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Announcing the fall 2025 dean's list

Ellie Chase — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 22:57:57 +0000

Announcing the fall 2025 dean's list Ellie Chase Wed, 01/28/2026 - 15:57

More than 800 CMDI students were named to the dean's list for the spring semester. To qualify, students must complete at least 12 credit hours of CU �鶹ӰԺ coursework for a letter grade and achieve a term grade point average of 3.75 or better. Each receives a notation on their transcripts and a letter from the dean. Congratulations to all honorees!

Alejandro Abarca
Matt Abatangle
Saroon Abayenh
Marlo Abrahamson
Shea Ackman
Emilio Adams
Phillip Adams
Tassilo Adams
Quinn Ahrens
Lucy Alagna
Maria Alali
Rosie Aldridge
Caitlin Alexander
Kenzi Alipit
Sophie Allaway
Anthony Allen
Trinity Alvord
Saleh Alzamil
Alexandra Anaya
Bridgette Anderson
Molly Anderson
Lila Angelopoulos
Sierra Anguiano
Jaxon Archer
Mia Archuleta
Jazmin Armijo
Remy Arnold
Sydney Arnold
Natasha Arzt
Kaylee Austin
Niles Ayer
Ben Babson
Roxanne Bachana
Alexia Bailey
Owen Balboa
Austin Balconi
Tyler Bales
Cadyn Banerian
Jose Banuelos
Katie Barcroft
Evan Bardinelli
Caleigh Barletta
Julia Barlow
Thomas Barrett
Marina Barretto
Tomas Barrientos
Maddy Barth
Owen Barton
Kate Bashore
Mekdes Bass
Ellena Bassoukos
Leah Baumann
Klaire Bautz
Katie Baxter
Juliana Beans
Lily Becker
Savy Behr
Johnna Belveal
Jane Bengston
Tess Betman
Eliot Bevier Dill
Charlie Bickham
Jack Bigelow
Ezra Billig
Teagan Bischoff
Korinne Bishop
Katie Bixler
Mary Black
Miley Black
Kenna Blank
Sam Blatt
Miranda Bleau
Riley Blomstrand
Sophia Bobier
Sophia Bolich
Piper Bolin
Anvitha Bompalli
Matthew Boothroyd
Carmen Boyle
Reed Bracero
Anna Bradburn
Norah Brady
Kate Branscomb
Antonio Bravo
Elizabeth Brechtel
Olivia Brehm
Keeley Brei
Hannah Brennan
Adeline Briggs
Erin Brinkman
Jack Bronchetti
Elly Brooks
Mia Brosterhous
Samantha Brouhard
Addison Brower
Olivia Brown
Chase Browne
Lili Brownell
Callie Browning
Emma Browning
Eva Bruce
Tessa Buchanan
Tyler Buchanan
Ashley Budy
James Bui
Morgan Burcar
Alena Burris
Parker Burt
Tyler Byrne
America Cabral
Luke Cadenaro
Carli Camens
Claire Cameron
Evan Caplan
Rhiannon Cargo
Jessie Carlin
Gemma Carlson
Gabriella Carnevale
Laila Casanueva
Meredith Case
Madison Cashin
Kathryn Castanoli
Mia Castro
Dominic Celaschi
Zachary Chagnon
Isabella Chan
Emily Chang
Madelyn Chang
Connor Chase
Ellie Chase
Hayden Chedid
Cameron Cheney
Avery Childs
Kate Cho
Anika Chowdhury
Megan Chung
Coco Ciardelli
Malaya Cimino
Abi Clayton
Kay Clifford
Annalia Clifton
Avery Clifton
Emme Clymer
Morgan Coffin
Ava Coffman
MacKenzie Cole
MacKenzie Cole
Jaci Collins-Falcon
Joanna Conforti
Andrew Conley
Sarah Connor
Breah Conradson
Sophie Coombs
Zenden Copeland
Avery Corliss
Susie Cormack
Gilberto Corral
Amelie Couret
Sarah Cowell
Findlay Coykendall
Marissa Crenshaw
Elizabeth Cropper
Maddie Crosier
Chloe Cross
Heidi Crowther
Eryn Cryer
Kaylie Cunningham
Gracyn Custin
Cody Cutone
Liz Cutting
Avery Czachor
Teresa Da Silva
Clara Dailey
Abby Dalrymple
Abikael Daniel
Maya Dank
Olivia Darby
John Davis
Katherine Davis
Mason Davis
Turner Davis
Billy Dayton
Ramon De Arcos Tapia
Brandon De Pena
Olivia DeGregorio
Bella Demartin
Maddy Demmert
Luca Denicola
Rune Denolf
Helena Desoto
Charles Deutser
Leo Dienstfrey
William Dinh
Quinn Dobbs
Sydney Dobriner
Connie Dolati
Lexi Dolsak
Luke Donis
Eric Donjuan
Hunter Donovan
Brodie Dorko
Emily Doskow
Sydney Dossa
Daniel Doupe
Averie Dow
Brady Dowd
Lucas Drager
Irene Drapszo
Baylee Drevno
Kayla Drumke
Emma Dudley
Wyatt Duesenberg
Rowan Dulfer

