Blade Runners Leveling the Playing Field for Amputee
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: RODEO KINGS PAID PPCO U.S. Postage U.S. TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY: Non Profit Org. THE LIFE OF CU’S FIRST BLACK ALUMNA Alumni Magazine Summer 2018 FRIENDSHIP AT ALTITUDE OLYMPIAN ARIELLE GOLD HEADS BACK TO CLASS Alumni Association 459 UCB 80309-0459 CO Boulder, BLADE RUNNERS LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD FOR AMPUTEE ATHLETES NOWJAN. 28, 2018 Boulder’s Third Flatiron is notorious for drawing climbers with wild ambitions. Since the 1950s people have summited in all kinds of gear, including roller skates. At least one man climbed naked. In January, CU Boulder senior Rilyn VandeMerwe (EnvDes’18) put his own stamp on the tradition: He made the climb in a wet suit, snorkel, goggles, prop oxygen tank and flippers. He and two friends reached the summit in less than two hours. “I am constantly trying to find new ways to explore and have fun in Chautauqua,” he said. In addition to the scuba ascent, VandeMerwe established what he calls the “Flatiron Triple Crown” — climbing the first, second and third Flatirons while carrying along a hobby horse. His next goal? Climbing all 54 Colorado fourteeners by the time he graduates in the fall. He’s got 14 to go. 1Photo SUMMER courtesy 2018 Luke Coloradan Brigham Coloradan SUMMER 2018 2 FEATURES EDITOR’S NOTE In Boulder this spring 15 Blade Runners there was fresh talk of A CU professor helps a new generation of bears: Observers noted amputees compete at the highest levels of sport. their curiosity about life east of Broadway, prompting questions 19 Rodeo Kings about how to ensure In The Last Cowboys, Pulitzer Prize-winner John harmony among their Branch (Mktg’89; MJour’96) introduces America species and ours. to its most successful rodeo family. Perhaps, some say, bear- safe trash cans, required west of Broadway, would 21 Lucile be wise east of it, too. CU sleighted its first black woman graduate, As far as anyone Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Jones (Ger1918). noticed, bears kept out A professor’s work spurred it to make amends. of CU’s campus trees this year. But animal life abounds here, 27 The Gold Life, Post-Bronze refreshingly so. Come Snowboarder Arielle Gold (Psych’20) won an spring, ducks court in Olympic medal in South Korea. Look for her the pond atop the water around campus this summer. cascade by the Woodruff Cottage. Migrating geese squawk on the sward. 31 Digital Frontier American robins banter CU Boulder pioneers a MOOC-based graduate in the morning. degree in electrical engineering. One April afternoon I spied 10 bunched turtles sunning on a single log in 33 Dreamers Among Us Varsity Lake. The turtles About 100 CU Boulder students are undocumented will lounge in the lake all immigrants with federal DACA status. They’re summer and fall. doing amazing things amid profound uncertainty. CU Boulder’s cher- ished proximity to natural grandeur is more than 37 From Free-Throws to F-35s a matter of adjacency; Tucker Hamilton (AeroEngr’02) and Aaron we nourish wildlife here. Frey (AeroEngr’02; MS’03) met as kids. Now Wandering campus aim- they fly fighter jets together. less but alert, your cup could runneth over. COVER “I just want everyone to be able to move like I can,” Eric Gershon CU’s Alena Grabowski said of her work with athletes who compete in prosthetics. Photo by © iStock/filrom. LEFT Alan Sanchez (AeroEngr’17; MS’18), one of about 100 CU Boulder students with federal DACA status, has his sights set on a career in spacecraft propulsion. Photo by Glenn Asakawa. DEPARTMENTS 1 NOW Scuba 8 BOULDER BEAT 25 INFOGRAPHIC 47 Q&A with the Chancellor 61 Letters Paul Danish New CU Buildings 5 INQUIRY Ming H. Chen 49 Sports 65 THEN 11 LOOK Who’s Here 43 Alumni News 1968 7 Campus News 55 Class Notes CONTACT ERIC GERSHON AT 13 ORIGINS 88.5 KGNU 45 CU Around [email protected] 3 SUMMER 2018 Coloradan Coloradan SUMMER 2018 4 INQUIRY MING H. CHEN IMMIGRATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS as a refuge for immigrants, with inclu- these subjects are critical to established ity trap’ that sees immigrants as law- Ming H. Chen, associate professor at sionary immigration policies, but voters subjects like Constitutional law and breakers and the purpose of policy as Colorado Law, directs the CU Immigration there have approved ballot initiatives to American politics. My students are ex- enforcement. It is vital that folks engage Law & Policy Program and serves on the restrict public benefits for undocumented tremely motivated, and know that learn- on the front lines when children and Colorado Advisory Committee to the U.S. immigrants, affirmative action for racial ing about these subjects matters to the community