On behalf of the faculty and staff of CU Linguistics, I congratulate you, our 2020 graduates.

In this virtual ceremony, we do not confer degrees but rather recognize the achievements of CU Linguistics students and provide you, our graduates, with an opportunity to honor the family members, friends, teachers and community members who have sustained you throughout your studies at CU. On this site you will find profiles of our 2020 graduates as well as video content from faculty. The videos include my welcoming address, messages from the undergraduate and graduate chairs, and faculty descriptions of student research products and accomplishments.

Whether you earned a Linguistics BA, MA, MS or PhD degree, you found your calling in this field, which finds our common humanity in our common daily practice: talking—whether with our hands, keyboards or voices. You also heeded a call. You chose to shape our shared fate by helping to flatten the curve, protecting our most vulnerable citizens. You became part of a vast digital diaspora. You achieved great things through adversity. And now what? The world is an even more troubled place now than it was when you started your CU education. But the world needs your contributions more than ever. Who better than CU linguists to help in the fight against the parallel pandemic, misinformation?

As you do the work of the world, we ask you to bear in mind this quote from our fifth and longest serving President, George Norlin (Acting President during the last great pandemic, in 1918): “Wherever you go, the university goes with you. Wherever you are at work, there is the university at work.” To reframe this using a popular CU quadrupedal metaphor: you have a vast expanse to wander, but remember that you are a part of our herd. Together, we are Buff Strong.