The Colorado College Bulletin
Teaching the Southwest
Richard F. Celeste
The Tomato Ladies, They Teach
A House Made of Straw


Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends:


Every morning when I look out the west-facing windows of Stewart House, Pikes Peak greets me with its magnificence. What a stunning backdrop for our campus and for our daily lives here! Richard F. Celeste


This mountain is the salient feature of Colorado College's one-of-a-kind surroundings, but it is only one. Our scenery, vegetation, climate, altitude, unique cultures, scarce water, economy - even our relative isolation as a liberal arts institution - all combine to define CC's character and create unusual opportunities for learning.


During our all-campus strategic "mapping" process this spring, colleagues working to develop initiatives related to a theme of "location" or "sense of place" used a remarkable quotation in their report.


Between the valley of the Mississippi - the Old West - and the Pacific slope lies the New West, a mountain plateau ... upon which rise the Rocky Mountains. What sort of an element will the New West make in the Republic of the future? Without the sharp intellectual training of our colleges, the leaders of society would be shorn of their power. Colorado College is not only upon the very verge of the frontier...but there is no college in the country so near ...


These were the words of Colorado College President E. P. Tenney in 1878. Indeed, CC's position on "the very verge of the frontier" was a distinguishing characteristic at the time of its founding. And although that frontier has long since been peopled, explored, and exploited, its defining power persists for us.


Colorado College is truly a gateway to the Southwest, as this issue of the Bulletin illustrates through many lenses. The cover painting by Melinda Smith '91, Professor Vicki Levine's description of the CC Southwest studies program, excerpts from 2003 graduate Kitren Fischer's senior thesis on the food culture of northern New Mexico, and a story about alumni homes built of straw bales - these are just a few facets of CC's rich southwestern vein.


Not all who come to Colorado College as students or as teachers come for the offerings of the Southwest. But none can leave it unchanged by some aspect of our southwestern location or the ways in which we capitalize on it to enrich the curriculum, field study, community service, outdoor recreation - or simply class time on the quad in the shadow of Pikes Peak.


Best wishes,

Richard F. Celeste