Colorado College

History

Colorado College was founded in 1874 on land designated by U.S. Civil War veteran General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and of Colorado Springs. Founder Thomas Nelson Haskell, described it as a coeducational liberal arts college in the tradition of Oberlin College. Like many U.S. colleges and universities that have endured from the 19th century, it now is secular in outlook, though it retains its liberal arts focus.

Cutler Hall, the college's first building, was completed in 1880 and the first degrees were conferred in 1882. The Beta-Omega Chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity was chartered in 1904. William F. Slocum, president from 1888 to 1917, oversaw the initial building of the campus, expanded the library and recruited top scholars in a number of fields. In 1930 Shove Chapel was erected by Mr. John Gray, to meet the religious needs of the students (though Colorado College is not religiously affiliated).

Katharine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful" during her summer teaching position at Colorado College in 1893. The tune has become somewhat of a second school anthem for Colorado College and is commonly sung at commencement and baccalaureate.

Academics

The college offers more than 80 majors, minors, and specialized programs including: Southwest studies, feminist and gender studies, Asian studies, biochemistry, environmental science, neuroscience, Latin American studies, Russian and Eurasian studies, and American cultural studies, as well as an across-the-curriculum writing program. In addition to its undergraduate programs, the college offers a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree. Tutt Library has approximately half a million bound volumes. In 2012, Colorado College yielded a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1.

Block plan

Colorado College follows a unique "block plan" in which students study one subject for three and a half-week "blocks", which advocates say allows for more lab time, for research and study in the field, more intensive learning experiences and fewer distractions. Blocks are only three weeks long during the summer session, during which there are also graduate blocks of differing lengths. In parallel with the students, professors teach only one block at a time. Classes are generally capped at 25 students (32 for two professors) to encourage a more personalized academic experience.

Rankings

In its 2017 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranks Colorado College as tied for 24th-best liberal arts college in the nation and No. 2 among the most innovative national liberal arts colleges. The most innovative schools are those "making the most innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities."

Kiplinger's Personal Finance places Colorado College 22nd in its 2016 ranking of best value liberal arts colleges in the United States.

In 2016, Forbes rated it 57th overall in "America's Top Colleges," which ranked 660 national universities and liberal arts colleges.

CC is considered a "Hidden Ivy."

In 2010, Colorado College was ranked 21st in Newsweek's list of "25 Most Desirable Small Schools," which ranks schools based on selectivity, yield rate, retention rate, and quality of facilities and housing. CC was also ranked 19th on Newsweek's "Most Desirable Urban Schools" list in the same year.

In 2012, Colorado College placed 12th in Niche's "Colleges with the Happiest Students."

Admissions

Colorado College is considered a "most selective school" by U.S. News & World Report. The admissions rate to the college was the ninth lowest for national liberal arts colleges in the U.S. (excluding military academies) in 2016.

For the Class of 2020 (enrolled fall 2016), Colorado College received 7,997 applications and admitted (15.8%), a record low acceptance rate for the school, with 566 enrolling. The median ACT Composite score of accepted students was 31, with median SAT scores for reading and math of 1340 (out of 1600) and 2010 (including writing, out of 2400).

For the Class of 2020, 25% identified themselves as students of color, 10% as international students, and 7% as first-generation students. In its fourth year as a QuestBridge partner, Colorado College welcomed 31 first-year QuestBridge students. Females make up 55% of the enrolled class, while 45% are male, and about 88% of incoming freshmen are from out of state.

Campus

Since the mid-1950s, new facilities include three large residence halls, Worner Campus Center, Tutt Library, Olin Hall of Science and the Barnes Science Center, Honnen Ice Rink, Boettcher Health Center, Schlessman Pool, Armstrong Hall of Humanities, Palmer Hall, El Pomar Sports Center, and Packard Hall of Music and Art. Bemis, Cossitt, Cutler, Montgomery, and Palmer Halls are some of the remaining turn-of-the-century structures on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the William I. Spencer Center. Arthur Hall, once home to the son of President Chester A. Arthur, is another campus building on the historic register.

The face of campus changed again at the beginning of the 21st century with construction of the Western Ridge Housing Complex, which offers apartment-style living for upper-division students and completion of the Russell T. Tutt Science Center. The east campus has been expanded, and is now home to the Greek Quad and several small residence halls known as "theme houses."

Other notable buildings include Tutt Library, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Packard Hall, the music building, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes.

Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center

Colorado College's Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, completed in 2008 and located at the intersection of a performing arts corridor in Colorado Springs, was designed to foster creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration. It is home to the college's film, drama and dance departments and contains a large theater, several smaller performance spaces, a screening room, the I.D.E.A. Space gallery, and classrooms, among other rooms. The building is also LEED certified. Architect Antoine Predock designed the building with input from professors and students.

Athletics

The school's sports teams are nicknamed Tigers, though in 1994 a student referendum to change the name to the Cutthroats (Trout) narrowly failed. Colorado College competes at the NCAA Division III level in all sports except men's hockey, in which it participates in the NCAA Division I National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and women's soccer, where it competes as an NCAA Division I team in the Mountain West Conference. CC dropped its intercollegiate athletic programs in football, softball, and women's water polo following the 2008–09 academic year. The Tigers won the NCAA Division I championship twice (1950, 1957), were runners up three times (1952, 1955, 1996) and have made the NCAA Tournament eighteen times, including eleven times since 1995. In 1996, 1997, and 2005, CC played in the Frozen Four, finishing second in 1996. Fifty-five CC Tigers have been named All-Americans. Hockey Hall of Fame coach Bob Johnson coached the Tigers from 1963 to 1966. Despite the relatively small size of the school, the hockey team is often ranked quite highly nationally, although it has been over 50 years since the Tigers last won an NCAA title. Their current coach is Mike Haviland, who had been head coach of the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League and was an assistant coach for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League.

KRCC radio

Colorado College operates National Public Radio Member Station KRCC-FM. In 1944, KRCC began as a two-room public address system in the basement of Bemis Hall. Professor Woodson "Chief" Tyree, Director of Radio and Drama Department at Colorado College was the founder and inspirational force in the program that one day became KRCC-FM. In 1946, KRCC moved to South Hall (where Packard Hall now stands) on campus where two students, Charles "Bud" Edmonds '51, and Margaret Merle-Smith '51, were instrumental in securing a war surplus FM transmitter. KRCC began over the air broadcasting in April 1951 as the first non-commercial educational FM radio station in the state of Colorado.

KRCC broadcasts through a series of eleven transmitters and translators throughout southern Colorado and a portion of northern New Mexico. KRCC's main transmitter, atop Cheyenne Mountain, broadcasts three separate HD multi-cast channels, including a channel run completely by Colorado College students called the SOCC (Sounds of Colorado College).

Alumni

Colorado College's alumni include a Nobel Prize winner, 14 Rhodes Scholars, 31 Fulbright fellows, and 68 Watson Fellows. CC has also graduated 18 Olympians and 170 professional hockey players, including over 30 current and former NHL players.

Selected notable graduates include:

Faculty

Notable faculty members include: