“It’s a Jeep thing,” quips University of Denver junior Peter Belsky. “(Helping people) is just something you do.” When the Dec. 28 blizzard hit Colorado, the Denver Office of Emergency Management called on Belsky to take his specially equipped Jeep Sahara out into the storm and drive a family-crisis worker […]

Linda Bensel-Meyers, associate professor of English, faced criticism and harassment at her last job. Before she joined the DU faculty in 2003, she was at the University of Tennessee for 14 years, where she exposed academic fraud and favoritism in UT football players’ competitive eligibility.  Bensel-Meyers has not only left […]

Barry Hirschfeld — philanthropist, social activist and chairman of one of the largest printing companies in the West — isn’t used to being out of the spotlight. A Wednesday afternoon in January found Hirschfeld standing on the dais at the Denver Planning Board, fumbling with a rickety easel that held […]

Sandra “Sandee” Walling (MSW ’65) says that her ability to volunteer for so many organizations is a skill she learned as a single mother. “I could cook, talk on the phone and help my kids with homework,” says Walling, whose sons are now 35 and 36. One skill she says […]

Conor McGahey is one of three finalists in the running to become the next “Voice of Coors Field” — public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies. McGahey, a senior journalism studies major, calls hockey games over the loudspeaker at DU’s Magness Arena and announces the Pioneers men’s lacrosse games. “The […]

A little more than a year ago, Sheila Gannon was about to lose her battle with leukemia. Doctors said she had only a 5-percent chance of survival. Today, Gannon — former director of Partners in Scholarship at DU — is cancer free thanks to a double umbilical-cord-blood transplant, the first […]

While most college spring breaks bring waves of ocean water, drinking and unadulterated hedonism, some University of Denver students are opting for breaks that yield ripples of change and hope throughout communities. Case in point: Sophomore psychology major Manuel Del Real will spend his spring break March 17–25 in a […]

The new U.S. ambassador to the African Union (AU) arrived at her post in Addis Ababa, Africa, last month. For Cindy Courville (MA ’80, PhD ’88), the journey involved more than traveling from Washington, D.C. Her job as the first U.S. envoy to the AU brings her full circle from her […]

The one word that surfaces consistently from those who know Theodor (Ted) Lichtmann is “gentleman.” LamontSchool of Music Director Joe Docksey calls Lichtmann, chair of the piano program at Lamont,  “a deep and profound thinker” who was a “major underpinning of the Lamont School of Music.” Lichtmann will retire at […]

Longtime DU Trustee Phil Hogue died Feb. 20 after battling leukemia. He was 71. Hogue had a long career in banking and later worked for Bill Daniels at Daniels & Associates. In 1998, he came out of retirement to assist Daniels in developing the Daniels Fund, which is now the […]

Zulema Lopez grew up in El Salvador and studied political science in the 1970s. That fact alone is enough to let political science scholars know that she has seen more than her share of brutality. Today, Lopez is a lecturer in the University of Denver’s Department of Languages and Literatures […]

For DU art curator Dan Jacobs, working with DU’s extensive art collection is a bit like rummaging through Grandma’s attic. He’s discovered thousands of unique pieces tucked away throughout campus, from English engravings to an uncast sculpture relief.  Jacobs, director of the Myhren Gallery is working to catalogue, preserve and coordinate […]

Will Carspecken, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major, was named a member of the USA Today 2007 All-USA College Academic Second Team, the paper reported Feb. 15. He is the fifth DU student in the last six years to be named to one of the newspaper’ s All-USA college academic […]

His friends call him “Bigfoot” because of his ability to boot a soccer ball, and at first glance, Alexander Khaldy appears to be an average 11-year-old. But his proudest accomplishments take place off the soccer field. Alexander employs his artistic talents to raise money for international human-rights campaigns.  A fifth-grader […]

When Jack Kerouac crisscrossed the U.S. with friends like Neal Cassady, Denver was a frequent and much anticipated stop. To mark the 50th anniversary of Kerouac’s On the Road, the work that defined the beat generation, the Denver Public Library is displaying the 120-foot scroll upon which — in what many […]