May 11, 2015
50 Year Issue
Guest opinion
Prof. David Nelson
[email protected]
It seems as though time speeds up as you get older. Either that, or there is something messed up in the time-space-continuum (something I keep meaning to talk to the physics department about).
The point is, these 20 years have gone by awfully fast.
There are a lot of people who have been at UCCS longer than me. I’m not sure how they feel about the time-space-continuum, but the following is a little of what I remember about the last twenty years.
When I started to teach here, I believe the only buildings on campus were Main Hall, Cragmor, Dwire, the Science building, the Engineering building and the library (which was half the size it is now).
Main Hall, Cragmor, Dwire, and the Science building have all been completely remodeled inside since then. After the library, there was just a parking lot and fields.
Our TV Studio was in the library building where the back corner of the bookstore is now.
It was very small and not well equipped. I did have a nice old office in Main Hall that had a fireplace that didn’t work. The film and TV classes I taught were in that little studio but the other classes I taught were in classrooms in Main Hall.
The building at that time still had large iron radiators for heat and boilers down in the basement. Every once in a while, in the middle of class, the radiator would start making noises as if someone was hitting it with a hammer.
It was very loud and whatever was happening in class would stop and we’d speculate about there being ghosts in the building.
The nice thing about all of this was that you felt you were helping to build something.
Enrollment was consistently improving and everyone was working to build their programs, while new buildings were going up at the same time.
When the housing village opened and we began to incorporate resident students, you could definitely feel things changing. We had been a commuter campus and now had students from all over the state and even out of state.
When I look at our campus from University Hall to the newly built Lane Center, it’s truly amazing.
It feels great to be part of the faculty, staff, students and administrators who have all helped to build a great university and a special community of people, because that’s what a university really is, a group of people who live, work and learn together.
I’m guessing the next twenty years will be equally amazing. I just hope they don’t go by as fast.