and community members gathered together on the Oval.
The series of speeches began with Associated Students of CSU President Victoria Quesada-Stoner reciting the CSU land acknowledgement and quoting Mary Ontiveros, CSU’s first vice president for diversity.
“She once said that principles need to be a living, breathing document with ideas in it that are part of how we conduct ourselves every day and that they can’t just go in a binder and sit on the shelf,” Quesada-Stoner said. “Her words remind us that community is not something we simply declare. It is something we practice every single day.”
Quesada-Stoner then introduced the CSU Concert Choir, which performed a song before Lise Youngblade, provost and executive vice president, took the stage. Youngblade highlighted the shift from summer to the beginning of fall — a key theme for the event.
“Living in the world of academia, fall has always held a special place in my heart, marking both new beginnings and cherished tradition,” Youngblade said. “I’m grateful to be part of this annual CSU event.”
Youngblade then welcomed Parsons, who spoke on the lessons that can be learned from the passing of time.
“Thousands of students fill our classrooms and our sidewalks, many returning to the place that they know and love, but thousands of them are coming here for the first time,” Parsons said. “Everything feels familiar, and yet, everything feels brand new. … Change is an essential part of our continuity; it is our only constant.”
Parsons then commended the faculty, saying, “It’s not an easy time to be a faculty member in American higher education.” She noted how rapidly things are changing in the collegiate world, including rising concerns with artificial intelligence and the stress surrounding faculty members’ research.
Amid these stresses also come positive changes, Parsons highlighted. She reflected on CSU’s joining of the PAC-12 athletic conference and also noted this year’s incoming class broke several university records, including roughly one-third of incoming first-years being first-generation students.
Student opinions regarding the Fall Address and CSU as a whole were mixed, with some showing enthusiasm for the opportunity to connect with the rest of campus while others said there is more to be desired from the university.
“It’s nice to be in a community, and since it’s our first year here, we haven’t experienced college community, and it (was) a nice introduction,” said CSU student Kaitlyn Herbolsheimer.
Following the president’s address, Herbolsheimer and first-year Rayne Soos sat in the grass of CSU’s Oval while eating the picnic food provided by the university.
“It’s a great event, and I think it’s nice to see the people that are, like, in charge of what goes on at the school in person and actually hear them talk,” Soos said. “It just feels nice to know that people give a shit about what happens at school.”
Among various attendees, representatives of United Campus Workers Colorado, a union of CSU and the University of Colorado employees, were present.
“We wanted to come here … as a collective, as a union, to essentially show that we are standing as workers, and that, you know, we show up and we want to be visible,” UCW member Chris Chorpenning said.
Chorpenning, who is a CSU Ph.D. candidate and graduate research assistant, said despite Parsons’ acknowledgment of the “faculty and staff who make CSU what it is every day,” he felt workers were underrepresented in the president’s remarks and that the university could be doing more for faculty than they currently do.
“There was a lot of, you know, recognition of some of the difficulties that faculty go through in the current political climate,” Chorpenning said. “However, I don’t really see much action taken by CSU or from the president’s office to ameliorate that situation. I think a lot of faculty are feeling uneasy about the situation and not always backed up by the university. And then, of course, not to mention, all the other thousands and thousands of workers at CSU that weren’t necessarily acknowledged during the speech, not that I would expect them to be.”
Chloe Duran, a CSU student, made their way around the event displaying a sign that read “End Hate.”
“I’ve seen a lot of events take place on campus that furthers the agenda of Islamophobia, and there’s just a lot of hate on campus,” Duran said. “A lot of my peers feel really unsafe on this campus, (including) those that associate with the LGBTQ+ community, as well as those that celebrate Islam.”
Reach David Martinez at news@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