members are being deport- Commission on Civil Rights. minorities and bilingual education in pub- world. My colleagues and the university, ed. It’s also important to recognize that lic schools. My first political experiences too, are seeking expertise and guidance. there are many kinds of immigrants and You’re working on a book titled Con- were community organizing and voter If there is a silver lining to all the strife, that they’re all vulnerable. structing Citizenship for Noncitizens. registration to oppose those initiatives. it is that we have opportunities to teach What’s it about, in a nutshell? Although some of those initiatives and learn on a daily basis. Where are you from originally and For the last decade, U.S. immigration would later be overturned in court, es- what brought you to Colorado? policy has focused nearly exclusively on sentially, we lost. That left me feeling two Have many CU students or DACA re- I was born in the United States to immi- enforcement: Stopping unlawful entry, things that continue to shape my career: cipients come to you seeking advice? grant parents who migrated as inter- stopping criminal aliens and stopping One, there is a lot of important work still My interactions have been primarily with national students to a western public foreign terrorists. My book argues that to be done, and, two, non-majoritari- DACA students and international stu- university (Montana State) and have now this is a mistake, and that immigration an institutions like courts or agencies dents. It’s been challenging to level with lived in the U.S. longer than in their native lawyers, scholars and policymakers con- play an important role in shaping public students who want comfort and encour- countries of China and Taiwan. We lived cede too much when they focus all their policy. We cannot rely on the principle agement about how uncertain our legal largely in California with significant time energies on responding to immigration of ‘whoever gets the most votes, wins’ environment is right now and to tell them on the East Coast before I began this enforcement. Instead, I argue that they to achieve just results, especially when that, like them, the experts are wonder- faculty position at CU. need to advance a conversation about we’re talking about immigrants and ing what happens next. The law school CU has been an interesting place to immigration and citizenship that includes minorities who lack equal footing. hypotheticals are now realities. What work on civil rights and immigration. I integrative goals alongside enforcement used to be a question of ‘what if’ is now a really appreciate that CU is a flagship and moves away from the fixation on Are domestic political events question of ‘what now.’ public university that draws students from formal status to the exclusion of other changing the way you teach or all over the nation and is the first choice of forms of membership. what you research? If you could make one major change so many students in the western U.S. and Mostly in the sense of urgency rather to current U.S. immigration policy, increasingly abroad. It is for that reason How did you decide to focus your than in core content. There was a time what would it be? that it needs to be thoughtful and engaged career on immigration law and when race and immigration were seen To broaden the dialogue around immi- about immigration and civil rights. civil rights? as marginal issues in the academy, and gration policy and our conception of I attended a California public high school those studying them had to strive for re- who are immigrants in the U.S. There Interview by Lauren Price (MJour’17). in the 1990s. California is thought of spect. There is no longer any doubt that is the danger of falling into the ‘illegal- Condensed and edited. 5 SUMMER 2018 Coloradan Photo by Glenn Asakawa Coloradan SUMMER 2018 6 BOULDER BEAT By Paul Danish FRANK AND ME of anti-Nazi, Red Army and protest I WOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN to know songs, like “Joe Hill,” “Katyusha” and Frank Oppenheimer if I hadn’t crashed “The Peat-bog Soldiers,” a haunting song the Conference on World Affairs sung by concentration camp inmates. (CWA) party at his house. It was my favorite album when I was It was 1968 — Tet, protests, draft card four years old. burnings, pot, acid, LBJ calling it quits, I had no idea what the songs were the McCarthy and Kennedy campaigns, about until years later, of course. But Martin Luther King’s assassination and Robeson had one of the greatest voices News SUMMER 2018 the world’s first heart transplant. The God ever put into a human being. The panelists had plenty to talk about. songs still resonate with me. I knew Frank’s backstory. He was Frank found me reading the album Utterly Trivial (and Totally Worth It) J.