Carolyn Dunlap
Nicollette Dunn
Etienne Dunoyer
Emily Duvall
Abby Dwyer
Ryan Dye
Ryann Dyk
Esperanza Edwards-Satragni
Avery Ehrig
Riley Eisenstein
Molly Elert
Ryan Elliott
Jenny Ellis
Kaoutar Elouadi
Libby Emery
Ava Esposito
Lucy Esquivel
Felix Estes
Angel Estrada Zarco
Quinn Etheridge
Morgan Evans
Emma Evars
Sienna Fahey
Maddy Farmer
Nolan Farrar
Liam Fehlau-Barton
Aysla Fenner
Peyton Fenner
Anika Fergis
Clare Finnigan
Carolyn Fish
Elena Fisher
Maddie Fisher
Marli Fisher
Tate Fitzgibbons
Emma Flanagan
Aiden Fliszar
William Flockton
Soleil Floyd
Delaney Flynn
Joe Fogler
Callie Forrest
Ellie Foster
Rhen Fowler
Tatum France-Kelly
Natalie Free
Ellis French
Jayne Frey
Rylee Frey
Isabelle Friedrich
Adelene Frymoyer
Colette Gagliano
Kaija Galins
Cassidy Gallagher
Jacalyn Gamble
Lydia Gammon
Gaby Garcia Armendariz
Katelyn Gardner
Abigail Garza
Caitlyn Garza
Zoey Gassner
Samson Gear
Nick Gehring
Carly Gelfand
Piper George
Alex Gertzen
Olivia Gewanter
Hannah Giacomin
Orion Gibbs
Ink Gibson
Caroline Gilchrist
Lauren Gillespie
Danny Gillis
Gigi Gittelman
Graham Givan
Anna Gledhill
Jessie Gleitsman
Arlie Goldman
Susannah Goldsmith
Deborah Gomez
Karlyn Gonsalves
Max Goodman
Salem Goodman
Bella Goodson
Drew Gorman
Avery Goss
Chloe Graham
Kylie Graham
Nora Graham
Ariana Grant
Sophia Graup
Rachel Greenberg
Logyn Greer
Willow Gretsch
Erica Griffiths
Tristan Grosam
Caitlin Grossman
Vivan Guida
Grayson Guinan
Griffin Gurewicz
Owen Guzik
Aric Gyekis
Anthony Haberkorn
Trey Haggarty
Paxton Haines
Hanna Hale
Sabina Hall
Alsa Halquist
Norah Hampford
Nate Hankins
Audrey Hansen
Ella Harris
lanier Harvey
Tyler Harvey
Nick Haseman
Josie Hayes
Keeley Haynes
Brooke Haynie
Skyler Haynie
Madison Hays
Lorraine Healy
Will Henrickson
Vanessa Hernandez
Jane Hershberger
Carter Hessen
Kainoa Hiatt
Tyler Hibri
Bella Hill
Cassidy Hill
Hannah Hillen
Hannah Hoffman
Jason Hoffman
Cruz Hoitsma
Ella Holden
Dylan Hommes
Max Hostetter
Taylar Houck
Mira Hougen
Donavon Houston
Owen Houtakker
Brooklyn Howard
Taylor Hoyt
Oleksa Hryciw
Haley Hubbard Godfrey
Kendra Hudgins
Livia Hughes
Ronan Huizar
Ellie Hultgren
Wyatt Humble
Camille Hunt
Susanna Imhof
Maxine Inman
Samantha Isaacson
Jules Isenberg
Grace Jackman
Grant Jackson
Paige Jaeger
Monroe Jasper
Alana Jenks
Grace Jenks
Alexis Jennings
Annika Jobanputra
Mia Jochamowitz-Endersby Chikhani
Addison Johnson
Tanner Johnson
Liv Johnstad
Neda Jonaitis
Gianna Jordon
Max Julian
Danielle Jung
Emma Kaiser
Nina Kanavati
Chase Kanger
Faith Kaplan
Kush Karamcheti
Lola Karimi
Bailey Karraker
Brooklyn Karraker
Skye Karsh
Ty Keeley
Nicole Keffer
Thomas Keller
Audrey Kelley
Henry Kelty
Charlotte Kendall
Rachel Kennedy
Riley Kenny
John Kerklo
Grayson Kern
Riley Kerstiens
Josh Kesner
Amy Kibort
Madeleine Kiel
Hannah Kijner
Kenzie Kimball
Myra Kirk
Marin Kirkman
Avery Kissinger
Ian Kligora
Ally Klinefeldt
Leia Kliska
Jackson Knapp
Maggie Kocher
Alexa Kofman
Cameron Kolinchak
Jon Kolvereid
Colton Kominski
Alden Koskoff
Kristin Kraml
Riley Krane
Quinn Kreck
Ella Krelovich
Katie Krochalis
Carey Kronhart

Viktoriya Kukarekina
Justin Kulas
Brayden Kurzawa
Emily Kwon
Amy Labontu
Bentley Labrecque
Genevieve Lacey
Devin Lafave
Ella LaMura
Kadence Landis
Skyler Landry
Dalton Lanham
Delaney Lantz
Ben LaPlante
Leighton Larsen
Blake Larson
Maddie Lasker
London Lawrence
Sarah Lawrence
Alex Lazarou
Kaija Lazda
Camille Leach
Lauren Leclair
Lou Leclercq
Alice Lee
Skyler Lee
Chloe Legere
Asher Leish
Aubrey Leneweaver
Brian Leuthold
Charlotte Levine
Kara Liguori
Jasmin Lin
Ahnnali Lindgren
Isabelle Lingo
Joe Lingold
Mia Lioudis
Alexander Lipka
Margaret Lipscomb
Lucy Lloyd
Aramis Loma-Guzman
Luke Lommatzsch
Leif Lomo
Skyler Longerbone
Lauren Lopez
Deborah Loseke
Katelyn Love
Lexi Lower
Stella Lowery
Janie Ludington
Julia Luther
Bailey Luts
Maille Lyon
Claire Macaluso
Molly Machoskie
Julia Maclean
Natalie Madeira
Maxwell Majors
Carly Malamut
Julianna Maldonado
Devon Malling
Mel Malloy
Patrick Mancuso
Lily Maniotes
Emelia Mantz
Alexis Manzo
Nicholas Marcin
Kea Margolis
Annaliese Markel
Isabella Marquez
Sedona Marshall
Taylor Martin
Mia Martinez
Maggie Marusin
Eloise Masciola
Carolyn Mason
Keely Matthews
Alden Mazur
Grace Mcanany
Finn Mccarthy
Evan Mccormick
Elizabeth Mccoy
Wyatt McCune
John Mcdermott
Teague Mcdonald
Maeve Mcerlane
Andrew Mcfadden
Lucia Mcgetrick-Dima
Fiona Mcginnis
Delaney Mckernan
Abbey McMahon
Margaret McQueen
Ava Melen
Alex Melvin
Jenna Mendelssohn
Claire Mercer
Ava Merias
Olivia Meyers
Allison Miller
Channing Miller
Creed Miller
Ellen Miller
Hailey Miller
Maggie Miller
Morgan Miller
Ashley Mohrbach
Camryn Montgomery
Gigi Montgomery
Justice Montoya
Bronte Moore
Emily Moore
Felipe Moore
Jenna Morley
Chaney Morris
Maya Morse
Scout Mortenson
Nathan Mosley
Madison Moss
Trevor Mueller
Ally Murphy
Reese Murphy
Rue Murray
Mason Mutz
Becca Myers
Emma Myers
Aahana Nandy
Caitlin Neil
Remi Netupsky
Natalie Newmann
Taylor Nickerson
Matthew Nielsen
Maximillian Noble
Charlotte Norton
Anna Novak
Lila Nuttle
Remy O'Connell
Nora O'connor
Olivia O'Haver
Addie O'Neil
Brinley O'neill
Ashlyn Oklesh
Taylor Oldenburg
Annabelle Olson
Sofia Olsson
Alexandra Organa
Annika Ort
Maddie Osterkamp
Max Osterman
Alina Ouligian
Emmett Owenby
Josie Pachla
Phoebe Paletta
Aly Pardo
Katy Parks
Macie Parsons
Lauren Paschke
Liliane Patrick
Kaya Patterson
Audrey Patton
Izzy Pell
Caroline Pellerito
Ava Pelster
Lily Pemberton
Mia Pendergast
Paige Pennell
Annie Peragine
Jaclyn Pereira
Kennedy Perez
Brisa Perkins
Emma Perlmutter
Eliza Perry
Isabelle Perry
Quetzal Peterson
Patrick Pethybridge
Ellie Phillips
Bell Piccirillo
Norah Pietras
Mackenzie Pinksa
Macy Place
Alison Plagge
Nico Plaisted
Skye Platto
Liliana Poast Soler
Lilly Polak
Katharine Polep-Sawyer
Ella Policastri
Ashley Pomeroy
Lyla Ponce
Norah Pope
Elle Pottinger
Dax Prata
Bradley Pratt
Addisson Pribble
Elle Price
Giana Pritchard
Taylor Pulley
Sutton Raeburn
Jacob Rainsberger
Samantha Ramirez
Olivia Randazzo
Maya Raulf
Nick Rauscher
Huston Rawls
Madelyn Ray
Rachel Ray
Cameron Reed
Hailey Reed
Jenna Reed
Molly Reed
Katrina Reghitto
Anna Rehak
Jack Remington
Jake Reuss
Katie Reuter

