Transcript
Emma Atkinson (VO):
In the six years that Chancellor Jeremy Haefner has helmed the University of Denver, much has changed—and research at DU has truly blossomed.
DU was awarded R1 research status in 2021, making it the fourth university in Colorado and the only private institution in the Rocky Mountain Region to have achieved the classification. Since then, the research being done by faculty and students across DU has only gotten more exciting.
As we head into the 2024 school year, with more to come from DU’s stellar researchers, we sat down with Chancellor Haefner to chat about why research is such an integral part of the DU identity.
Emma Atkinson:
Welcome to your sixth year as Chancellor. What are you most excited for this year?
Jeremy Haefner:
Well, I'm really excited, of course, with the students coming back. I've always said that du does attract some of the most phenomenal students. They're articulate, they are passionate about their area, or what there could be their area, and just, you know, creates this excitement on campus. I'm really excited for the start of the semester.
Emma Atkinson:
Why is research so important to the fabric of what makes DU, DU?
Jeremy Haefner:
An R1 status only comes once in a university's time, and it is a reflection of the incredible work that our faculty are doing. Look, the purpose of a university is the creation and dissemination of new knowledge. And so research plays, you know, a fundamental role in that. It's about the creation of new knowledge, and of course, it requires open inquiry and free inquiry, and the free expression in pluralism is really integral to that. So they're meshing in a really interesting way. But it is a way that the university can tie together so many of its priorities. For example, you know, when faculty do really interesting research, they become really well known outside the university, and that builds our reputation. I like to say our faculty are world class because of their research. At the same time, they care deeply about our students and are really great examples of teacher scholars.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
But it’s not just the faculty who are getting in on the research action—undergrads, grad students and doctoral and postdoc students help to round out DU’s robust research teams.
Jeremy Haefner:
Undergraduate and graduate research opportunities are a hallmark of the university. Quite frankly, we do a lot of it, and we celebrate it, and it's an important experience for our students, going back to the four dimensional experience, because then they can talk about their work with a faculty member in a lab or on a project of some kind that they really learned about themselves, about their values, about how they maintain their own wellness in a time when it's very challenging to work in depth on a research project, it means so much to US, but when we talk about, you know, our work to really have an impact, to do the public good, to do the common good, right? Our faculty are deeply engaged in these spaces.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
DU is more than its depth of research—the University also boasts a breadth of research areas.
Jeremy Haefner:
I love our early childhood work that the Morgridge College of Education is doing for. Example really setting new standards or new approaches for how kids learn mathematics early on, and what it means to learn other things like reading and writing and so forth. I think the work that we're doing around mental health is vast and deep, and there's not an area in the mental health issues and challenges where we don't have expertise. So it could be, for example, treating depression of expectant mothers can really lead to healthier outcomes, right? That's just an example.
Or the incarcerated and the mental health issues there, we have experts in that field. And I could go on and on and on about the depth of our our research faculty and just the mental health, but we're also doing incredible stuff in STEM biophysics and even quantum technologies, which, you know are big areas that are expensive, but we found ways where we can really make a contribution in those spaces.
So the world needs the research that the University of Denver does. Our students need it, and I'm just so proud of what we've been able to achieve. And there's just great things ahead of us as we move forward.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
In our fifth season of RadioEd, I and my new co-host, Jordyn Reiland, will speak to the faculty doing this work. We’ll chat with everyone from business professors to international studies experts, and together we’ll learn about the best and most interesting new research that the DU community has to offer.
Join us when our first episode of the new season drops on October 1, wherever you get your favorite podcasts. We can’t wait!
I’m Emma Atkinson, and this is RadioEd.
