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A Year in Review

NCAA Vote Goes CC’s Way

Proposal 65-1, the amended reform legislation co-sponsored by Colorado College and seven other predominately Division III institutions that grant financial aid to student athletes who compete in Division I programs, passed overwhelmingly at the January 2004 NCAA Convention in Nashville. The vote preserved men’s ice hockey and women’s soccer at the Division I level at CC and the other historic sports programs at Clarkson University, Hartwick College, Johns Hopkins University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rutgers-Newark, St. Lawrence University, and SUNY-Oneonta.

College Receives Grants for Cornerstone Arts, Palmer Hall Renovation

Three foundations announced major grants to the college, one for construction of a new facility and the other for renovation of an historic structure. The Inasmuch Foundation awarded a $4 million grant to help fund the Cornerstone Arts Building, a multi-million dollar arts teaching and performance facility. The Denver-based Boettcher Foundation and the Adolph Coors Foundation each awarded the college $400,000 grants to help fund the renovation of 100-year-old Palmer Hall.

CC Cares: Alumni Lend a Hand in 18 Cities

Alumni, parents, and friends from around the country participated in the sixth annual CC Cares Day on May 1. Eighteen alumni clubs in Albuquerque, Boise, Boston, Boulder, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Hawaii, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. served their communities in a variety of ways. Volunteers planted trees, repaired trails, prepared community gardens, and helped paint murals at schools. Alumni in San Antonio, Kansas City, and Dallas/Fort Worth assisted at local food banks while alumni in Denver spent the day helping to support and supervise the painting of a mural at a downtown elementary school.

Kiplinger’s, Intel, Peace Corps Among Those Recognizing CC

The December 2003 Kiplinger’s business magazine ranked Colorado College 31st on its “100 Best Private College Values” list. The ranking was the culmination of an intensive study of more than 1,300 private colleges and universities, and recognizes those which combine academic excellence with generous aid packages and lower total costs. The college also boasts 22 of its alumni serving as active Peace Corps volunteers, ranking 11th among colleges and universities with fewer than 5,000 undergraduates. Intel Corporation ranked Colorado College 11th among all U.S. colleges and universities for its wireless computing access on campus.

Student One of 50 Nationwide to Win Watson Fellowship

Chris Zink ’04, a liberal arts and sciences major from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., was one of 50 college students in the country to win one of the year’s Watson Fellowships. Zink traveled to Mali and India to pursue his proposal, “Studying the Ancient Language of Nonviolence.” He is the most recent of numerous CC students to receive the fellowship since it was created in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson Sr., founder of IBM Corporation, and his wife Jeannette K. Watson. Other students earning national honors included Ian O’Brien Ferrin-O’Connell, who was one of three American students to take on the three best debaters from Ireland in April.

Applications, New Class Set Records

CC received 18 percent more admissions applications in 2003-04 than the previous year, setting an all-time record for the college, with more than 4,100 applications. The previous record was 3,913 applications in 1997. Applications increased from nearly every major market, including Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, and New England. The resulting Class of 2008 numbered about 585, one of the largest and best in terms of incoming academic achievement. “Colorado College has made a concerted effort in the past year to get the word out about our unique curriculum and the benefits of the one-course-at-a-time Block Plan,” said Mark Hatch, vice president for enrollment management. “Students have continually remarked that they are looking for a college experience that is ‘excitingly different,’ and CC’s innovative structure and dynamic location certainly provide that.”

Faculty Earn National Honors

Ofer Ben-Amots, associate professor of music at Colorado College, won top honors for a new composition at FestiLadino, an international Judeo-Spanish song competition at Israel Festival 2004. Another Ben-Amots composition premiered in a gala concert featuring acclaimed clarinetist David Krakauer at Lincoln Center in New York as part of the international conference and festival Only in America: Jewish Music in a Land of Freedom. Lecturer and Artist in Residence Susan Grace performed for the third time as half of the piano duo Quattro Mani at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City in December 2003. Ruth Van Dyke, assistant professor of anthropology, had two publications during the year: one, “Chaco’s Sacred Geography,” a chapter in a new book on Chaco Canyon; the second, “Memory, Meaning, and Masonry: The Late Bonito Chacoan Landscape” in the July 2004 issue of the journal American Antiquity. Research by Henry Fricke, CC assistant professor of geology, is included in “Origin and Migration of the Alpine Iceman,” a paper published in the October 2003 edition of Science. Fricke was part of a research team that studied the mysterious 5,200-year-old iceman that was found in an Alpine glacier in 1991. Also in October 2003, history Professor Dennis Showalter presented a lecture, “Frederick the Great,” at The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; and David Mason, English professor, read from his poetry at the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival on the National Mall in Washington. Mason was one of 80 writers and artists invited to participate, and one of 13 poets, along with Dana Gioia, new chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, who has been a visiting writer at Colorado College.

