| University of Colorado Colorado Springs |
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|---|---|
| Motto | ΛΑΜΨΑΤΩ ΤΟ ΦΏΣ ΥΜΏΝ (Greek) |
| Motto in English | Let Your Light Shine |
| Established | 1965 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | US $590 million (systemwide)[1] |
| Chancellor | Pamela Shockley-Zalabak |
| President | Bruce D. Benson |
| Academic staff | 601 |
| Undergraduates | 7150 |
| Postgraduates | 1500 |
| Location | Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States |
| Campus | Urban, 520 acres (2.1 km²) |
| Colors | Black and Gold |
| Nickname | Mountain Lions |
| Mascot | Boomer |
| Website | www.uccs.edu |
The University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) is a campus of the University of Colorado system, the state university system of Colorado.
UCCS has about 7,150 undergraduate and 1,500 graduate students, with 18% ethnic minority students and 58% female students.
In 2006, the U.S. News & World Report college and university rankings put the UCCS College of Engineering and Applied Science as ranking the fourth-best among public universities and the 16th best overall among bachelor and master's degree engineering schools. U.S. News ranked UCCS as the 32nd in regional universities in the West for the 2011 rankings.[2] For public universities in the Master's Universities-West category it was ranked 6th.[3] It has been ranked in the top ten on that list each year since 2002.
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As early as the 1920s, CU offered classes in the Colorado Springs area at various locations, mostly Colorado College. By the 1960s, however, a permanent campus was desired.
Colorado Governor John Arthur Love and Hewlett-Packard Company co-founder David Packard (whose company had a huge presence in the city) led a drive to establish a permanent home for the university. The solution came when George T. Dwire sold the Cragmor Sanatorium property for $1 to the state.
In 1965 UCCS moved to its current location on Austin Bluffs Parkway in the Cragmor neighborhood of northern Colorado Springs. The campus is located at one of the highest parts of the city.
Because of its ties to HP, initial university programs focused on engineering and business, and classes were held in the Cragmor Sanotorium building, what is now Main Hall, and Cragmor Hall, a modern expansion of Main Hall. The first building built exclusively for UCCS, Dwire Hall, was not complete until 1972.
A 1997 community referendum merged Beth-El College of Nursing with UCCS. In recent years, programs such as the Network Information and Space Security Center were added to connect the university with the military to improve national security. Other programs, including the CU Institute for Bioenergetics and the Institute for Science and Space Studies, cast an eye toward the future.
In 2001 UCCS purchased an 87,000-square-foot (8,100 m2) building at the corner of Union and Austin Bluffs to house the Beth-El College of Nursing.
While on his campaign trail, Presidential Nominee Barack Obama made a stop on the campus. His agenda was helping senators with current Colorado budget issues and answering questions of Colorado voters.[4]
The College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences is the UCCS college of liberal arts and sciences. It is the largest college at UCCS, offering undergraduate programs in anthropology, art history, biology, chemistry, communication, economics, English, film studies, geography and environmental studies, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, sociology, Spanish, and visual and performing arts. It offers graduate programs in biology, chemistry, communication, applied geography, history, applied mathematics, physics, psychology, and sociology.
The Beth-El College of Nursing & Health Sciences is the UCCS nursing school. It has two departments, Health Science and Nursing. The college is accredited with the Colorado State Board of Nursing and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Both departments are primarily located in the upper levels of University Hall about half a mile east from the main campus and in the northwest corner of the Austin Bluff at Union intersection. Degrees granted:
The College of Business and Administration is the UCCS business school. It is located in the newly-renovated Dwire Hall. The college established in 1965. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Degrees granted:
The College of Education is the UCCS school of education. The College of Education is located in Columbine Hall on the UCCS campus. It is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). It is primarily a Colorado state educator licensure program.
In addition to its primary degree and educator licensure programs the COE operates many other auxiliary programs that are integral to the mission and objectives of the College.
The COE is also active in a number of special programs, including the following:
The School of Public Affairs offers degrees in criminal justice and public administration.
