University of Colorado Boulder kicks off 77th annual Conference on World Affairs

The University of Colorado Boulder kicked off its 77th annual Conference on World Affairs this week. The three-day event is expected to draw thousands of people on and off campus. 

On Monday night, that included Gov. Jared Polis and keynote speaker Cynthia Erivo, which drew lines around the block. Some in line said they had waited for up to 5 hours for Erivo's speech.

"She's coming here, and she's speaking to us, for students like us," sophomore Maddi Spicer said. "The political climate right now is very I think it's going to make for some very interesting conversation."

That conversation– led by actress, singer, and songwriter Erivo. Although she is widely known for her role as Elphaba in Wicked, she was at the conference to highlight her work in social activism.

"She's performed as Harriet Tubman and Aretha Franklin and really used her art to tell these powerful stories of resilience and change. And we thought just her perspective would be so unique," said Vara Roem, the student program chair for the conference.

For the last year, Reom worked with a team to select dozens of those perspectives for their three-day conference.

"I think now more than ever, events like this are so important," Roem said, "And a lot of students come away from it, learning something new, or thinking about things differently."

This is the 77th year of the conference, where the school expects thousands to attend not only Erivo's keynote but also dozens of other sessions through Thursday.

"It really feels like the tradition is alive and well, and we're excited to get it started," John Leslie Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications said, "There's panels about relationships in AI, there's panels about cyber security and the future of democracy and a lot of other stuff in between."

As we see big changes coming from the white house and the world, conference organizers hope the events can go beyond the headlines.

"A program that brings people from different backgrounds, different perspectives and different opinions together to talk about the issues of the world right now, it seems like that's something we could all practice into a little bit more," Leslie said.