Ella Revivo
Peyton Rhodes
Katie Ridgway
Jackie Rivera
Eliza Roberts
Caniya Robinson
Ella Robinson
Michael Robinson
Abby Robison
Gabrielle Rodriguez
Cole Rogers
Laura Rogers
Salome Rojas
Lauren Romero
Diana Romero Bermudez
Brynna Roscoe
Jenna Rose
Sophia Rose
Sierra Rosen
Alison Rosenbaum
Eli Rosenthal
Sierra Rossman
Piper Roth
Taylor Roth
Ava Rotman
Giova Rubenstein
Sophie Rubinstein
Reagan Russell
Sam Russo
Brenna Rutherford
Emme Rutherford
Catherine Rutman
Jessica Ryanczak
Brooklyn Sadler
Sosan Safi
Rylee Sahl
Joaquin Salinas
Yahir Sanchez Diaz
Lydia Sarbacker
Ramey Sattich
Christopher Schepers
Riley Schermerhorn
Carly Schiller
Stephanie Schmitt
Addie Schneider
Emma Schneider
Jaimie Schoenke
Sydney Schrader
Teagan Schreiber
Willow Schulz
Aubrey Schwartz
Ben Schweiger
Ella Scolnick
Grace Scott
Madeline Scripp
Olivia Scussel
Grace Seaback
Veronica Seal
Ella Seevers
London Selah
Michael Seward
Krish Shah
Jack Shand
Ava Shanrock
Marissa Sharon
Danny Sheedy
Jenna Shenbaum
Daniel Sher
Cody Shoelson
Zoe Showalter-Flowers
Rainna Shrull
Aaron Siegel
Matthew Silver
Harrison Simeon
Gannett Simonton
Ella Skoloda
Mac Skudlarczyk
Cj Slattery
Moe Slintak
Marie Slotnick
Ella Smith
Matthew Smith
Ryan Smith
Jack Snyder
Eli Sobel
Edgar Soberon Munoz
Sevi Solari
Ewan Sookswat
Noel Sookswat
Madelyn Speights
Sophia Spheeris
Simon Spillane
Matthew Spivack
Samantha Spiwak
Bella Stamper
Kaeden Stander
Brady Stark
Kate Starke
Ashlin Stasswender Swasey
Trent Steffen
Alexander Stein
Zachary Steiner
Evan Stellino
Cole Stephan
Ariele Stern
Sarah Stern
Samuel Stevens
Jordyn Stewart
Braden Stirrett
Stella Stone
Anna Stout
Mary Strasser
Ava Strauss
Xander Sucich
Elizabeth Suffian
Luke Suitts
Lucy Suja
Aoife Sullivan
Clara Sullivan
Olivia Sullivan
Taylor Sutton
Dennis Swanson
Jackson Swartzendruber
Leah Szabo
Willow Tachna
Harper Tagg
Emi Takaoka
Nano Takeda
Mira Talusani
Sophia Tambascio
Jack Tannenbaum
Annie Tanner
Natalie Tapia
Raquel Tapia
Tyler Tatman
Hailey Taylor
Sarah Taylor
Skylar Taylor
Cecelia Tecu
Jordan Teicher
Josie Terry-Lloyd
Annabelle Thomas
Sage Thompson
Channing Thomson
Sol Tirado - Jensen
Brooks Tolany
Grace Toomey
Zohair Toor
Annabelle Torgove
Clio Torrance
Alexa Tovar
Hendley Tracy
Eduardo Trejo Trinidad
Carly Tremaine
Ricky Tuka
Jazzy Tung
Audrey Turley
Braden Turner
Caroline Valdes
Christian Valentino
Ann Vanderveen
Maya Vanvleet
Celia Vargas
Maddie Veasey
Sydney Venetsanopoulos
Bella Vetta
Holden Vincent
Andrew Vogt
Saanvi Vookanti
August Vrielink
Fiona Wachter
Ashtyn Waddle
Chloe Walsh
Catherine Ward
Lauren Ward
Kieran Warger
Evie Warner
Kadyn Warner
Valerie Warszawski
Ryder Watkins
Kylee Watrous
Leila Watters
Liam Watters
Jordan Watts
Greta Wattson
Taylor Weatherwax
Jenna Weil
Kennedy Weiss
Erin Wheeler
Kennah White
Ella Whittall
Abigail Williams
Jackson Williams
Ranney Willis
Piper Wills
Holly Wininger
Emma Winkelbauer
Amanda Winslow
Mia Winstead
Trent Wobschall
Zachary Woodbury
Alexandra Woodland
Lily Wright
Owen Wright
Jackie Wynne
Maggie Yalmokas
Gabrielle Yates
Savannah Yates
Nate Yearous
Hannah Young
Elsie Zerega
Emily Zhou
Matt Zimmermann

More than 800 CMCI students were named to the dean's list for the spring semester.

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Standout student channels enthusiasm for people, pop culture into HBO internship

Joe Arney — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Standout student channels enthusiasm for people, pop culture into HBO internship Joe Arney Mon, 01/05/2026 - 08:00

Hannah Stewart

For someone aspiring to work in public relations for the entertainment industry, Leah Szabo’s internship with HBO was a dream come true. She tracked media mentions and worked the red carpet for shows like The Last of Us and The White Lotus.

Leah Szabo is a great friend to watch TV with. When you ask the inevitable, “Where have I seen them before?” she can tell you.

That pop culture consciousness—combined with top-notch networking skills—is how the college senior landed a summer internship with HBO Max—a position she hopes helps launch a career in the entertainment industry.

“I want to be in entertainment because I love amplifying the storytellers' voices through strategy and creativity,” said Szabo, who will graduate from the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information in the spring with a degree in strategic communication. “I like talking to people, but I like being behind the scenes as the person who helps people get their stories told.”

Szabo’s own story is both fun and inspiring. The California native grew up surrounded by the sparkle of Hollywood, which extended to the Christmas parties thrown by her uncle—an entertainment industry veteran whose guest lists included publicists, actors and other professionals.

It was at one of those parties that she chatted with family friend Raina Falcon, an HBO executive, who invited the then-first-year public relations student to follow up with her after a bit more schooling.

“Year after year, I would follow up saying, ‘Hi, I’m a sophomore now and I study PR.’ And the next year, ‘I’m a junior; it’s my time. I want to work for you. I want to be in entertainment,’” she said. “So it was leveraging a connection, but also making sure I maintained it.”

Falcon pointed Szabo toward the correct internship application and passed along her resume to the recruiters. Three rounds of interviews, she was accepted, and on the path toward her dream job.

The cast of HBO’s The White Lotus poses at a premier event. Among Szabo’s responsibilities at her internship were tracking press and working red-carpet events. Photo by Leah Szabo.

Behind the silver screen

Once she arrived, it was clear Szabo’s CMDI education had prepared her to succeed on an internship where she was tasked with everything from tracking media mentions to working the red carpet.