The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences is the UCCS engineering college. In the U.S. News & World Report "America’s Best Colleges," the 2008 college rankings edition, "the magazine’s editors ranked the UCCS undergraduate engineering program ninth in the nation among public engineering schools offering bachelor’s or master’s degrees."[5]
UCCS Engineering is rapidly expanding and includes many research institutes and laboratories. It consists of three departments: the Department of Computer Science (computer science); the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (electrical engineering, computer engineering), and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering). The college is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). In conjunction with the College of Business it offers the unique Bachelor of Innovation(BI)[6] which won the 2008 ASEE new program innovation award[7]
Because of its proximity to U.S. government and military installations and the technology private sector the college has partnerships several institutions, including defense contractors and semiconductor manufacturers (Intel, Boeing, Agilent, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin), national laboratory (Sandia National Laboratories), and the military (United States Northern Command, Air Force Space Command, and the United States Air Force Academy). It provides outreach services to the local community through Project Lead the Way and the FIRST Lego League.
In 2006, the American Society for Engineering Education ranked the college seventh among U.S. public universities and 18th for all U.S. universities in the number of degrees awarded to woman.
The College is located in two buildings:
A new $56.1-million Science and Engineering Building has been completed at the center of campus to add needed laboratory and lecture space for the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as well as the Physics, Chemistry, and Biology departments. The building opened for classes in fall 2009. It holds an expanded computer, wind tunnel, fluids, instrumentation, and other mechanical engineering laboratories with an enlarged machine shop and research space, design studios with payload and project areas.
The National Institute for Science, Space and Security Centers (NISSSC) is a multi-disciplinary institute established to better focus on developing and implementing sound academic and research deliverables in the science, space and security disciplines, for meeting the nation’s challenges. The NISSSC includes the Center for Homeland Security (CHS); the Center for Space Studies (CSS); the Center for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Education (CSTEME); and the Trauma, Health & Hazards Center (THHC).
The Center for Space Studies (CSS) is an educational and research & development organization formed under affiliation with UCCS and the NISSSC. Founded in 2004, the Center’s mission is to promote research, education and outreach in the domain of space technology. The CSS is led by Dr. Scott Trimboli, Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at UCCS. CSS is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, just minutes away from key military space activities including: Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Headquarters Army Space Command, Shriever AFB, and Headquarters US Northern Command.
The vision for CSS is to promote space through education and research in service to our nation and for the betterment of society. The Center functions as a focus of scholars and professionals working together to build and support a center of excellence in space technology and education. Specifically, the Center aims to achieve the following goals:
The Center for Space Studies solves technical problems facing government and industry in Colorado and across the nation with technical expertise in emergency management, astrodynamics, micro-propulsion, data fusion, and space systems engineering. CSS projects include:
The CSS mission is to promote the educational development of the space workforce through graduate programs offered through the UCCS College of Engineering and Applied Science.
CSS, through its NISSSC affiliate Center for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Education (CSTEME), collaborates with regional educational partners to develop innovative educational experiences for the K-12 student population. Collaboration involves a workshop for regional high-school students titled the Near Earth Object project (NEO project).
In 2000, the CU Board of Regents designated UCCS as the CU growth campus. In 2003, the Colorado Legislature approved revisions in the university's statutory role and mission to remove geographic and program restrictions. In 2005, the Regents approved a seven-year plan that calls for the university to add to its base of 7,650 students (Fall 2004), 347 FTE faculty and 254 FTE staff.
The 2006–2012 plan calls for growth to 9,100 students with corresponding increases in faculty, staff, programs and campus infrastructure.[10]
In addition to the completion of the recreation center, Dwire Hall renovation, and the third wing of the new science/engineering building, the seven-year plan also calls for the renovation and transition of the old Heller Center on the other side of the bluff that campus sits in front of into a sort of "arts retreat." This project is expected to cost around $4.4 million. Also, by 2014, two new buildings are in the works for Summit, and by that year the Alpine Village should be built out with three additional buildings across from the current ones.[10]
With construction on the new Austin Bluffs/Union interchange, the construction of a new frontage road from campus to University Hall began as well, enabling a closed circuit connecting Cragmor Campus with University Hall, making access to Austin Bluffs unnecessary.
From 2014 a new indoor athletics complex will be constructed along Nevada in the existing 4-Diamonds area. North Nevada is the 2nd phase of campus in the long-term, and extreme long-term build-out calls for dozens of new buildings, academic halls, and another resident village to be built along Nevada.
