View Content #18311

by Carl Falsgraff, CASLS Founding Director

Twenty is an exciting, if somewhat scary, age. Young enough to still be full of potential and possibility, but old enough to bear the burdens of responsibility and expectations, CASLS is a typical twenty year old. 

Parenting CASLS through vulnerable infancy, mind-boggling growth, and a difficult adolescence was my life’s work. I have done other work and will do more in the future, but founding and directing CASLS is what they should put in my obituary. Wishing not to become a helicopter parent, after nineteen years I left CASLS to make its own way in the world. 

Which it did with distinction. The staff pulled together and performed incredible feats through the transition. Partners stood up to be counted. Most importantly, CASLS found an ideal leader in Julie Sykes. Succeeding a founder is the toughest gig around. Nineteen years is a long time to get used to things being a certain way, and Julie doesn’t think, act, or (thank goodness) look like me. Change unsettles people.

But now, just a year in, Julie runs the joint. She has charted new and exciting intellectual directions around gaming and online communities, established new partnerships, and embedded CASLS in the life of the University in a way I never could. Plenty has changed, but the mission and fundamental values remain unchanged. 

CASLS at twenty has established its own identity and stands on its own in a tough world. It acts with integrity and purpose, and its best years lie ahead. 

That makes me one proud papa.