“Interns in the entertainment and PR business need to be organized, motivated, good with people and very adaptable,” said Lily Walker, a publicity coordinator for HBO Max. “Leah did a great job of taking on new situations as they came, both at in-person events and online.”

Szabo’s work impressed the HBO team so much that they extended her internship to last through the fall semester as well. Though Walker was not Szabo’s supervisor, the two worked together throughout the internship, including at the I Love LA and Welcome to Derry premieres in October.

She also credited Szabo with bringing fresh perspectives to work, such as ideas to promote shows to younger audiences.

“For instance, on I Love LA, an influencer makes a cameo, and I said, ‘Why haven’t you asked to go on her YouTube? She has a whole segment where she interviews celebrities,’” Szabo said. “It was really cool that they saw value in what I was telling them and applying it.”

Naturally extroverted, Szabo has found her stride within public relations. But she was quick to credit her success to her mentors and past internships. Prior to her role at HBO, she completed two PR internships, one with JKD & Co. and another with SchroderHaus. While at times it was intimidating to represent a global brand, she said, the skills developed at CMDI and during her more community-focused internships applied in every setting, giving her confidence.

Equally as formative has been her leadership experience with the CU �鶹ӰԺ chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. As president, Szabo serves as a liaison to the university, national organization and members, managing a team, running meetings and working with different personalities.

“PR is basically personality management—how can you satisfy every stakeholder and adjust to different situations,” she said.

Notably, under her leadership, PRSSA has grown significantly. Since August, 99 new members joined—all while Szabo was continuing her HBO internship and maintaining a full course load.

Role model

“Leah, to me, is already a professional in the way she handles herself,” said Jolene Fisher, an associate professor in the college’s Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Design. “She is able to perform in many different capacities beyond what I expect to see from a student level.”

As faculty advisor for PRSSA, Fisher has worked closely with Szabo over the past two years, and said Szabo has grown not only as a leader, but as a model student.

It’s why she invited Szabo to give a guest lecture to first-year students in an introductory PR class, where she shared with her peers what it took to secure her internship and her responsibilities at HBO.

“When we highlight the success of our current students, it really helps inspire our younger ones,” said Fisher, also associate chair of undergraduate studies. “Leah’s going to make things happen because she is a force. I’m excited to see where she goes.”

And Szabo’s success so far made her a natural choice to speak to her peers.

“I have been able to use my CMDI education and apply it to everything from community relations to consumer packaged goods and now entertainment—you can really take any avenue you want with CMDI,” she said.

Hannah Stewart graduated in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news at the college.

On her dream internship, a CMDI student has done everything from tracking media mentions to working the red carpet.

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Code Reddit: How community guidelines, moderation can impede internet incivility

Joe Arney — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 16:33:37 +0000

Code Reddit: How community guidelines, moderation can impede internet incivility Joe Arney Tue, 12/09/2025 - 09:33

Joe Arney

If you were starting a new social media platform—one that tried to balance civil behavior with strong engagement—and were looking for an example to emulate, Chris Vargo has an unexpected one to offer.

Vargo, an associate professor of advertising at CU �鶹ӰԺ’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, has a new paper out in Social Science Computer Review that examines the role moderation and decentralized community rules have played in limiting incivility on Reddit.

“It’s not a moderated world in which we live in online, but I think what’s neat about Reddit is that they have these self-enforcing communities—and they work,” Vargo said.

Content accuracy was once an important plank for social media giants like Meta, which hired moderators to sift through the cesspools and remove false or misleading posts about the pandemic, Jan. 6 insurrection and other controversial topics. Uniquely, Reddit relies on volunteers to police posts that are abusive or inaccurate.

The paper, which Vargo co-authored with Toby Hopp, a fellow associate professor in the college’s Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Design, used machine learning tools to study 20 of the most popular subreddits—topic-specific communities hosted on the Reddit platform—in news and politics to understand how community rules could shape both engagement and uncivil behavior.

“Each subreddit is a different community, and they all have different rules and different guidelines on what’s acceptable,” Vargo said. Some groups, he said, encourage incivility—like sports subreddits where fans trash on a rival team, as well as some in the political sphere. “But you also have subreddits that don’t allow for that kind of incivility, or the casting of people as being out-group.”

That’s important because social media has empowered anonymous keyboard warriors to toss around death threats, dox opponents and belittle people for their ideas. Those kinds of uncivil behaviors—as opposed to just general vulgarity—were the focus of this research.

“For a democracy to have diverse voices, people need to feel safe posting content online,” Vargo said. “And we know from incivility studies that silencing and marginalizing opponents, telling them their viewpoints don’t matter, is a great way to silence them.”

“We know from incivility studies that silencing and marginalizing opponents, telling them their viewpoints don’t matter, is a great way to silence them.”

Chris Vargo, associate professor, advertising

When it comes to improving civil discourse on social media, the paper found the strength of a community’s moderation policies and enforcement correlated with greater civility among its participants.

“The more rules that are in a community, the better quality of communication in that subreddit,” Vargo said. “That’s important because building community is less about content moderation and more about content contextualization—this idea of sharing the truth when a poster might not be truthful, or saying when someone's misleading in a comment if they are being misleading.”

Changing perspectives on toxicity

The idea that one would consider Reddit a haven from, as opposed to a hotbed of, toxic behavior would have raised more than a few eyebrows in the past. But as major players in artificial intelligence have looked for new content platforms to scrape, Reddit has tried to sanitize its image. Those efforts have included removing problematic communities from the platform as well as putting moderation in the hands of volunteer users. Last year, the platform struck a $60 million deal with Google that allowed the search giant to train its A.I. models on users’ posts.

“We really expected Reddit to be pretty toxic, but I’ve done a couple papers recently that both point to Reddit being fairly safe, with not a lot of threats,” Vargo said. “I would say it is probably more of a model than it is a problem.”

When it comes to advertising and social media, engagement is the name of the game—one reason why name-calling, shaming and starting fights online tends to be rewarded by algorithms, which are designed to keep people on the site, in order to deliver more ads to users. In this study, though, Vargo said, internet indecorousness amounted to “just a tiny bit” of increased engagement.

“I think it’s great to see on a social media platform that those behaviors aren’t driving engagement quite the way we may have thought,” he said. “Because I don’t think it should be so easy to mine us for engagement, and for it to be so closely linked to hate.”

So, for both existing and emerging platforms, the idea of user-governed communities is worth consideration.

“I would highly encourage other places, like Facebook groups, to allow for those types of moderators to have that role over removing content and enforcing rules,” Vargo said, noting that his paper collected commonly used rules that keep successful subreddits civil.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A new paper finds subreddits with clearly defined rules and active volunteer moderators do better at limiting incivility and encouraging engagement.

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Though some of the biggest social media platforms have ended, or drastically scaled back, content moderation, a new paper examines Reddit's volunteer model and finds that the right guidelines can limit incivility.

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Waste not. Want? Yes.

Hannah Stewart — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 21:18:19 +0000

Waste not. Want? Yes. Hannah Stewart Fri, 12/05/2025 - 14:18

Hannah Stewart

The EPOP Shop was a crowd favorite at the Firefly Handmade Market in downtown �鶹ӰԺ. The students sold out of two items in the first two hours of being open; they ultimately sold all their products midway through the second day of the market. Photos by Hannah Howell.

