Colorado College Graduate Elected U.S. Senator from Colorado
Ken
Salazar,
a 1977 graduate and
current college trustee,
has become the first
CC graduate to serve
in the U.S. Senate.
In a tight race with
Pete
Coors, Salazar won the
November 2004 vote to
succeed
Senator
Ben Nighthorse Campbell,
who chose not to run
for a third term. Salazar,
who had been in his
second term as the state's
attorney general, majored
in political science
at CC and earned his
law degree from the
University of Michigan.
See more about the election
in a Denver
Post story.
Read a 2001 profile on Salazar in the college publication, Success: Colorado College Stories. Also see a student journalism class's election guide that featured stories on the Colorado senate race, among many other races and election issues.
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 will serve her second term in the Minnesota House of Representatives (see a CC profile on Sieben). Joe Simitian '74, a current California assemblyman, was elected state senator.
See a story about these more Colorado College alumni in elected public service, a special preview from the winter Bulletin, as well as a student-produced voters' guide in COS online.
Homecoming & Parents Weekend 2004
The college's annual Homecoming & Parents Weekend took place October 7-10 on campus and in the Colorado Springs community, with approximately 90 events for the 2,200 returning alumni and visiting parents. Besides class reunions and athletic events, the weekend featured academic lectures, a bonfire and concert, a 5k race -- open to the community for the first time -- sessions for prospective students, and exhibitions. See photos from the weekend.
On Saturday, CC's historic and beloved Palmer Hall was rededicated and its centennial celebrated. Completed in 1904, the facility has recently undergone an extensive interior renovation. The program honored the past with an historic re-enactment of the first dedication -- including an appearance by its namesake, Colorado Springs founder and CC founding trustee Gen. William Palmer, and other historic dignitaries. Current and past Colorado College professors and benefactors also were recognized. See more on the history of Palmer Hall and a release about the rededication.
See a summary of the weekend and the homepage for Homecoming & Parents Weekend 2004.
Students Help Save Lives on U.S.-Mexico Border
Eight students and recent graduates have spent the summer 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 are working with a coalition of church groups, other organizations, and individuals to prevent deaths on the border. "This experience has brought a raw emotion out of me," Erin Durant, a 2004 graduate, told the Colorado Springs Gazette in a recent story. Some of these people are my age. They could be your brothers or sisters, and they're in need."
The students credit a CC sociology class they took for inspiring them to do the work. As part of "Globalization and Immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border," the class traveled to the border to talk with activists and officials on both sides of the border. The college's Partnership for Civic Engagement provided some funding for the students and alumni for their summer work.
See the stories in the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Weekly, as well as articles in the Denver Post and the Colorado Springs Gazette. Also see the No More Deaths web site. Other news coverage so far has included broadcast pieces on Univision and Fox News.
Grads Fight Election Apathy -- with Paddles
From a story in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times July 3: "A river runs through them. The swing states, that is. 'The mighty Mississippi will take us to them,' says a group of paddlers on their way to stir up voter interest. Paddle for the Presidency, a group of outdoor types who met at Colorado College, are canoeing the length of Old Man River to increase political awareness among young adults and get them registered to vote. 'Young people don't vote because politicians don't listen,' says 23-year-old paddler Patrick Holmes (CC 2003), calling on a cell phone between stretches on the river. 'Politicians don't listen because young people don't vote.' " See the complete story.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. See the group's web site (no longer active) , stories in the Des Moines Register and the Dubuque, Iowa Telegraph Herald, along with mentions in Time magazine and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Watch here for more on the project and its participants.
Athens 2004: CC Olympic Connections
The CC Olympic tradition continued in Athens with several CC connections.
A former CC student, Dede Demet Barry, the top North American finisher in the 2003 World Championship in road biking, won a silver medal in the women's time trial in Athens on Aug. 18, just 24.09 seconds behind the leader on the 14.9-mile course. She had finished 16th three days before in the women's road race. See her Barry's web site for more.
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. See a Detroit News column, a Kansas City Star column, and her U.S.O.C. athlete's bio.
Alison Dunlap '91 had hoped to repeat her 2000 Olympic qualification on the mountain bike, a sport in which she remains one of the world's top competitors. A member of the road bike team in Atlanta's 1996 games as well, she has struggled with injuries in the last year but was still competing for the one U.S. spot -- her hopes were dashed with recent race results at Mont-Ste-Anne. See Alison's web site, and a story in VeloNews. See more about the two Cunningham and Dunlap (pictured here, Tara front left, Alison back left) and their 2000 Olympic experiences.
Also see a list of CC Olympians through history -- 19 athletes so far, and other individuals including William J. Hybl '64, who has served as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, college wellness and intramurals director Chris Starr, who has worked for the U.S. drug testing agency, and three who have served on the Olympic medical staffs: CC head trainer Bruce Kola, hockey team physician Thomas Mahony '67, and hockey trainer Richard Quincy '86. Also online is a story about a recent CC class on the Olympics and a story on the torch passing through Colorado Springs on its way to Utah for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Another world-class weightlifter is a current CC student, Danica Rue, a political science major, set an American record at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, and also won won the first gold medal for an American in the World University Championships. She was also selected as the Best Female Athlete for the event in early July. A junior at Colorado College, Rue lives and trains at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and is likely to compete for a place on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.
