Now entering her third year in office, Colorado State University President Amy Parsons took time to sit down with The Collegian Monday to reflect on her tenure thus far and look toward the next 150 years of CSU education.

Operating as the university’s 16th president since February 2023, Parsons has overseen campus redevelopments, staff reshuffling and university emergencies, in addition to the president’s day-to-day responsibilities. Parsons first commended her executive team for their efforts to continue improving the CSU experience for students and solidify the university as a top land-grant institution.

“I’m so proud of this team,” Parsons said. “I would put our team up against just about anybody in the country. I really feel like now, coming into our third year, everybody’s really coming together as a team and we’re really aligned on our mission, our goals and what we want to do with CSU.”

Parsons added that her lengthy experience within the CSU system — both as a former student and current administrator — contributes to her belief in the CSU mission and has allowed her to make progress in her new position. Parsons said she hopes to continue placing students at the center of her approach to university leadership, evidenced by her frequent visits to campus hubs and student events.

Parsons said her student experience remains fundamentally intact for students today, with her commitment to bettering student lives and personal connection to the university only strengthened by her appointment as president.

“I found that I still feel that way I felt when I was a student here — luckily that hasn’t changed,” Parsons said. “But then you look around, and the physical infrastructure of CSU is always changing. … We’ve got these great new developments on campus, and CSU just continues to raise the bar academically in research.”

During her time as president of the university, Parsons said she has kept her ultimate goal the same: success of students and faculty.

“My No. 1 priority is always student success; I don’t think that’ll ever change,” Parsons said. “That goal should never change, right, being accessible and not just accessible to anything, but accessible to excellence.”

“There’s nothing more important than culture all around the university. People want to come to work in a place where they know they are respected and where they know they’re going to be supported and heard.” -Amy Parsons, CSU president

Another aspect of maintaining student success is not just prioritizing student excellence but addressing how that excellence is measured and how it changes over time.

“Access, of course, is always making sure that students are supported in coming to CSU, keeping tuition affordable, packaging financial aid properly (and) reaching out to students so they have all the information they need to come to CSU,” Parsons said.

Beyond committing to CSU is how students finish their time at at the university and carry that success into their lives after graduation. Parsons also highlighted alumni relations and the lifecycle of student and faculty success, along with CSU’s status as a Carnegie R1 institution.

“You’re able to be in the classroom with people who are at the top of their game, who are at, you know, the leading edge of their field, doing research in cutting-edge areas,” Parsons said. “We never want to back away from that. … We’ve been here for more than 150 years, and we will continue to be here for another 150 years.”

A focus of Parsons’ presidency has been her engagement with students and the time she spends interacting with different sectors of campus community. A large part of the job is shining a light on students, Parsons said.

“You can shine a light on all these different pockets of the university and all of these different things that are happening there, and that’s my job: … to shine a light on the great work of the students all around and the student life that we have here,” Parsons said.

CSU’s Principles of Community set the foundation for the university’s mission and everyday operations, both for students and administrators. Parsons said the culture of CSU is embodied by the Principles of Community. 

“There’s nothing more important than culture all around the university,” Parsons said. “People want to come to work in a place where they know they are respected and where they know they’re going to be supported and heard.”

Parsons emphasized the importance of respect and how integral it is to CSU as a place of work and education.

“If you don’t bring that respect to each other, then this is not the place for you,” Parsons said. “There’s just nothing more important than culture, so I think the Principles of Community really set the culture. It sets the tone for how we expect people to treat each other.”

Reach Sam Hutton and Aubree Miller at news@collegian.com or on social media @CSUCollegian.