Colorado College
A Unique Intellectual Adventure in the Rocky Mountain West
Right where the short grass prairie meets the foothills of the Rockies, there is a place where, with a certain amount of guts and an open mind, students can study the liberal arts and sciences in the mountain air.
A private, four-year college, Colorado College is located on a 90-acre campus in downtown Colorado Springs near the base of the 14,110-foot Pikes Peak. It's the only college of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region and one of only a handful of its type located in a metropolitan area.
Getting lost in a good book...Learning at CC is kind of like that. Under the school's unique and intensive "Block Plan," students take one course at a time for three and a half weeks. This means smaller classes, with more writing, discussion, and in-depth investigation of one subject at a time.
During a block, students immerse themselves in environmental science or chemistry, Chinese or Spanish, poetry or medieval history, or any of our stimulating courses on campus or around the world. Our students come from many ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. They typically are independent-minded adventurers who love a challenge. At CC, they find the encouragement, opportunities, and inspiration they need to reach their greatest potential.
A full range of the performing arts, special interest clubs and organizations, student publications, and intramural and intercollegiate athletics rounds out the rigorous academic program at CC. The college encourages freedom of expression through an independent student press, as well as student and faculty forums on current issues and programs representing widely ranging viewpoints, often presented by distinguished visitors to the campus.
More About the Block Plan
Teaching and learning are at the heart of all activity. Students never sit in a jam-packed lecture hall. With an enrollment of less than 2,000 and a nine-to-one ratio with faculty, our students get to know accomplished instructors who teach first and foremost - all in seminar-style classes.
They may choose to work on a student/faculty collaborative research project, or create their own independent study. Students learn to venture their own opinions and begin the process of shaping their own direction and destiny.
The student body is composed of men and women from all 50 states and 28 foreign countries. Seventy-one percent of students come from states other than Colorado. More than 19 percent are American ethnic minority; almost three percent are international students. Eighty-five percent live on campus, 84 percent participate in community service, 75 percent play intramural sports, and 80 percent study abroad at some point during their collegiate career.
Speaking of Athletics
Colorado College has a long and proud tradition of intercollegiate athletics and today offers competition in eight varsity sports for men, as well as nine for women. That includes NCAA Division I ice hockey for men and soccer for women. Otherwise, the Tigers compete at the Division III level.
While the hockey team plays and practices at the Colorado Springs World Arena located six miles from campus, all other intercollegiate, intramural, and recreational athletics programs are centered at a sports complex consisting of El Pomar Sports Center, Washburn and Stewart Fields, and Honnen Ice Rink.
El Pomar Sports Center houses the athletics department offices as well as J. Juan Reid Gymnasium, home court for the CC basketball and volleyball teams, and Schlessman Pool. The building also is equipped with an auxiliary gym, climbing wall, racquetball and squash courts, a training room, modern exercise-physiology and biomechanics labs, and the Gerald C. Carle Weight Room and Fitness Center. A 10,000-square-foot all-purpose Astroturf room accommodates indoor track as well as facilities for limited team practice in other sports.
Washburn Field serves as the home stadium for CC's men's lacrosse and track and field teams. A six-lane, quarter-mile, latex track borders the perimeter of the gridiron, lights accommodate night activities, and bleacher seating allows for 2,500 spectators. Adjacent to Washburn lies Stewart Field, home to the men's and women's intercollegiate soccer teams as well as the women's lacrosse squad.
Colorado College believes participation in sports to be an integral part of a well-ordered program of liberal education and, therefore, encourages the widest possible participation in its programs by members of the college community. The college is committed to a philosophy of sport that stresses the value and enjoyment of participation in the physical testing of oneself, and that challenges individuals to develop their physical and mental capacities.
Shaping Tomorrow's Leaders
Three alumni of Colorado College currently hold cabinet positions appointed by President Barack Obama. They are Lori Garver '83, the deputy administrator of NASA; former Colorado Senator Ken Salazar '77, secretary of the interior; and Jane Lubchenco '69, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Garver, a political science and economics major who also received an honorary doctor of laws degree from CC in 2001, served as senior advisor for space at the Avascent Group, a strategy and management consulting firm in Washington, D.C.
Salazar, a political science major who received a doctor of humane letters honorary degree from CC in 1993, also is an honorary member of the college's Board of Trustees.
Lubchenco, a biology major awarded a doctor of humane letters honorary degree in 1994, previously worked as a marine biologist at Oregon State University.
Additional CC-Obama administration connections include three parents: Tom Vilsack P '03, secretary of agriculture; David Axelrod P '09, senior advisor to Obama and married to Susan Landau Axelrod '74; and Christine Varney P '09, U.S. Department of Justice assistant attorney general.
Also among the long list of notable CC alums are William J. Hybl '64, former president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, member of the International Olympic Committee, and nominated delegate to the United Nations General Assembly; Lynne Cheney '63, news commentator and wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney; Tara Nott Cunningham '94, the United States' first Olympic gold medalist in women's weightlifting (2000 Games); Olympic gold medalist Peggy Fleming '70; Olympic cyclist and World Mountain Bike Champion Alison Dunlap '91; William "Bro" Adams '69, Colby College's 19th president and former president of Bucknell University; Neal Baer '78, former executive producer and writer for "ER" and current executive producer for "Law & Order SVU"; Jay Engeln '74, 2000 National High School Principal of the Year; U.S. Congresswoman Diana DeGette '79; Glenna Goodacre '61, a sculptor who designed the image of Sacagawea on the golden U.S. dollar coin; Peter Neupert '78, former Microsoft executive and founder of Drugstore.com; and Marcia McNutt '74, president and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
