Colorado College Bulletin
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HOME PAGE features a series of brief articles on recent happenings at Colorado College. This issue includes stories on the Colorado Springs Century Chest, the First-Year Experience Program, a gift from a Denver foundation, CC's cycling club, the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation program, campus construction updates including the Western Ridge and the Cornerstone Art Center, the Greenland Ranch north of Colorado Springs, commencement, and full color prints of The Colorado College inspired by Saul Steinberg's New Yorker magazine cover are on sale.
Flashback to 1901
By BILL HETHCOCK, The GazetteAt the beginning of the 20th century, there were no computers, much less Y2K bugs, to worry about. In fact, only three automobiles rolled through the streets of Colorado Springs.
One hundred years ago, the citizens of Colorado Springs were proud of the young town's progress and determined to see it grow without endangering the beauty that lured them to the Pikes Peak region.
Their thoughts, salutations and photos were put on paper and sealed in a time capsule during a ceremony in 1901. The large, steel-riveted box known as the Colorado Springs Century Chest now stands in Colorado College's Tutt Library.
It is inscribed with the following message: "To the citizens of Colorado Springs of the Twenty First Century. To be opened after midnight A.D. 2000."
A committee is planning a ceremony for Jan. 1, 2001, to open the chest, which contains more than 100 essays and photographs depicting community life a century ago. Some of the letters are written specifically to descendants, so part of the committee's job will be to locate living relatives to attend the ceremony and read the letters. The committee is also trying to put together a similar Century Chest for descendants of today's residents.
A century ago, like today, the residents of Colorado Springs treasured the beauty of Pikes Peak, said Judy Finley ’58, who was inspired by the Century Chest to write the 1998 book, Time Capsule 1900: Colorado Springs a Century Ago.
"People back then had a good appreciation for the mountains and the beauty of the place and the nice climate," she said. "I don't think that has changed."
What has changed, she said, is the population and the size of the city, which grew from 7.5 square miles in 1900 to its current size of 85 square miles.
In 1900, Colorado Springs was a boom town because of gold flowing in from Cripple Creek, Finley said. Concerns about growth abounded, even though the population of Colorado Springs in 1900 was only 21,000.
Order from Chaos: FYE Prepares to Debut
Click here to learn more about the new First-Year Experience Program at Colorado College.
Supporting the Sciences
By BARBARA FERRILLThe Kenneth Kendal King Foundation of Denver has given CC $25,000 toward construction of the Tutt Science Center. This grant is particularly important because it represents the first time the college has received support from this foundation.
In ironing out grant details, college officials learned that King’s brother, C. Donald King ’26, and Eaton Smith ’44, who has served on the foundation’s board, both attended Colorado College.
The college relies on foundation support for all kinds of operations, ranging from special initiatives such as digitizing the art department’s slide collection and buying a mobile environmental science lab to continuous needs like scholarship funds and general operating support.
The Kenneth Kendal King Foundation supports issues related to education, social service, the arts and religious organizations.
Speed Demons
After four years of dormancy, CC’s cycling club is in high gear once again. Up to nine riders competed in races sanctioned by the NCAA-National Collegiate Cycling Association this year, says Mike Ebert ’01, the team organizer who rides, on average, 350 training miles a week.CC fared well in many races, and took gold at this year’s Rocky Mountain Collegiate Final hosted at the Air Force Academy in May.
Alumni wanting to help the team defray costs can contact Ebert.
Teachers and Scholars
By SUZANNE TREGARTEHNColorado College is the first undergraduate liberal arts college to participate in a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation program designed to help school teachers explore new ideas and establish new connections with university professors.
The Teachers as Scholars program, initiated at Harvard in 1996, teams public school districts with local colleges. This year, employees of Colorado Springs districts 20, 11, 12 and 2 were eligible for the free, two-day seminars. Unlike many professional development seminars which often focus on operational issues like assessment or classroom management, the Teachers as Scholars program encourages discussions that focus on academic issues, ranging from anthropology to religion.
“The program is unique,” says Charlotte Mendoza, education professor and program director, “because it allows teachers to explore ideas in a scholarly atmosphere.”
Nine CC faculty led seminars this year, including Brenda Tooley who brought together Austen’s Emma and Shelley’s Frankenstein in a session called, “The Horror, The Horror.”
“It has been 25 years since I was in a group of critical readers and thinkers for the purpose of examining text,” one of the participants wrote on Tooley’s evaluation. “The experience reconnected me with my own joy in reading scholarly journals. I know of no other opportunity like this.”
Other faculty participants were Ron Capen, biology; Nina Belyaeva, political science; Timothy Fuller, political science; Sarah Hautzinger, anthropology; Bob Jacobs, psychology; Mark S. Johnson, history; Tazim Kassam, religion; and Doug Monroy, history.
Peaked Interest
The buildings in the $23 million Western Ridge Housing Development will be temporarily named after six Colorado "fourteeners."More than 200 voted, and mountain peaks over 14,000 feet received a run-away 43 percent of the campuswide vote. The winners: Building A -- Antero, Building B -- Blanca, Building C -- Crestone, Building D -- El Diente, Building E/F -- Elbert, and Building J -- Windom.
