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Jeannie and Jack Thompson have made an unprecedented commitment to the Jazz Studies program at the University of Colorado Boulder -- building $1.6 million in combined gifts to trigger a new $2 million program endowment. To honor and recognize this transformational gift, the program will be renamed the Thompson Jazz Studies Program, as announced at yesterday’s annual Spring Swing big band concert. It is ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder’s first named program.

At first, Kisori Thomas had a difficult time acclimating to the campus climate at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder. Initially, other than her coursework, she wasn’t active outside the classroom. Realizing she wanted a more well-rounded education, experience and personal growth, she took a big step outside her comfort zone and began looking for student leadership and multicultural organizations to join. This also included studying abroad in Chicoutimi, Canada, for a five-week French intensive program.

A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder looking for clues about why Earth did not warm as much as scientists expected between 2000 and 2010 now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight -- dozens of volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide.

With the flip of a switch, a pair of instruments designed and built by the University of Colorado Boulder and flying onboard twin NASA space probes have forced the revision of a 50-year-old theory about the structure of the radiation belts that wrap around the Earth just a few thousand miles above our heads.

Early next month, researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder will begin the painstaking process of interviewing hundreds of undergraduates in an effort to understand why the rates of students switching out of science, technology, engineering and math majors has remained troublingly high over the last couple of decades despite widespread efforts to address the problem.

When life’s complications get in the way of graduation, the University of Colorado Boulder offers ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Complete, an academic service designed to assist former ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder students in completing their bachelor’s degrees. To date, more than 400 former ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder students have worked with Continuing Education advisers and 78 students have graduated with assistance from ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Complete.

The University of Colorado Board of Regents on Wednesday voted to approve the establishment of a new Ph.D. degree in Comparative Ethnic Studies at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder. The board also voted in favor of new master’s and Ph.D. degree programs in Materials Science and Engineering. The new degrees were added to the more than 180 programs offered at the university.

The University of Colorado Boulder’s ROTC program has won one of eight MacArthur Awards in the nation for the unit’s achievements in the 2011-12 school year. ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder was selected as the top unit of the Cadet Command’s Fifth Brigade, which consists of 36 senior Army ROTC programs in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today announced the four finalists selected for the position of dean of the College of Music. The finalists for the position are: Wayne Bailey, professor of conducting and instrumental ensembles, School of Music, Arizona State University; David Myers, director, School of Music, University of Minnesota; Jamal Rossi, executive associate dean, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester; and John Schaffer, director emeritus, School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The richer the assortment of amphibian species living in a pond, the more protection that community of frogs, toads and salamanders has against a parasitic infection that can cause severe deformities, including the growth of extra legs, according to a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder.