7 May 2019
Tamera Twitty
With the constant flow of student life, courses and assignments and deadlines that blur together, the significant events throughout the year can be easy to miss: here is a condensed recap.
On Sep. 1, UCCS expanded campus space by opening its first downtown location, after partnering with Nor’wood Development Group and the city’s downtown partnership.
The university joined Colorado College and Pikes Peak Community College in the area. The new location on 102 S. Tejon St. is home to degree and certificate programs through the College of Education, a mini-MBA through the College of Business and the significant speaker series.
“UCCS Fuels Success” is the campus’ latest initiative, adopted on Sept. 17 and has since included both on-campus and community wide outreach projects. The campaign was developed through a partnership with the marketing firm, Karsh Hagan. Over winter break, a mural was painted on Cragmor Hall as part of this campaign.
In the spring of last year, Director of the Matrix Center for the Advancement of Social Equity and Inclusion Dena Samuels resigned from her position. Following her resignation, then Dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Peter Braza announced that the track would be reallocated to another department. This act removed a position for the Latino Studies track from the WEST department, leading to a letter writing and protest response from the members of the WEST community to Braza, Chancellor Venkat Reddy and Provost Tom Christensen. The future of the Latino Studies program is still unclear.
Dean Peter Braza stepped down from his position as dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences choosing to remain as a faculty member on Dec. 31. Braza spent more than six years as the dean of UCCS’ biggest college, a position filled by interim dean Robert Welshon from the Philosophy department.
This semester, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences chose Don Rabern to be the new dean. Rabern was an outside hire with a history in aerospace engineering and has worked for Fort Lewis College, the University of Prescott, Montana State and the University of Utah.
Due to complaints about traffic, noise and safety in the Eagle Rock Neighborhood, the city announced the installation of a gate to block non-neighborhood drivers from using the Eagle Rock community as a shortcut to and from the campus, with a student lead protest in response on Oct. 20, 2018. The protest did not result in the removal of the gate, however, the City of Colorado Springs has agreed to pay for one-third of the cost of the new road that connects the central and west campuses.
A spring blizzard called a “bomb cyclone” hit the Colorado Springs area on March 13, trapping students on campus and across town. At the storm’s height, wind speeds reached 96 mph. Classes were cancelled after 12 p.m.