On March 5, 2009 UCCS announced they would be converting their entire fleet of patrol cars to the Toyota Prius.[11]
The school mascot is the mountain lion, with official colors of gold and black, the same de facto school colors of CU-Boulder (actual colors gold and silver).
UCCS competes in NCAA Division II in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), fielding teams in men's basketball, women's basketball, women's volleyball, men's cross country, women's cross country, men's indoor track and field, women's indoor track and field, men's outdoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field, men's golf, men's soccer, women's soccer, and women's softball.
In addition to varsity sports, UCCS has a large number of club sports including a dance team and a cheerleading club, cycling, baseball, billiards, fencing, hockey, karate, kendo, kung fu, lacrosse, paintball, racquetball, rugby, tai chi, tennis, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, womans soccer, and an active intramural program. The intramural sports include flag football, ultimate frisbee, outdoor soccer, table tennis, rootbeer pong, volleyball, basketball, billiards, and a 3-point shooting contest. Snowboarding, skiing, rock climbing, bouldering, hiking, mountain biking, trail running, and lesser common slack roping and 4-wheeling are popular student activities at UCCS due to the extreme proximity to Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, and the surrounding mountainous terrain. It is not uncommon to see former or current professional or Olympic athletes on campus or training on the nearby trails also with the United States Olympic Training Center in downtown Colorado Springs.
Varsity basketball and volleyball are currently played in the Lions Den gymnasium at the University Center, which seats 400 and is the smallest venue in all Division II schools, the size of many smaller high school gymnasiums. With the recent success of men’s basketball, achieving the best record in UCCS history, amongst other things, led to an acceleration of plans to replace the facility with mounting pressure from students and athletes alike. A temporary fix that was completed in early 2007 cost $40,000 and only slightly expanded and upgraded seating. Attempts at separating seating sections did not significantly help in alleviating overcrowding where students are often turned away at popular events. There also exists major problems with the lack of locker room space for use by the athletic teams during competitions. $2 million of CU Presidential Initiative funds were directed towards the construction of a new athletic field house. “Intercollegiate athletics is an important facet of student life and the campus experience, and we’re pleased to be able to help with a desperately needed new home for Mountain Lion student-athletics,” said CU President Hank Brown.
After projected costs for the field house more than doubled, the university decided that a permanent events center would be a better use of funds amid plans for a major sports arena to be built in less than 10 years. The events center to be completed by January 2010 will seat about 1,200 to 1,400 sporting event fans and have the ability to hold more conferences, camps, and convocation events. The new events center will not however, have an indoor track, weight room, as well as other athletic amenities promised with the field house.
An agreement between the university and the Colorado Springs Christian School nearby lead to the construction of a professional quality soccer and football field at the recently built 4-diamonds sports complex that also consists of three softball fields which are sometimes contracted for use by high school and little league teams. The varsity soccer and softball teams practice and compete at these facilities as well as club and intramural sports.
The varsity cross country, track and field, and golf teams find practice and competition spaces mostly off-campus often at nearby colleges, high schools, or other facilities and locations if required.
A brand new Student Recreation Center was completed in August and September 2007 which houses the Recreation Department overseeing club and intramural sports. The Recreation Center consists of a pool and hot tub, gymnasium, indoor jogging track, bouldering wall, aerobics room, and a cardiovascular and weight lifting floor as well as a small smoothie shop. The Recreation Center was certified as a LEED-Gold building in early 2009 by the U.S. Green Building Council. This was the first LEED-certified building in the campus' history and the first LEED-Gold public building in Southern Colorado. It is believed to be the second recreation center in the U.S. to receive LEED-Gold designation.
In addition to its honors programs, UCCS has chapters of the following honor societies on campus:
Professional fraternities: Phi Alpha Delta (pre-law) and Delta Sigma Pi (business)
The official campus newspaper is The Scribe, since 1976.
The university is home to Writers' Forum, a national literary journal founded in 1974.
The student literary/poetry journal, Riverrun.
URJ-UCCS: Undergraduate Research Journal at UCCS (http://ojs.uccs.edu/index.php/urj)
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