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UNIVERSITY OF
MAGAZINE
 
UNIVERSITY OF
MAGAZINE
 
Spring 2009
Early childhoodeducation takes light
 
 2
 
University of Denver Magazine 
Spring 9
 
news • events • sports • community
Office of the Chancellor
Dear Readers: We at DU are surely no strangers to the inexorable cycles o economic boom and bust. For most o our 145-yearhistory, our well-being was tied to the health o the local economy and the overall economy o the state. Early on,the cycles were driven by the timing o gold and silver strikes in the Rockies and the impact o weather on Coloradoagriculture. As the city and the region grew in ts and starts, so did we. Along the way we’ve enjoyed some very big highs and endured some very deep lows, such as the time ollowing thesilver panic o the 1890s when we were in such dire straits (and deep debt) that we considered selling UniversityHall to a group o investors who would convert it into a glue actory. Our condition was so ragile that our theologydepartment, which had its own endowment, seceded rom the University to go its own way as the Ili School o Theology.The University community lived through 120 years o boom and bust, up until the last great crisis in the mid 1980s.Once again our institutional health was poor and our survival on the line, but the outcome was very dierent romsuch crises in the past. We were not rescued by an economic miracle, a government bailout, an angelic donation orany other such Band-Aid. Rather, the institution picked itsel up and made some undamental changes—changesthat gradually led us back to stability. Chancellor Dwight Smith and his colleagues made some hard choices, and theinstitution began to move in ways uncharacteristic o traditional academia. The aculty revamped the curriculum inbold and innovative ways. We became more creative and less risk-averse. We became vastly more sophisticated in ouroperations and planning, particularly in the years under Chancellor Dan Ritchie. The kinds o decisions we made andactions we took back in those dark days served us well as we grew into the institution we know today—a DU that isinnovative and agile, operationally sophisticated and ocused on absolute quality.Today, the University enjoys the strongest nancial condition o its history, even as we ace the roiling economic stormthat has enguled the nation and much o the world. Our enrollments are solid, and looking ahead to next all, wehave nearly 11,000 applications or the new class o 1,145 rst-year undergraduates, up 30 percent rom a year ago andup more than 70 percent rom the number o applicants just two years ago. Applications or our graduate programsare up as well, and our ootprint has broadened considerably. Nearly 60 percent o our undergraduates now comerom states other than Colorado, and our population o international students (both undergraduates and graduates) isnearing 900. We are recruiting and hiring great aculty members, or whom we compete on a national scale. Our cashreserves are solid and we have great liquidity. Unlike a number o other institutions, we are proceeding with majorconstruction projects (a new building or the Morgridge College o Education, an addition to Ben Cherrington Halland a new soccer stadium and training acility) because they are all ully unded, without debt. Our major concern isor our students and their amilies, and so we have moved substantial new resources into nancial aid.Like so many times in our past, we ace an uncertain and daunting economy. We look ahead with great caution, ullyaware o the worst-case scenarios. This time is dierent, though, because
 we
are dierent.
Ofce o the Chancellor
Mary R
 
eed Building | 2199 S. University Blvd. | Denver, CO 80208 | 303.871.2111 | Fax 303.871.4101 | www.du.edu/chancellor
 
 
University of Denver Magazine
 Update
 
3
Contents
Features
22
 
 A New Direction
 
Trough a program in the Four Corners, DU’s Graduate School of SocialWork is educating social workers about the region’s unique needs.
By Brenda Gillen
28
 
 A Hand Up for Early Ed
DU’s new Marsico Institute for Early Learning and Literacy is workingto improve the picture for early childhood education.
By Jan Thomas
34
 
Islam in America
 
What does it mean to be Shi’i in a country that understands so littleabout Islam? A new book by DU Professor Liyakat akim traces the his-tory and experiences of the Shi’i community in America.
By Tamara Chapman
Departments
44
 
Editor’s Note
45
 
Letters
47
 
DU Update
 08
 
News
 
Soccer stadium
11
 
 Arts
Indian art and identity 
12
 
Q&A
 
Chaplain Gary Brower
 
16
Sports
Women’s basketball coach
 
19
People
Cookbook author Elizabeth Yarnell
 
21
 
History
Campus radio
37
 
 Alumni Connections
Online only at www.du.edu/magazine:
Academics
 
Science and politics
 
Research
 
Waste reactor
On the cover: Buttery drawing by Hannah Eckert, age 5,daughter o Jeanine Mayer Eckert (BA ’98) Story on page 28.This page: Wheylaya Becenti, 7, daughter o social work alumnus Leland Becenti, works on a traditional Navajo weaving. Becenti teaches traditional crats as acoping mechanism. Photo by Marc Piscotty. Story on page 22.
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Ed Weidenhamer

I am puzzled by the fact that DU has a separate Women's College, when, in fact, the university is co-educational. Please explain the circumstances. I assume it may be some legal thing as a result of DU having taken over CWC (Temple Buell).

reply07 / 16 / 2009
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