Please see the following Guest Column from Colorado Northwestern Community College President, Dr. Lisa Jones
CNCC Corner – January 2026
Happy New Year to each of you! CNCC officially welcomed staff and administrators back to campus on Monday, January 5, and we look forward to greeting our faculty and residence life students on Thursday, January 15. New students will participate in orientation on January 15 in Rangely and January 16 in Craig, with classes beginning on January 20, 2026. We are excited to start the semester and the year with renewed energy and purpose.
In observance of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, CNCC will be closed on Monday, January 19, 2026. This important day of reflection was provided to employees in December by our new CCCS Chancellor, Dr. Marielena DeSanctis, and offers an opportunity to honor Dr. King’s legacy of service, leadership, and community.
Spartan Athletics is gearing up for an exciting spring season featuring men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, and men’s wrestling. Basketball opens at home on January 8 against the College of Southern Idaho, with the women tipping off at 5:00 p.m. and the men at 7:00 p.m. in the Hefley Gym. Men’s wrestling begins its home season on January 21 at 6:00 p.m. against Snow College, also in the Hefley Gym. The Spartan baseball team opens spring competition on the road on January 26, with the first home game scheduled for Friday, March 13 at 2:30 p.m. against Community Christian College. For the most up-to-date schedules and information, please visit the official CNCC Spartan Athletics website.
CNCC is also pleased to welcome back Dr. Todd Ward, Professor in the Science Division, following his academic sabbatical. During his sabbatical, Dr. Ward successfully brought three biology educational game concepts to completion, making them ready for classroom use. These innovative tools leverage haptic, visual, kinesthetic, and reward-based learning strategies to enhance student retention and understanding of complex biological concepts through simulation, competitive, and cooperative gameplay. His work also emphasizes activity-based learning and the inclusion of diverse historical figures and perspectives in biology. In addition, Dr. Ward explored opportunities for app development and publication or licensing of these materials. The sabbatical has strengthened his instructional practice, expanded his content mastery, and deepened his expertise in areas such as metabolism, bacterial growth and chemotaxis, infectious disease, and culturally diverse contributors to science. Dr. Ward will share the outcomes of his work with the CNCC community at Convocation and has been invited to present his instructional games and findings to faculty across the CCCS system.
As we begin January 2026, I encourage each of you to embrace the new semester with optimism, curiosity, and determination. This is a time to set goals, try new approaches, and build on the strong foundation we continue to create together. I look forward to the energy, innovation, and collaboration that this year will bring to CNCC and to celebrating our shared successes along the way.
Dr. Lisa Jones
Colorado Northwestern Community College President,