How many students can say one of their first class assignments was to go shopping?

That unusual first assignment is how students in the EPOP Studio course prepare to create sustainably sourced gifts that are sold at a holiday market.

EPOP by the numbers:

39 students

12 unique products

240 items brought to and sold at market

$10,070 sold

For the past five years, environmental design faculty with CU �鶹ӰԺ’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information have partnered with the Firefly Handmade holiday market to give students hands-on experience in product design.

The twist for students who participate—all of whom are majoring in environmental products of design—is the requirement that their creations have a strong sustainability component, which becomes part of the story for each product sold. Students who complete the degree go on to careers in virtually every design field.

“We want to be the people who make cool things to sell,” said senior Pilar Agostine, who was part of the team that built the EPOP storefront—itself created from sustainable materials. “We’re designing the everyday products for a home, but in an environmental way.”

The EPOP Studio draws its name from the EPOD major and the annual pop-up shop powered by the students. The goal of the course is to challenge them to think critically about sustainability while developing technical, interpersonal and business skills.

“The theme of the studio is diverting design—they have to identify waste streams, capture material and transform it into a product,” said Jared Arp, an assistant teaching professor of environmental design who teaches the course alongside Melissa Felderman, associate teaching professor.

All products were made with upcycled materials, which many customers felt was both unique and important.

Once students identified a waste stream, they used their experience from observing the market to identify potential products to pitch to classmates. Among this year’s product themes were creative, decorative, fun and—for the first time—masculine.

“Shopping for men, in my opinion, is so hard,” senior John Davis said with a laugh. “When you think about the context of a handmade market, a lot of those things tend to be directed toward feminine audiences.”

Davis and his team had “100-plus ideas” before settling on a set of whiskey glasses made from bottles sourced from Spirit Hound, a distiller in Lyons. Even the glasses’ complementary coasters were made from a mixture of crushed glass, rockite—a fine concrete material—and a cork base. Davis estimated the design is made from about 80% reclaimed material.

“I'm really proud of the fact that we have all consistently shown up and created this product, and of how sustainable we were able to make it,” Davis said. “We were lucky Spirit Hound was willing to give us their bottles for free. That made our story a lot stronger.”

According to Arp, that storytelling is critical to EPOP because it connects customers with the shop’s mission of promoting sustainable design. When the link connecting the waste stream and final product is clear, he said, the audience is more receptive.

As in past years, customers beat a steady path to EPOP’s storefront: Well before the Firefly market closed, the students’ 240 products had sold out. Sales from the weekend amounted to slightly more than $10,000; adjusted for expenses, their gross profit was just shy of $6,100, all of which will support next year’s studio.

A steady flow of customers kept EPOP students busy at the market.

“That’s 240 decisions from shoppers to purchase the students’ work,” Arp said. “There’s no better jury than live people.”

Those live people weren’t just impulse buyers. An hour before the market opened, curious passers-by were watching the shop—partially constructed from reclaimed wood—take form. Within minutes of opening, the first customer bought six sunglasses cases made from reclaimed outdoor gear, like jackets.

Uniquely, the structure included more than just the items for sale. It was outfitted with 12 tablets, which ran looped videos showing the creation process and sustainability story of each product. Buyers also received cards with the product name and a blurb about the item.

“Foot traffic is really important for markets, and I think the shop itself is incredible—it stands out,” said Chrissy Howell, a yarn artisan who frequently participates in markets like Firefly. She and her husband—the parents of a CMDI student—picked up a number of items for their holiday shopping.

Another customer, Jean, stumbled upon the market while visiting �鶹ӰԺ from Frisco. She, like Howell, thought EPOP was perfect for picking up a unique gift—she purchased the Waste Knot for her daughter—while being environmentally conscious. She said the students’ mission really spoke to her.

“This is the culmination of their whole semester, and it makes me really happy for them that they get this opportunity to be out in public to get feedback about their work and ideas,” said Mary Kay Cunningham, another holiday shopper and parent to an EPOP student.

For the students, it’s more than just holiday gifts. In addition to learning to tell a story that resonates with potential customers, the class challenged their technical and teamwork skills, teaching them creativity and resilience as they brought their ideas to market.

The Waste Knot yarn bowls, Respirited whiskey glasses and other items made by EPOP students.

“They warned us at the beginning that we could use software to generate a concept of a final product, but it will dampen your creative experience,’” said Elliette Igel-Manvitz, a junior on the Waste Knot team.

Felderman said that’s an important lesson for students in the studio class. While many CMDI classes challenge students to find useful, ethical and responsible ways to use generative artificial intelligence as part of assignments and projects, she asked them not to do so in the early stages.

Doing so “stymies their creative process and pigeonholes them,” Felderman said. “We offer guidance to our students both on when and how to use A.I. in the design process, so that it can act as a tool, as opposed to a hindrance.”

Students said working through the front-end creative challenges of their projects furthered their learning.

“I’ve definitely become more adaptive,” Igel-Manvitz said. “When we realized we’d have to change our materials because of resource availability, we learned from other teams.

“After working on it for so many months and not really seeing the final product until the very end, it feels unreal.”

Even the storefront was made by students, using both new and reclaimed wood. Students also created all the signs for the shop.

November's Firefly Handmade Holiday Market was packed. Customers frequently visited the EPOP shop, some of them even lining up to check out the products before the official start time. They quickly sold out of items.

Hannah Stewart graduated in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news at the college.

Photographer Hannah Howell is studying media production at CMDI.

At an annual holiday market, CMDI students again sold handmade, sustainably sourced gifts—along with the stories of how the materials were rescued from waste streams.

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Goal oriented: Soccer standout is CMDI’s top December graduate

Joe Arney — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:19:17 +0000

Goal oriented: Soccer standout is CMDI’s top December graduate Joe Arney Fri, 12/05/2025 - 10:19

Allyson Maturey

She wasn't just a star on the pitch—Lola Stanley graduates in December at the top of her class for the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. Photo courtesy Colorado Athletics.

By the time Lola Stanley graduates this December, she’ll be carrying more than recognition as the college’s William W. White Outstanding Graduate. She’ll be carrying the lessons, relationships and personal growth that shaped her at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information—experiences she said will guide her long after graduation.

For Stanley, a communication major and sports media minor who transferred to CU �鶹ӰԺ from the University of Texas at Austin, the journey to graduation has been marked by balance, focus and a commitment to showing up—both in the classroom and on the soccer field. Her college experiences have given her a better understanding of the power of setting goals and achieving them.

“Working hard to graduate with a 4.0 GPA while being a student-athlete has taught me that I am in control of the goals I want to achieve,” Stanley said. “It’s truly based on how I show up.”

The White award, presented to the graduating senior with the highest GPA in the college, is not the only honor Stanley has achieved as a student. In 2024, she was recognized with the Herbst Academic Award, which celebrates a student-athlete for her classroom accomplishments.

Graduation represents far more than a personal achievement for Stanley: “Above all, my degree represents the generosity, sacrifice and support that I have received from my parents.”

In a way, her diploma is part gratitude and part gateway. It’s the culmination of years of effort and the beginning of countless opportunities ahead.

