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Dear Infrastructure and Sustainability team,

I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones healthy and safe. I’m writing to thank you for your dedication, positivity and resilience over the past month as our campus has joined our community, state and nation in trying to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

I realize this has not been an easy time for any of us, and this team has handled the situation with the utmost professionalism as we continue to support the university mission of education and research. Many of you from our trades, custodial, transportation, grounds, environmental services, utilities, Distribution Center and Environmental Health and Safety teams continue to come to campus each day to carry out vital duties that have helped keep our critical research and remote learning up and running. Planners, project managers and inspectors continue to check in on major construction projects like the additions to the Imig and Ramaley buildings and the engineering/business expansion. The majority of you, meanwhile, have been carrying out your work from home, providing support for those on campus while also ensuring that our efforts in areas like sustainability, campus master planning and others continue to stay on track and move forward.��

You’ve done all of this amid circumstances that change daily due to COVID-19, stay-at-home orders, your kids now learning from home, and a great deal of uncertainty. This team has persevered and risen to the challenge in support of our campus, and I could not be prouder of you.��

All of this said, I realize many of you may have questions as circumstances continue to evolve. I will be holding virtual town halls with our various units on April 16 and 17 to address you personally and provide you the opportunity to ask some questions of me and my leadership team. You will receive an invitation in the coming days with information on specific dates and times, as well as information on how to tune into these sessions remotely. Additionally, we’ve created a webform for questions in case you wish to submit them in advance.

I encourage everyone to care for��each other and touch base with phone calls, video chats and emails when you can. We've also highlighted many campus resources below in this newsletter that you can take advantage of during this time, from the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program to professional development opportunities.

I thank you again for all you’re doing for our campus. While obstacles still may lie ahead, your positive outlook and support for each other keep fueling my optimism that we will overcome this challenge and come out on the other side a stronger organization.

With my deepest gratitude,
David Kang, vice chancellor for infrastructure and sustainability

How long have you been working at CU?��
I started at CU in September 2015 (4.5 years ago).

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
Outside of family stuff, bicycles are my passion. Mostly riding them, but also fixing them up, keeping up with the latest tech and following professional racing. Turns out, I have the perfect last name.��

Tell us something that might surprise us about you?��
Per my son, Beau (8), “Tell them that you built a tiny tool shed.”

What do you love about CU ��������?��
I grew up in �������� and spent many a Saturday at CU football games both during the low times as well as their national championship years, so the black and gold runs deep. So it goes without saying that upon returning to �������� after 20 years in the Pacific Northwest, I was ecstatic to find a job at CU in my field, sustainability! One of the things that I like most about CU is the uniqueness of working in a university setting. When I first started my job a colleague summed it up well by saying, “At a University like CU, there will be some things that you will assume will be easy to accomplish which will be far harder than you thought, yet there will be things that seem far out of reach that you will accomplish in a flash.” In that respect, I really love the challenge and the payoff.

What are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading way too many COVID 19 emails! Actually, I just finished reading Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, which provides a perspective on the Civil War that I had never spent a lot of time considering: how it affected those at home and what was happening well away from the battles.

***Know someone doing great work? Nominate them for the next VCIS newsletter employee spotlight.***