during her first year at colorado college, tiefenthaler undertook a "year of listening" to gather broad community input about the college's strengths, challenges, and opportunities. over the year, she visited colorado springs, boulder, denver, boston, minneapolis, chicago, los angeles, seattle, portland, san francisco, washington, d.c., greenwich, connecticut, and new york to gather over 2,000 comments about what makes colorado college a distinct liberal arts college.