More than just a degree

Among her most significant areas of growth, Stanley highlights one skill: communication. She didn’t just refine it at CMDI, she came to understand its transformative power. Whether with teammates, professors, coaches or peers, she found clear communication fosters trust while minimizing misunderstandings.

“I’ve learned that being direct, transparent and intentional strengthens every relationship,” she said. “Recognizing its impact across every area of my life is one of the most valuable takeaways that I will bring with me into my next chapter.”

Stanley has many memorable experiences she’ll hold onto, but there’s one class that stands out the most: an American Sign Language course with Paige Hawkins, assistant teaching professor from Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

Hawkins, she said, brought joy and care into the classroom, opening Stanley’s eyes to the richness of learning a new language. The experience fostered a deep sense of gratitude and broadened her awareness of the things people often take for granted.

“She truly impacted my life in ways that I did not expect when signing up for the course,” she said. “I want to thank her for the time, effort when showing up to teach my class and me every day.”

Congratulations, December graduates!

CMDI is proud to recognize our new 2025 Forever Buffs.

View a full list of graduates →

Allyson Maturey is a communications project manager for CMDI.

The William W. White Outstanding Graduate this December is Lola Stanley, who carries with her the resilience of an athlete, the curiosity of a scholar and the clarity of a communicator.

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‘The epitome of accountability journalism’: Coverage of fatal school bus crash leads to reforms on Texas roads

Joe Arney — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 15:53:30 +0000

‘The epitome of accountability journalism’: Coverage of fatal school bus crash leads to reforms on Texas roads Joe Arney Tue, 11/18/2025 - 08:53

Iris Serrano

When a concrete truck crashed into a school bus in Texas’ Bastrop County last year, killing two and injuring dozens of children last year, it became the state’s deadliest school bus crash in nearly a decade.

For a team of reporters at the Austin American-Statesman that spent months chasing the story, the tragedy wasn’t just that a child died, but that the whole incident was preventable.

Photo by Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman.

“There was a big avenue for us to bring accountability to what happened,” said Tony Plohetski, an investigative reporter with the American-Statesman. “We wanted to better understand all of the forces that were at play that contributed to this.”

The series of articles, published earlier this year, examined the crash, including Texas’ safety laws for school buses regarding seat belts and its regulations for commercial drivers, and led to legislative action aimed at preventing a disaster of this magnitude from happening again.

Their extensive reporting earned Plohetski, Tahui Gómez and Keri Heath the 2025 Casey Feldman Award for Transportation Safety Reporting, awarded by EndDD.org and the journalism department at the �鶹ӰԺ’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

“The requirement to have seat belts on school buses was, in some ways, nonexistent. School districts could exempt themselves for a variety of reasons,” said Heath, an education reporter. “One of the most significant things so far is that Texas is going to study how many buses have seat belts, and how much it would cost to outfit them.”

Beyond the policy changes, their work truly brought awareness and gave a voice to those affected by the crash. Gómez, a Latino communities reporter at the American-Statesman, recalled spending months working closely with the victims’ families, making sure their stories were heard.

“Being with them in that process, seeing how they were coming to terms with things, how their grief was changing over time and being able to give voice was very rewarding,” he said. “This isn’t a tragedy that we should just bow our heads in remembrance of. We needed to suggest that things can be done.”

The reporting award honors Casey Feldman, a Fordham University journalism student who was killed by a distracted driver in 2009. It is sponsored by CMDI and EndDD.org, which was created by the Casey Feldman Memorial Foundation to end distracted driving.

Chuck Plunkett, director of the capstone CU News Corps course at CMDI, and Kirk Siegler (Jour’00), a national correspondent for NPR News, were judges for this year’s submissions. Siegler described the winners’ work as the epitome of accountability journalism.

“I was immediately enthralled by the character-driven narratives of the crash victims’ parents. Along the journey, if you will, it also highlighted in clear language the gaps and failures across the system—and namely, in regulations—that led up to the tragedy,” he said.

The judges also gave special mention to the runner-up entry from Austin’s KXAN for a seven-part investigation on truck crashes in Texas.

Iris Serrano is studying journalism and strategic communication. She covers student news for the college.

Three reporters from the Austin American-Statesman won the 2025 Casey Feldman Award for Transportation Safety Reporting.

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At this holiday market, repurposing is the new regifting

Hannah Stewart — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 16:02:52 +0000

At this holiday market, repurposing is the new regifting Hannah Stewart Fri, 11/07/2025 - 09:02

Hannah Stewart

A student applies a decal to a finished whiskey glass while another student records the process in the EPOP studio course. This class challenges students studying environmental products of design to make gifts from diverted materials that are listed for sale at the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market. Photos by Hannah Howell.

John Davis developed a love of product design through a furniture building studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. So taking the EPOP studio course offered through the environmental design department was a no-brainer.

If you go

What: Students will be at the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market all weekend selling 12 hand-designed and manufactured products.

Where: Pearl Street Mall, 1303 Pearl St., �鶹ӰԺ.

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 15 and 16. Historically, they’ve sold out quickly, so stop by early.

Learn more

“I initially wanted to do architecture, but found that product design has much more tangible results a lot faster, which is rewarding,” Davis said. “And this studio is such a good opportunity for students like me. I don't think a lot of people get the chance to actually design a product and take it to market during their education.”

EPOP students have one seemingly simple task: Design, produce and sell an item at market. But there’s a catch: All products—as well as the storefront—must be made sustainably, with at least 50% of each item made from diverted materials.

The course name comes from the environmental products of design, or EPOD, major at CU �鶹ӰԺ’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, and the pop-up shop at which the final goods are sold each year.

In teams of three, the students identified a waste stream—plastic from holiday string lights, used outdoor gear or, in Davis’ case, used whiskey bottles—and created both a story and a product from it.

Davis and his team realized many holiday markets have artisan wine glasses, but rarely did they see similar drinkware for hard liquor. They settled on a whiskey glass and companion coaster, and after learning skills like sandblasting and 3D modeling, were able to create 15 two-glass sets to sell at the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market later this month.

Both the glasses and coasters were made of reclaimed whiskey bottles from Spirit Hound, in Lyons, which donated the raw materials to the team.

“That just made our sustainability story a lot stronger,” Davis said. “I am really proud of how sustainable we were able to make our product. It’s made from something like 80% diverted material.”

This is the fifth year the students have collaborated with Firefly, and the fourth time they'll sell their goods at the annual holiday market on the Pearl Street Mall. And each year, the studio—and market storefront—has grown. Unlike the 10-foot-by-10-foot tents most vendors use, the students are building a 10-foot-by-20-foot storefront, complete with cash wrap and mounts so that market-goers can watch each product’s process videos, created by the students over the course of the semester.

Most years, their inventory quickly sells out.

“It’s really affirming for the students and builds their creative confidence,” said Jared Arp, an assistant teaching professor co-leading the class alongside Melissa Felderman, an associate teaching professor.

“This studio is like a right of passage. When the market happens, former students come back to see what the next class has done, so it’s become a touchpoint for our alumni and a great way to engage the community,” Arp said.

Students learned various technical skills like sandblasting, 3D modeling and more throughout the course of the EPOP Studio.

From concept to creation, all products (and the storefront itself) are all made by the students.

Hannah Stewart graduated in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news at the college.

