News from the CU system - CU-Boulder

Top teacher moves in to launch residential college

Glenn J. Asakawa/University of Colorado

CU-Boulder professor Scot Douglass with his wife Kathleen and daughters Thalia (left) and Hannah (right) in their apartment in Andrews Hall.

The morning commute of Scot Douglass is decidedly light on traffic jams and remarkably rich in familiar faces. The associate professor and director of the Engineering Honors Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder steps out of the apartment he shares with his family and merely navigates a few hallways before entering his classroom — filled with students who live under the same Andrews Hall roof.

Part of the Kittredge Complex, Andrews Hall underwent a $14 million renovation before opening this semester as the new home of the Engineering Honors Program. The building houses 229 undergraduates, including 67 returning students, and boasts suite-style rooms with varied floor plans and ceiling heights, several common lounges and study areas, a community kitchen, two smart classrooms and a computer lab.

The Andrews renovation also includes a small faculty apartment where Douglass lives with his wife and two daughters, ages 4 and 6.

"This greatly advances our Flagship 2030 strategic plan goal of offering multiyear residential academic experiences for our students who live and learn alongside their professors in residential colleges," said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano. "To debut our Faculty in Residence program with one of our top teachers is a bonus for CU and our students. The program is a distinctive feature of undergraduate education at CU-Boulder."

Douglass said the intent is to establish "a community that is deeply ambitious without being competitive, a place where talented individuals come together to challenge, inspire and enjoy each other."