Programs
DU’s programs deliver on our vision for high-impact research and inspired teaching, redefining the meaning of a valuable and purpose-driven education to help to solve real-world problems.
Campaign investments in programs, both interdisciplinary and across the entirety of the DU landscape, will empower substantive and measurable progress toward a better future through research, scholarship, and action. It will allow faculty to share and scale the results of their work in communities nationwide.
Pluralism, Free Expression and Civil Discourse
DU is thinking big about how we can all engage more thoughtfully, authentically, and respectfully with one another. We are building a model for essential civil discourse skills in preparation for a lifetime of engaged citizenship. As part of the 4D Experience, all DU students will learn to practice respectful and evidence-based debate in settings that are intentionally designed to encourage open dialogue on challenging ideas.
Sport and Human Performance
Driven by DU’s ethos of rugged determination and optimism and backed by considerable expertise in the areas of athletic performance enhancement, sports science, policy, and sports medicine, DU will advance the performance of athletes, lead athletic and sport policy development, and fundamentally improve the science that drives high-performance coaching and training.
Affordable Housing
We have a vision for how we can play a part in making the American Dream more affordable for more families. Solutions for affordable housing will come through collaboration of our faculty in law, construction and real estate management, public policy and social work.
Together we will create policy recommendations based on interdisciplinary research. We will build the housing workforce pipeline through coursework and scholarships. We will engage community at DU events to educate and unite stakeholders for long-term solutions.
Democratic Renewal
DU is reimagining and rebuilding democracy, locally and globally, for the 21st century. Our interdisciplinary focus will improve society’s collective ability to understand and address democracy’s challenges at home and abroad. Focused around two major themes, civic identity and citizenship and democratic institutional renewal: DU’s innovative research, education, and public engagement programs and activities will deliver substantive research, curricular innovation, and public engagement within the United States and abroad.
Biomedical Engineering
The Human Dynamics Lab in the Ritchie School of Engineering & Computer Science is changing the way we prevent and respond to movement-related disease and injury. Investigating forces that act on the body during movement, researchers are improving human performance and helping people recover faster from traumatic and performance-limiting injuries.
Across DU, researchers are examining complex diseases and injuries at the microscopic and skeletal levels with real-world outcomes, like developing targeted treatments to improve quality of life for patients with osteoarthritis.
Mental Health Services, Research and Training
DU’s Mental Health Collaborative plays a critical role in serving the mental health needs of the Colorado community through direct service, workforce development, policy/advocacy work, and applied research.
Healthy Aging
The Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging (KIHA) is an interdisciplinary initiative designed to help our community develop healthy habits, interpersonal connections, and management of health conditions for a lifetime of quality experiences. KIHA brings together key strengths from the University of Denver and the region to address growing needs here and throughout the nation.