Photographer Hannah Howell is studying media production at CMDI.

CMDI students will showcase, and sell, their sustainable products at the annual Firefly Handmade Holiday Market in November.

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Deer in the spotlights: What Bambi tells us about animation and death

Joe Arney — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 15:45:51 +0000

Deer in the spotlights: What Bambi tells us about animation and death Joe Arney Thu, 11/06/2025 - 08:45

Joe Arney

When she asks her classes who remembers this scene from Bambi, Marissa Lammon says everyone's hand goes up. But while you probably can also recall this image, this isn't a scene from Bambi—it never appeared onscreen. A new paper from Lammon studies what this recollection teaches us about how we encounter and interpret violence and death as children.

You know that heartbreaking scene in Disney’s Bambi, in which the title character cuddles up to his mother’s lifeless body after she’s been shot by a hunter?

No, you don’t. It never happened.

“I show this image to my students all the time in class, and ask who remembers this scene,” said Marissa Lammon, a lecturer in the communication department at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at CU �鶹ӰԺ. “And everyone raises their hand, even though this is never shown onscreen.”

Lammon (PhDMediaSt’24) is an expert in popular culture and children’s media, especially as they relate to death. And, she said, the widespread misremembering of how Bambi’s mother dies is a testament to the impact her death has on audiences.

“The image represents collective trauma, and how the vast majority of people interpreted this death as traumatic,” Lammon said. “We talk about animated deaths that really stick with us, and Bambi’s mother is the one. And it actually changes the way we remember the film.”

In a new paper in Omega, Lammon looks at the story of Bambi’s mother dying and what it says about Western culture, which has made death taboo, and how children interpret the media they absorb.

“We tend to think about children as passive, blank slates,” she said. “My work suggests children are active agents who are creating and negotiating meaning from what they see and hear. And what’s fascinating is that, as a culture, we don’t talk about death, but we show it profusely in media.”

How children create meaning from media

“Children are active agents who are creating and negotiating meaning from what they see and hear.”

Marissa Lammon (PhDMediaSt’24), instructor, communication

Lammon’s interest in mediated death started while she was studying psychology as an undergraduate at UCCS, and evolved while she was doing her master’s work there.

“Children create meaning in ways different from how we do, but they’re still very social,” she said. “I wanted to bridge this gap between psychology and media and cultural studies to understand how children use media to reinforce or challenge ideology in ways that are significant to their development.”

It’s particularly important work at a time when our environment is becoming even more hypermediated.

“If we, as adults, are struggling to discern what is factual information and what is ‘fake news,’ then it’s more crucial than ever to encourage media literacy, critical thinking and reflection with children, so they can develop those skills,” she said.

CMDI advisory board member Christopher Bell (PhDMediaSt’09) advised Lammon’s master’s work, and gave her opportunities to consult in the industry. They have become close collaborators on researching popular culture.

“Marissa has fully embraced the idea of public scholarship—the idea that the knowledge generated at the academic level should belong to the public,” said Bell, president of Creativity Partners and a longtime consultant in animation. “When she goes to Pixar or Skydance and presents her work to people who make things, it changes how these companies produce media for children. It literally changes the world.”

That’s something she’s trying to do with Bemoaning Bambi: Visual Communication of Trauma From Witnessing One of Disney’s Saddest Character Deaths.

Marissa Lammon, right, presents work on animation and death at Fan Expo Denver. ‘Children’s media actually are the most violent out there, but when we think about animation, we tell ourselves it’s just fantasy, it’s just fun, it’s not actually harmful,’ she says. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

“Children’s media actually are the most violent out there, but when we think about animation, we tell ourselves it’s just fantasy, it’s just fun, it’s not actually harmful,” Lammon said, adding that our culture uses violence to teach moral lessons. “In the case of Bambi’s mother, her death embodies traumatic frames in ways that make it so salient in our recollections of animated death.”

Those frames, she said, are homicide, gender coding—especially the theme of maternal sacrifice—and character development after the act of violence.

‘Completely shattered’

While most of us remember Bambi’s mother being shot in the early stages of the movie, “in fact, it happens about 40 minutes in,” Lammon said. “So for 40 minutes, you see this loving and nurturing relationship develop, and then Bambi’s world is completely shattered.”

That trauma changes how Bambi develops, “leaving you, as an audience member, thinking about how he has to completely change the way he exists,” she said.

And that goes for the children in the audience, as well.

“The conversations I have with children are so deep and intellectual,” she said. “If parents really talked with their children about what they’re seeing and how they’re interpreting it, they would be so surprised with what they’re picking up on and how they reflect on it.”

Lammon’s hope is that her findings change both how the industry communicates themes around death and how parents and caregivers have conversations about what their children absorb.

“There is a lot that the industry is doing well, but we need to change media texts to include death that is natural, not just murder, so we can prepare them for what bereavement will look like in their own lives,” she said. “Meanwhile, we need to make parents more comfortable about having these conversations with their children, instead of just ignoring what they’ve watched or prevent them from seeing it.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Children aren’t just blank slates—they create meaning from the media they experience. An expert says that’s a reason to think about how we show themes like violence and death.

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Virtue-al reality: VR Veterans Day exhibit at CMDI showcases honor, sacrifice

Joe Arney — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 16:03:51 +0000

Virtue-al reality: VR Veterans Day exhibit at CMDI showcases honor, sacrifice Joe Arney Mon, 11/03/2025 - 09:03

Joe Arney

A centerpiece of Eyes of Freedom is ‘Silent Battle.’ This statue, of a serviceman grieving as he holds the dog tags of a fallen comrade, is seen as visitors to the immersive exhibit would experience it through a virtual reality headset. Photo by Patrick Clark.

Twenty years ago, Lima Company—a reserve infantry unit in the Marine Corps—was activated and deployed to Iraq, where the company suffered intense losses.

The stories of that unit, and the 23 service members killed in action that year, have been told around the country through a traveling exhibition that includes paintings of the fallen veterans, along with the boots they wore in combat.

If you go

What: Eyes of Freedom Immersive, a virtual reality-enabled experience of the traveling art exhibit.

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11, CASE E330. Advance registration required.

Who: Members of the university and �鶹ӰԺ community are encouraged to attend.

Why: The exhibition highlights the sacrifices of a Marine company that suffered heavy losses in Iraq in 2005. The virtual version, created through the Immersive Media Lab, can bring the art installation to places it otherwise could not be seen.

Now, thanks to the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at CU �鶹ӰԺ, the stories behind this memorial could enjoy a much wider reach. Owing to technology in the college’s Immersive Media Lab, an extended version of the exhibit may soon allow audiences to experience and interact with the project virtually.

“It’s a really good way to bring art and technology together, but beyond that, it’s a way to put an important focus on how we honor service and sacrifice,” said Patrick Clark, an assistant professor of critical media practices and director of the lab. “Hopefully, people walk away with an understanding of what our service members have given to our country, sacrificed for us—and leave with a sense of connection to these real human beings that were just like a lot of us.”

In Eyes of Freedom, the artist Anita Miller created larger-than-life paintings of casual moments in her subjects’ lives, as well as a statue called “Silent Battle”—showing a grieving warrior holding the dog tag of his friend—prominently displayed. Placards and information panels tell the stories of the men who were killed in combat.