CC Report Rocks the Rockies

What happens when one of the most spectacular and fragile regions in the United States is also the fastest-growing area in the nation? Release of the first State of the Rockies Report Card during the conference on campus in May 2004 generated interest in that question across the nation — including stories in the Los Angeles Times, the Denver Post, (Colorado Springs) Gazette, Rocky Mountain News, the Bozeman (Montana) Daily Chronicle, and other local, regional, and national news media. The first State of the Rockies Conference at Colorado College focused on the region, which is growing in population at three times the rate of the nation as a whole — by looking at key issues such as demographic growth and decay, natural resource extraction, tourism and recreation, culture, and environmental conditions. The report and conference were headed up by economics Professor Walt Hecox and Patrick Holmes ’03, program coordinator.

Hails and Farewells: New VPs, AD, Dean Join CC

Richard Storey, longtime CC biology professor and dean, left the college to become chancellor of the University of Montana-Western; history Professor Susan Ashley was named in fall 2004 to succeed him as CC dean, taking office in summer 2005. Don Wilson, vice president for advancement, took a position with the University of Sydney in Australia in fall 2003; Steve Elder, who had been associate vice president for development, accepted the VP position in spring 2004. Joel Nielsen left his position as CC’s athletics director in November 2004 to become athletic director at the University of South Dakota; CC Associate Athletic Director Julie Soriero was later named to succeed him. The college gained two new vice presidents by promotion in fall 2004: Mark Hatch, dean of admission and financial aid, was named vice president for enrollment management, and Randy Stiles, director of information technology services, became vice president for information management.

Students Help Save Lives, Fight Voter Apathy

Eight students and recent graduates spent summer 2004 walking desert trails on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, providing food, water, and medicine to immigrants in danger of physical trauma or death in their quest to illegally enter the United States. They worked with a coalition of church groups, other organizations, and individuals to prevent deaths on the border. The students credit a CC sociology class they took for inspiring them to do the work. Paddle for the Presidency, a group of 16 outdoor types who met at Colorado College, canoed the length of the Mississippi River during summer 2004 to increase political awareness among young adults and get them registered to vote. The non-partisan effort took the CC grads through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri,

Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, where they finished in late August in New Orleans.

Athens 2004: CC Olympic Connections

The CC Olympic tradition continued in Athens with several CC connections. A former CC student, Dede Demet Barry, won a silver medal in the women’s cycling time trial in Athens on Aug. 18, just 24.09 seconds behind the leader on the 14.9-mile course. She finished 16th three days before in the women’s road race. Tara Nott Cunningham ‘94, a gold medalist in weightlifting in Sydney in 2000, retired after finishing 10th in the women’s weightlifting competition. Sports columnists say she went out in style, exemplifying the best in sportsmanship. At least 19 CC athletes have competed in the Olympics so far, and many others have served in other capacities in supporting the games.

Colorado College Graduate Elected U.S. Senator from Colorado

Ken Salazar, a 1977 graduate and former college trustee, became the first CC graduate to serve in the U.S. Senate. Salazar was elected in fall 2004 while serving his second term as the state’s attorney general. Many other CC alumni hold or have held elected office around the nation. Among them, 1979 grad and U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette — who has represented for four terms the district that includes Denver — won re-election Nov. 2, as did Randall Edwards ’83, Oregon’s state treasurer, and Katie Sieben ’99, who is serving her second term in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Joe Simitian ’74, a current California assemblyman, was elected state senator. Other current officeholders include Mark Norris ’77, Tennessee state senate; Marcia Johnson ’63, Denver city councilwoman; Sandra Frum ’72, Northbrook, Ill., village trustee; Richard Skorman ’75, Colorado Springs vice mayor; and John Schiffer ’67, R-Dist. 22, Wyoming state senate.