The peak names assigned to the buildings are temporary. The college intends to honor individuals by naming campus structures after them. Building H, for example, will likely be named for a long-time supporter of the college, the details of which may be announced later this summer.
Building H will open for the 2000-01 academic year. Antero and Blanca open next spring; Crestone, El Diente, Elbert and Windom in fall 2001.
See more on campus construction
Arts with a View
By KATIE JOHNSTON, The Gazette
On a snowy day in January, Colorado College publicly unveiled its plans for a $24 million arts center, an interdisciplinary facility larger and more complex than any other at the liberal arts college.
The Cornerstone Arts Center, planned for Cascade Avenue between Cache La Poudre and Dale streets, will house two theaters, a gallery complex, classrooms, computer labs and a multitude of performance spaces. Construction on the 69,000- square-foot "arts factory" is planned to begin in 2003.
Renowned New Mexico architect Antoine Predock is designing the two-story center to be an open, permeable structure with numerous views of Pikes Peak and many internal windows. More than 16,000 square feet of glass will be used. People walking through the inside and wandering by on the outside will be able to see theater rehearsals, artwork, music recitals.
"It kind of beckons you to come in," said Tom Lindblade, chair of the drama and dance department and head of the initial Cornerstone discussion group.
"You'll have a feeling of the building as an instrument," said Predock, who described it as a working, "roll-up-your-sleeves" kind of building.
The center is being paid for by the Campaign for Colorado College, an $83 million fund-raising project that began in 1998 and runs until June 2001. The campaign also will fund the new Russell T. Tutt Science Center, a financial aid endowment and several other initiatives. The fund-raiser, the largest in college history, has raised $70 million so far.
The entire project will go through the city planning process this spring.
Ideally, the art, music and theater productions at the center will attract people from the community as well as students, and help forge a tighter connection between the college and the city.Community groups may be able to rent out the facility for conferences and meetings during school breaks, said Donna Arnink, building committee chair and theatrical design professor.
"Our first and foremost commitment is to our students and to fulfill their needs," Lindblade said, "but I think that also given kind of the welcoming nature of this new building ... and its strategic location near downtown, it will by its very nature become a better link to the community."
Dreams of a new arts center began about four years ago, Lindblade said, after a group of students in philosophy, creative writing, film, music and drama put on a collaborative performance. This got professors talking about the need for an interdisciplinary arts education facility.
After coming up with program and curriculum ideas, the physical center began to take shape. A few students attended building committee meetings, and professors talked with student focus groups and fine arts majors to assess their needs. Students also voted on the architect. Their overwhelming choice? Antoine Predock.
Cornerstone will be a place where students of all artistic persuasions can share their talents. Music majors can compose scores alongside students choreographing a dance, which then could be filmed or painted by a visual artist. Labs will overlap specialties. Classrooms will serve several functions, such as a scenery prep shop with a flexible dance floor wired with sound and lighting for a film studio. Predock said it's an interdisciplinary effort like none he has ever seen before.
"Many of these students are extremely talented in one or two specific disciplines and they don't have a playground to test it, and now they have the opportunity to be encouraged to be creative," said Ofer Ben-Amots, music professor and building committee member.
"It's just a fabulous concept," said Colorado College president Kathryn Mohrman. "Most buildings, you talk about the building. This building, we're talking about what's going on inside the building."
Open Space Preserved
The OklahomanThe Oklahoma Publishing Co., owner of the Broadmoor Hotel and the Pikes Peak Railway, has sold the historic 21,000-acre Greenland Ranch in Douglas County, Colo., to a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting the nation’s outdoor heritage.
The ranch -- the largest undeveloped tract of land remaining in the Front Range region of the Rockies -- was sold to The Conservation Fund of Boulder, Colo., and an undisclosed private entity. The group intends to maintain the property as a working ranch, ensuring that it remains untouched by the area’s fast growth.
Greenland Ranch, which has eight miles of frontage on both sides of Interstate 25 between Colorado Springs and Castle Rock, is the oldest operating cattle ranch on the Front Range, dating to the 1880s.
Edith Gaylord Harper ’36, secretary emerita and longtime director of OPUBCO, said she was pleased to see the transaction benefit the state of Colorado.
College Bids Adieu to Class of 2000
"Welcome to the company of educated men and women," CC President Kathryn Mohrman told the more than 570 graduates during commencement Monday, May 22. Click here for more photos from the ceremony. United States Congresswoman Diana DeGette, class of 1979, gave the keynote address -- see a transcript of her speech. Find out who spoke at past commencements. Read senior speaker Andy Vogt's remarks and find out about other outstanding seniors. Doug Fox, professor emeritus of religion, gave the traditional baccalaureate address on May 21 -- read a transcript of Fox's remarks.
Full color prints available
Posters of The Colorado College inspired by Saul Steinberg's New Yorker magazine cover are now on sale.
*18 x 22.5 inches
*Heavy poster stockOrder at $10/print (includes postage and handling)
Colorado College
College Relations - Poster
14 E. Cache la Poudre Street
Colorado Springs, CO 80903Name____________________________
Street_____________________________
City/State_______________________Zip______
Number of posters_______________Amount enclosed $________All proceeds benefit The Campaign for Colorado College
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