Battling trauma, post-traumatic stress

Seeing it in person offers a kind of raw emotion that can be hard to capture virtually. But the virtual exhibition allows the story of these servicemen to reach places that the full experience cannot. Miller was inspired to create this project as a way to help veterans struggling with loss, trauma and post-traumatic stress.

“Pat’s work really opens up the doors to so many possibilities—veterans in hospice, chaplains in military bases, retreat centers,” she said. “To me, this exhibit is a therapeutic tool to get to the deepest parts of ourselves—and with virtual reality, we can bring this tool to more people and allow them to experience the healing of it from anywhere.”

Clark, a filmmaker and visual artist, has been a driving force behind the Immersive Media Lab since it opened in 2018. From its humble origins as a closet in Folsom Field, the lab has expanded to house top-of-the-line headsets, cameras and sensors that allow students to create unique journalism projects, games, documentaries and other interactive projects.

Thanks to the technology in the lab, Clark was able to enlist students in scanning the artwork as well as some of the artifacts Miller collected, like letters from the servicemen that virtual visitors can interact with.

“In terms of the college, this is a great example of how we find different ways to tell stories to ensure they create impact,” Clark said. “How does technology change the way we’re telling the story, or how that story resonates with people? Those are things we’re interested in, whether you’re talking about journalism, documentaries or anything else.”

Climbing the statue

“If the VR portion of it makes it more engaging or appealing, or just more accessible, to students, and gets them to take a moment to appreciate the memory of these guys, then I think we’ll have accomplished something important.”

Patrick Clark, assistant professor, critical media practices

While this is the first time the immersive experience will be displayed, a beta test over the summer was well attended, and identified a few bugs for Clark to squish, like participants loading into the corners of the exhibit, or being able to climb the “Silent Battle” statue, “which I don’t think is something Anita intended,” Clark said.

In fact, the statue is a linchpin of the exhibit. Miller modeled it on Brian Zimmermann, who shared his experiences in Iraq with the artist and helped her understand the exhibit could be more than a testament to sacrifice.

“He described this scene of seeing his friend sitting on the floor, holding the dog tags of guys who had just died,” Miller said. “I told him I was looking for something uplifting and hopeful. He said to me, ‘You don’t understand, You don’t just go from the depths of darkness to reaching the light—it’s too big of a step. The first step in healing is knowing you’re not alone. And if you make that sculpture, other people will know they’re not alone with their pain.’”

That’s what she hopes the immersive edition of Eyes of Freedom can accomplish. The showcase, and survey data taken from participants, can help guide next steps, like releasing it to app stories or installing it on headsets and sending them to schools, hospitals and the like.

“I had one person who told me she preferred the virtual, because she was able to experience it without the distractions of other people,” Miller said. “It can be a much more personal and meditative experience when you have time with the art and aren’t rushed to get out of there.”

For his part, Clark said he hopes students leave the exhibit with an understanding of the sacrifice these veterans made in service of their country.

“These people were the same age as the students in my classes. In another world, these could have been their peers,” he said. “And if the VR portion of it makes it more engaging or appealing, or just more accessible, to students, and gets them to take a moment to appreciate the memory of these guys, then I think we’ll have accomplished something important.”

Patrick Clark uses a camera to scan one of the paintings that make up Eyes of Freedom just outside the Immersive Media Lab. Working with students, Clark scanned the paintings and other artifacts from the exhibit to make them accessible via virtual reality headset.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Thanks to the Immersive Media Lab, the celebrated Eyes of Freedom art project will expand its potential for healing and remembrance.

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Expert calls East Wing destruction a rejection of history, culture: ‘This should not have been allowed to happen’

Joe Arney — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:59:50 +0000

Expert calls East Wing destruction a rejection of history, culture: ‘This should not have been allowed to happen’ Joe Arney Fri, 10/31/2025 - 10:59

Joe Arney

The demolition of the East Wing of the White House was ‘utterly negligent,’ says Azza Kamal, an associate teaching professor of environmental design and someone who has worked in historic preservation. Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press.

Remember the Alamo? Yeah, Azza Kamal remembers the Alamo. She also remembers, as a member of the historic preservation committee for San Antonio, a redevelopment plan that threatened to encroach on the historic site’s borders.

Kamal, an associate teaching professor of environmental design at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, stepped down from the committee before it rendered a decision about how the proposal addressed the delineation of the historic footprint. But she remembered being unimpressed with the proposal’s lack of respect for the boundaries of the battle that made the fort famous.

“This pivotal moment in Texas history does not have a physical boundary, like a fence, and part of this plan ignored that boundary,” Kamal said. “If you look at East and West Germany, there are places where you can see where the border existed between them. That’s what we asked for—to recognize that this is history, and needs to be designated in a visible, dignified way that aligns with this historical icon.”

“You’re standing up for a history, a culture, and a way people connect with buildings and engage with their communities. To disregard that with a building as significant as the White House is problematic.”

Azza Kamal, associate teaching professor, environmental design

When she looks at the pile of rubble that used to be the East Wing of the White House, she sees “a much worse and utterly negligent” disrespect for the history and culture associated with an important building.

“There is a complicated process for a building like this. It should take years,” said Kamal, who is not involved in the White House project but has served in a preservation role in Gainesville, Florida, in addition to San Antonio. “Typically, anytime you’re talking demolition with a historic landmark, a preservation committee is among the first steps in your due process.”

The destruction of the East Wing was undertaken by Donald Trump to add a ballroom to the White House, and is the second time he’s embarked on a controversial renovation project to the building and its grounds: Earlier this year, he paved over the Rose Garden to install patio seating.

A great deal of media attention on the ballroom project has focused on the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which was adopted to create processes to protect historic resources. Notably, the act exempts the White House, U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court building, but in proceeding immediately to demolition, Trump is ignoring the precedent established by other presidents, who have sought approvals to make smaller renovations.

Potentially illegal

While she’s not a legal scholar, she said it may also have been illegal.

“If you read the text of the act, it specifically says those exemptions must be consistent with the purpose of this act,” Kamal said. “And the purpose of the act is historic preservation, and these buildings are designated landmarks importance sense of our shared cultural heritage, in the sense that important decrees, decisions and discussions happen in these places. This should not have been allowed to happen.”

Scholars are trying to build the legal case against this action, but Kamal pointed to another important dimension—the environmental impact. Something she talks about to students in her sustainable planning courses is the impact new development has, including energy use to tear something down, filling landfills with destroyed materials and extracting raw materials to enable new construction.

Alternatives like rehabilitation or adaptive reuse of a building, or deconstruction—where the building materials are kept intact or repurposed—can alleviate the environmental impact of a new building or prevent materials from ending up in a landfill. Neither appears to have been considered for the East Wing.

“It seems like demolition was the first step in the process, and for that to happen, you have to skip a lot of steps,” Kamal said. “And people will say the only function preservation committees have is to make life difficult for people, but serving in these roles is a great responsibility and honor that I cherished. You’re standing up for a history, a culture, and a way people connect with buildings and engage with their communities. To disregard that with a building as significant as the White House is problematic.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A preservationist and professor of sustainable planning laments leveling of White House section to add a ballroom.

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