Colorado College
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| Motto | Scientia et Disciplina |
|---|---|
| Established | 1874 |
| Type | Private |
| Endowment | US $438,711,000 |
| President | Richard F. Celeste |
| Undergraduates | 2,011 |
| Location | Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA |
| Campus | Urban, 90 Acres |
| Colors | Gold and Black |
| Nickname | Tigers |
| Website | http://www.coloradocollege.edu |
The Colorado College is a private four-year, co-educational liberal arts college located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The school enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduates each year to its 90 acre (360,000 m²) campus, 70 miles (100 km) south of the capital city Denver, with a view of the Rocky Mountains to the west. The American Numismatic Association claims to be "on the campus of Colorado College,"[1] but might be technically said to be immediately south of it. The current President of the college is Richard Celeste, most notably the former Governor of Ohio, ambassador to India, and former Director of the Peace Corps.
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[edit] History of Colorado College
Founded in 1874 by U.S. Civil War veteran General William Jackson Palmer — the founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and of Colorado Springs — Colorado College was instituted as a liberal arts college which would foster Christian outreach by its graduates and faculty in the New England tradition. Like many U.S. colleges and universities that have endured from the 19th century, it now is more secular in outlook than it was at its founding in 1874, though retaining its liberal arts focus.
The college’s first building, Cutler Hall, was occupied in 1880; the first bachelor’s degrees were conferred in 1882. Under President William F. Slocum, who served from 1888 to 1917, the campus took the shape it held until the 1950s. During this time, the college significantly expanded and improved the library’s holdings and attracted leading scholars in a number of fields. Phi Beta Kappa was chartered in 1904.
Since the mid-1950s, the campus has been virtually rebuilt. New facilities include three large residence halls, Worner Campus Center, Tutt Library, Olin Hall of Science and the Barnes Science Center, Honnen Ice Rink, Boettcher Health Center, Schlessman Pool, Armstrong Hall of Humanities, Palmer Hall, El Pomar Sports Center, and Packard Hall of Music and Art. Turn-of-the-century Bemis, Cossitt, Cutler, Montgomery, and Palmer Halls, and the William I. Spencer Center are on the National Register of Historic Places.
The face of campus changed again at the beginning of the 21st century with construction of the Western Ridge Housing Complex, which offers apartment-style living for upper-division students and completion of the Russell T. Tutt Science Center; as well as the revitalization of the east campus, now home to the Greek Quad and several “theme” houses.
[edit] Academics
Colorado College, or "CC" as it is familiarly known, follows a "block plan"; students study only one subject for three and a half weeks (blocks are only three weeks long in Summer School, in which there are also graduate blocks of differing lengths), which advocates say allows for more lab time, field trips, and other more intensive learning experiences. Like the students, professors are teaching only one block at a time. With classes generally capped at 25 (32 for two professors), this leads to a more personalized academic experience.
The college offers more than 80 majors, minors, and specialized programs including: Southwest studies, women’s studies, Asian studies, biochemistry, environmental sciences, neuroscience, Latin American studies, Russian and Eurasian studies, and American cultural studies, as well as an across-the-curriculum writing program.
In addition to its undergraduate programmes, the college offers a Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree.
Tutt Library has approximately half a million bound volumes.
Considered one of the Nation's top colleges, Colorado College perennially ranks in the top tier of National Colleges in the U.S. News Rankings, most recently ranging from a high of 19th in 1999 to a low of 33rd in 2005, one of its rare appearances outside the top 30 in recent years. In a January 2004 ranking of all colleges and universities by Kiplingers magazine, it placed 31st. And in the 2006 U.S. News rankings it was 27th among National Colleges, and soared to 13th place in Best Values among all National Colleges.
CC routinely attracts some of the brightest stars in the arena of government service. Its graduates include Lynne Cheney, wife of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, and their two daughters, as well as United States Senator Ken Salazar, and Representative Diana DeGette.
Other well known government figures such as former CIA Director James Woolsey and White House Chief Economic Advisor Martin Neil Baily have seen their children graduate from CC in recent years. The school is widely regarded to have a distinguished faculty, noted for outstanding teaching and a closeness to students in an environment where no class exceeds 25, and a dinner or end-of-block breakfast at a professor's home is a common gathering.
While the focus at Colorado College is primarily on teaching, and its academics involve a high level of rigor and intensity on the block plan, a significant number of faculty are widely published and renowned in their fields. Professor Dennis Showalter, the 2005 recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Military History, is a leading expert on World War II, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at West Point and the Air Force Academy, Reviewer for the History Book Club, and author of Tannenberg: Clash of Empires, the 1992 winner of the prestigious Paul Birdsall Prize of the American Historical Association. In 2005, he published the first single volume dual military biography of Patton and Rommel, Men of War.
The areas of music and the arts have equally luminous representatives, most notably artist-in-residence Susan Grace, internationally known pianist with appearances at Carnegie Hall.
Both knowledge and art suffuse the work of Colorado College graduates who have such diverse accomplishments as the 2000 Nobel Prize for Economics, won by James Hechman, class of '65, and the rendering of Sacagawea on the U.S. golden dollar coin, by internationally known sculptor, Glenna Goodacre, class of '61.
[edit] Athletics
The school's sports teams are nicknamed Tigers. Colorado College is a member of the NCAA Division III in all sports except men's hockey, in which it participates in the NCAA Division I Western Collegiate Hockey Association, and women's soccer, where it competes as an NCAA Division I team in Conference USA. CC is in the midst of transition from a Division III independent to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, which will be completed in the 2007-2008 school year.
The Colorado College men's ice hockey is an unusual powerhouse for such a small school. The Tigers won the NCAA Division I championship twice (1950, 1957), were runners up three times (1952, 1957, 1996) and made the NCAA Tournament eighteen times, including every year since 1995 except 2000 and 2004[2]. Fifty-five CC Tigers have been named All-Americans[3]. NHL Hall of Fame coach Bob Johnson coached the Tigers from 1963 - 1966[4].
[edit] External links
- Colorado College
- Cutler Publications (student-run campus publications)
- CCwiki (Cutler Publications' Campus Wiki)
- Colorado College history
- Tutt Library
| Western Collegiate Hockey Association |
|---|
| Alaska-Anchorage♂ • Bemidji State♀ • Colorado C.♂ • Denver♂ • Michigan Tech♂ • Minnesota • Minnesota-Duluth • Minnesota State • North Dakota • Ohio State♀ • St. Cloud State • Wisconsin ♂ men's-only member • ♀ women's-only member |
| Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference |
|---|
| Austin • Birmingham-Southern (2007) • Centre • Colorado College • DePauw • Hendrix • Millsaps • Oglethorpe • Rhodes • Sewanee • Southwestern • Trinity (Texas) |
