Students at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs will begin the fall semester with doses of barbeque and ethics.
Gus Lee, a best-selling author and ethicist, will deliver a keynote speech during the UCCS opening convocation scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Aug. 20 at the University Center Gymnasium.
Lee, a former California resident who has called Colorado Springs home for 15 years, is known for his semi-autobiographical works “Courage: The Backbone of Leadership,” “China Boy: A Novel,” “Honor and Duty,” “Tiger’s Tail,” “No Physical Evidence,” and “Chasing Hepburn: A Memoir of Shanghai, Hollywood and a Chinese Family’s Fight for Freedom.”
He is an ethicist and an advocate for moral courage and character development.
Lee’s life experiences are reflected in his work and include being raised in a San Francisco YMCA by boxers, attending West Point, and military service that included stints as a paratrooper and an Army Judge Advocate. He was legal counsel to congressional investigations into military misconduct and won the Silk Purse Award and other distinctions for trial advocacy. He was the statewide trainer for California prosecutors, the deputy director of the California District Attorneys Association, and a senior executive for the State Bar of California. Now a full-time writer and consultant with DDI and the Praevius Group, he continues to be an ethics educator and speaker for West Point, law enforcement, corporations, non-profits and government agencies.
“Gus Lee is an ideal speaker to begin the semester,” Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak said. “I believe he will explain what it means to be an ethical person in the twenty-first century and the importance of standing for those values when they are challenged. These are powerful messages for us all to hear but particularly important for our new freshmen who are about to embark on a new chapter in their lives.”
Lee’s comments will be attended by top UCCS officials as well as members of the CU Board of Regents who will hold regular meetings on the UCCS campus and who will participate in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Event Center on Thursday.
Convocations, derived from the Latin term meaning to “call together,” are popular both as beginning and end of semester ceremonies at many universities. UCCS opted to schedule the tradition as many first-time students live on-campus and arrive early to attend Preview Days, an introduction to university life and to the greater Colorado Springs community.
While many universities offer opening convocations on the first day of classes in formal ceremonies, the UCCS convocation will be informal and will include parents of students. Parents and guests of first-year students can attend a barbeque immediately following opening convocation on the University Center Upper Plaza.
UCCS, located on Austin Bluffs Parkway in northeast Colorado Springs, is the fastest growing university in Colorado, and one of the fastest growing universities in the nation. The University offers 29 bachelor’s degrees, 18 masters’, and four doctoral degrees. The campus enrolls about 7,700 students annually.