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1980-1993. Maturity: The Years of Broadening and Deepening

Changes in the Leadership Sector

In 1986, a vacancy was created when the dean of the Graduate School resigned to accept a position in another university. Vice Chancellor Ekstrand, recognizing Sievers' administrative experience and ability, asked him if he would accept an interim appointment as dean of the Graduate School. As this assignment was expected to last only about three months, they decided that Sievers could accept this appointment while continuing as director of CIRES. In fact, the search for a new dean lasted 13 months, after which Sievers returned full time to CIRES. The resulting division of the director's time and energy for such an extended period put an extra burden on the second-level administrators (associate directors, etc.) and

In 1983 the staff celebrates an award to Lynn Walloch, front center; left to right: Carl Kisslinger, B. Nyrady, J. Trebing, C. Winkler, C. Hooke, I. Cueller, R. Sievers, G. Stewart, B. Sloan, J. Mckie.

In 1990 Sievers took on another major role in the University; he ran for and was elected to the Board of Regents of the University, his term beginning in 1991. Although not the first faculty member elected to the Board, a number of the fellows felt some discomfort at the possible perception of a conflict of interests between the two roles. A committee of fellows met with the campus administrators most closely involved with CIRES and found that all were satisfied that no irreconcilable conflicts would arise and they saw no problems with this dual role. In turn, Sievers was careful to recuse himself from any Board actions that directly or indirectly affected the welfare of the Institute, his department, or the Environmental Program, of which he was soon to be the second director.

As mentioned above, President Gordon Gee had proclaimed environmental studies as an area of emphasis for the University during the 1990s. After an unsuccessful outside search and the appointment of Bill Lewis as interim director, the quest for a candidate with the stature and experience to launch this all-University effort came to focus on Sievers. He accepted the position as director of the Environmental Program for the Boulder campus and chair of the four-campus environmental effort, a loose association of activities, to begin in 1993. As the assumption of this new role coincided with the end of his third term as director of CIRES, he did not stand for re-election. The search for a new director was the start of the most recent chapter in the CIRES story.

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