This speech has been edited for length and clarity. The speech occurred Aug. 19 during his address to CSU Pueblo ‘s faculty and staff during Fortnight.

Strength in Academic Regalia

Condensed Address by CSU Pueblo Interim President Rico Munn

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the ’25-’26 academic year for Colorado State University Pueblo. Give yourselves a big hand. For those I haven’t met, I’m Rico Munn. I have the distinct honor of being your interim president.

I hope you had a good summer and a chance to step back, spend time with family, reflect, perhaps take a vacation.

Summer Reflections

I took advantage of this time and spent it with my family. [shows pictures of family summer activities].

My family is my wife, Kay. We’ve been married 27 years. We have two kids, 18 and 17. My 18-year-old daughter Asha is going to be a college sophomore. They both decided to do archery this summer. The picture on the upper right shows my son, Nyjah, a high school senior. He got into a program which allowed him to explore his interest in flight. This is him getting into a glider he flew over Owl Canyon, near Fort Collins.

This was an exciting day, except I didn’t tell my wife beforehand. She didn’t know he would be flying a glider, so part of the day was tough. The picture at the bottom shows my son and me. He wanted to do a hands-on project. We did a Habitat for Humanity project using power tools. Again, I didn’t tell my wife beforehand. We had a great time and came back with all digits intact. Then there’s a nice three-generation picture of my wife, her mother, and our daughter at a farmer’s market in Denver.

This picture isn’t just about summer. To me it represents identifying challenges we’ve had in our life. 

I want to share more about what I mean when I talk about these pictures and my experiences.

When I look at this picture of my daughter standing strong, pulling her bow, getting ready to hit her target, I think about the challenges she has faced. Challenges related to living independently while navigating health issues. I think about the changes we’ve made to support her, to love her and allow her to fulfill her dreams. The strength we have found. The strength she has found.

On Thursday, I’m taking her to the airport to attend her second year of college on the other side of the country where she lives independently pursuing her dreams. She’s finishing up with a medical degree in a couple of years. We’re so proud.

I look at the pictures of my son pursuing his dreams and doing projects with me. I think about two years ago when we spent three months in Children’s Hospital with him. There were days we were unclear if he would be coming home with us. I think about the challenge we had to face and meet. How we had to make changes to support his health. He discovered his own strengths. We discovered strengths in our family we didn’t know we had.

I think about the picture with my mother-in-law Sally. Many of you are dealing with this—aging and advancing dementia in a loved one. She has good days and bad days. We’ve had to make changes in our family and our life to support Sally. We’ve found strength to do this.

I shared this not to tell you stories about my family, but to tell you I believe there is a real cycle in life. Sometimes we have significant challenges to meet which requires real change. This allows us to discover strength and rely on certain strengths. If we do all these things, it allows us the opportunity to celebrate in big and small ways.

I’m going to talk about this as it relates to our institution—real challenges being met with real change and real strength.

Our Current Challenges

We face three main challenges: budget pressures from funding shifts and from our own past practices, cultural transitions with new leadership and changing student needs, and mission alignment in a rapidly changing world. The federal government’s shift in supporting higher education affects institutions nationwide. State budget deficits create additional pressure. We have internal priorities that sometimes conflict, and we’re addressing detrimental past practices.

But these challenges come with opportunities. We’re increasing budget transparency and accountability. We’re creating new traditions during this Fortnight celebration. We have new academic leadership bringing fresh perspectives. Most importantly, we’re seeing enrollment increases for the first time in years thanks to Dr. Kristyn White Davis and her team.

[applause]

The Board of Governors has committed to defending academic freedom, faculty curriculum management, and maintaining a welcoming, non-discriminatory environment. Our community engagement through events like firework shows and the State Fair strengthens our mission as a regional comprehensive university.

As I’ve talked about strength throughout this conversation, I would guess many of you have different pictures of strength in your mind. Maybe you envision your grandmother as a picture of strength or your father. Maybe you envision a family member who’s overcome some illnesses or challenges. Maybe you think about yourself in the things you have done, whether it’s service to this community or country. Those are great pictures of strength. Hold onto those and really reflect upon how they address the different challenges you are facing.