A new CC Olympic connection is Daniel Johnson, who joined the college's economics department this year as an assistant professor. Johnson, co-author of a paper scheduled for publication in Social Science Quarterly, "A Tale of Two Seasons: Participation and Medal Counts at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games," argues that the economic, political and sociological situations of countries can be used to predict participation levels and medal outcome. And his predictions this year were quite accurate. See a news story in the Washington Post, and Johnson's web site for more.
At least two alumni have participated in Paralympic Games: Karen Gardner Mohr '84, who was in Alpine skiing at Lillehammer in 1994 and Nagano in 1998, and John Calderhead '83, also in Alpine skiing, at Albertville in 1992.
50 Liberal Arts Colleges Meet on Sustainable Computing
About 90 chief information officers and information technology specialists from more than 50 of the top liberal arts colleges in the country met in June at Colorado College for the annual conference of the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges. The directors, who each oversee IT budgets of an average of $3.9 million a year, focused on the challenges and successes of sustainable computing.
"Sustainability implies that our major activities are ecologically sound, socially just, economically viable and humane, and that they will continue to be for future generations," said Randy Stiles, director of information technology services at Colorado College and host for the conference. "At the most fundamental level, this conference is about wise use, in the long term, of the resources -- funding, staff, and space -- associated with IT infrastructure and services."
Read more about the CLAC conference.
Colorado College Receives Major Grants for Cornerstone Arts, Palmer Hall Renovation
Two foundations have 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 has awarded a $4 million grant to Colorado College to help fund the Cornerstone Arts Building, a multi-million dollar arts teaching and performance facility. See more information about the Inasmuch grant. See a story in the Rocky Mountain News.
(The April 2004 issue of CC's alumni magazine, The Bulletin, features profiles of numerous alumni who have excelled in arts-related careers.)
Colorado College also has been awarded a $400,000 grant from Denver-based Boettcher Foundation to help fund the renovation of 100-year-old Palmer Hall. See more about the Boettcher grant -- and more about the renovation of Palmer.
College Ranks Among Best Wireless Campuses
Intel Corporation ranked Colorado Colleges 11th among all U.S. colleges and universities for its wireless computing access on campus. CC was the highest ranking national liberal arts college in this first survey, released in April 2004.
Intel's "Most Unwired College Campuses" survey ranks the top 100 schools. "The survey reveals a growing number of schools across the country where students have the freedom to wirelessly access the Internet on notebook PCs -- without a traditional wired connection -- and stay connected and informed whether they're in the dorm room, library or outdoors at the campus quad." Colorado Springs ranked 20th among metro areas in a similar survey.
The college completed its wireless network last summer, making virtually all the 90-acre campus accessible to laptops and PDAs with wireless capability. CC alumni and Cisco Corporation employees Rob Adkisson '92 and Gretchen Corbin '93 have taken advantage of Cisco's employee giving program to purchase wireless equipment for the college.
Profs, Students, Alumni Earn National Recognition
Performing artist, Thaddeus Phillips '94, brought his most recent production, El Conquistador, to Colorado in spring 2004, with performances in Denver and Manitou Springs. He takes the show to New York in the spring of 2006. Read more about Phillips in Westword and the Colorado Springs Independent.
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. Ben-Amots' composition, "Deshame Entrar" ("Let Me In"), was awarded first place for music and first place for orchestral arrangement.
CC debate team member Ian O’Brien Ferrin-O’Connell was one of three American students to take on the three best debaters from Ireland in April 2004 -- see a relea
se for more. See an update on that and CC's debate team in the May issue of Access.
Joseph "Jay" Maloney '75 has been named the 2004 Outstanding Fundraising Professional by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The award was presented at the international association's annual conference in Seattle last month. He has been a development professional since he took at job with CC immediately after graduation, later moving on to establish the Penrose-St Frances Health Foundation in Colorado Springs. Since 1999, Maloney has been president of Catholic Health Initiatives Colorado Foundation.
Sheldon Smith '85 set a dance piece for CC's Faculty Dance Concert and then took the piece -- "The Princess Dreams of the Future But Is Not Pleased With The Unexpected Outcome" danced by Casey Avaunt, Amy Salm, and Lane Salter -- to the American College Dance Festival in Utah. His dance has been selected for the National American College Dance Festival in Washington, D.C., this June, a first for CC in the competition, which pits even small colleges against the largest dance departments in the nation.
Joe Simitian, a 1974 graduate and current California assemblyman, has been named to Scientific American's 2003 List of Winners for his work on groundbreaking legislation addressing electronic identity theft. CC senior David Nguyen published an opinion piece in the Sunday (Nov. 16) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he had recently completed an internship. Political science Professor Bob Loevy is quoted in U.S. News's "100 Documents That Shaped America" feature.
See more about other CC people in the news.
Friends Invited to Experience CC's Block Plan
Parents, friends and alumni experienced in early January 2004 the new Half-Block Program, engaging in concentrated learning in small, collaborative groups, tackling an entire course in a short, intense burst of work just as undergrads do. Participants choose one of two compelling courses: The Southwest: Living on Borders, taught by Professor Doug Monroy (History), and The Dalai Lama of Tibet: Philosopher, Statesman, Monk, and What Else? taught by Professor David Gardiner (Religion). (A previously announced offering, The Western Film, had to be cancelled due to staffing issues).