Strength in Academic Regalia

I wanted to share a picture of strength that sometimes comes to mind for me. Many of you I grew up on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Fred Rogers, if you have read anything about his life and his work, was an impressive human being through the things he did, both creatively and in his service to the country. Think about the strength of starting a children’s program, really a preschool program geared to ages two to five, in 1968, where he talked about and addressed issues of segregation, war, divorce, and mental health. Think about the strength and courage it took to do on TV in a kids’ show. He did it all in his signature cardigan and sneakers. He’d come in and take off the work clothes and change into the cardigan and sneakers. A symbolic way of saying, “I’m welcoming you into this space. I’m creating this space for us to come together and address and talk about those things that make us happy and those things that make us sad.” There was an incredible amount of grace and strength in this process I always admired.

I think about this symbolism a lot when I think about us donning our academic regalia. Our academic regalia has a lot of history. There are a lot of things it formally means and a lot of things historically it connects to. The gown itself is a way of creating some distinction between us and the rest of the community. The tam and the stripes, they all mean things formally within the academic code. All this is important. However, I wanted to share with you what this academic regalia means to me when I reflect on it in my own life.

[brings out regalia]

I think about this gown and what it means. My reality is I’m a Black man in America, and a lot of statistics will tell you education is something difficult for me to attain. When I put on this gown, it tells me, and it tells everybody else I’m distinguished. I have achieved something. I have overcome some things and I’ve put myself in a certain place and I’m proud of that distinction.

The reality is we live in a nation that used to have anti-literacy laws. Laws against the education of  Black people and sometimes women in many places. When I think about these stripes, I think about not just that I’ve achieved an education, but that I’ve demonstrated some mastery in my craft, overcoming some of this history.

The reality for me is I am the son of an undocumented immigrant and the grandson of a convicted murderer. The color (of the regalia) demonstrates I’m somebody who understands justice, who understands the rule of law, and has made this part of my life—the color indicating my degree, which is my juris doctorate.

Then there’s the hood. The hood connects me to my institution. My institution is one I’m proud of, that has a level of recognition and prestige in certain areas, but also one that has a history. A history that in some ways was not inclusive; didn’t include other people. But I put on, and I bear all of this history as I bear those colors. I’m part of that line. I’m part of that history. I’m proud to bear that and proud to recognize that.

So the truth is, when I don this academic regalia, yes, I don it for formal occasions and formal things. It’s an indication this is a matter of seriousness and formality. But for me, it means so much more. For me, putting this on is a symbol of resistance. It’s a symbol of resistance to those who don’t believe in the things we know all of our students in our community can overcome. It’s a symbol of resistance to those who don’t appreciate the value of higher education. It’s a symbol of resistance to those in the past or in the present who believe higher education doesn’t have value. I’m proud to resist.

But it’s also a symbol of celebration. Celebration of all the things that are about higher education, all of our values, all the things we believe in. Part of what we’re doing over this two-week period, this fortnight, is celebrating all those things of higher education. We’re celebrating this afternoon with our TED Talks. We’re celebrating free speech. Yesterday as we got together for our punt pass and kick contest, we celebrated the connection between athletics and academics. Going back to Aristotle’s Lyceum, where there was the ideal of a “well-rounded man.” Both philosophy and exercise were part of the founding of higher education. We’re bringing together our families, bringing together this community to celebrate how higher education can bring together communities. We’re going to get together for a trivia night and celebrate the fun of being smart, the fun of being educated. It’s a fun thing. We’re also going to enjoy the new student convocation. We’re going to celebrate and enjoy bringing new students into our community.

I serve as your interim president. I have the distinct honor of adorning my regalia with one more item. This is what my kids lovingly call my Flavor Flav chain. This chain bears our symbol. It also bears the names of all those who came before me as presidents of this institution. I’m proud to connect to this long line, proud to connect to this history that is CSU Pueblo, and to be part of this history as it continues to its next chapter.