THE
FRONT PAGE Serving Front Range Community College Since 1989
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
NEWS Start Your Engines!
FRCC Student Life welcomed students back with trikes, food, and fun
frontpage@frontrange.edu
Volume 22, Issue 08
Front Range Community College
Celebrates 43 Years
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NEWS Construction Update
Campus construction has been ongoing— find out if it is on schedule or not.
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LIFE Get to Know New Faculty Meet Merle Funk, new full-time History Professor, and find out how he landed his dream job.
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Front Range Community College through the years. Entrance Three before (left) and after (right). Photos by Curtis Halley
By Helen Satchwell On September 8, 2011, Front Range Community College (FRCC) will celebrate its 43rd anniversary in the main C-level hallway. This celebration, organized by Student Life, will begin at 11 a.m. As advertised, the event will provide attendees with free cake. This celebration has been taking place for 42 years, during which FRCC has evolved extensively in its architecture, technology, and academics. Ed Lang spent 43 years working at FRCC as a full-time counselor and as a member of the social science department. “I absolutely love Front Range!” exclaims Lang. “In fact, I still go to campus four to five times a week to workout at the gym there.” In 1968, FRCC was located at East 62nd Avenue and Downing Street in Denver and was the north campus of the threecampus system of Community College of Denver (CCD). CCD’s other campus locations were located to the west in the Red Rocks area and in central Denver. According to Andy Dorsey, current President of FRCC’s Westminster campus, FRCC was the first college established by the State Board. John H. Swenson is considered the college’s first president and served as chief campus executive in 1968. Dorsey, states, “[FRCC] grew so fast that this structure had
to be built,” Dorsey states. The structure Dorsey is referring to is the Westminster campus located on 112th Avenue, which was built in 1977 due to the increasing enrollment of students. It has since had a name change in 1984 to Front Range Community College. The following year, FRCC became an independent college. Dorsey became a part-time faculty member at the former Valmont Boulder campus in 1993 and has seen FRCC transform and evolve into what it is today; he was appointed President of FRCC in 2009. That same year, the Higher Learning Commission granted continued accreditation to FRCC. Dorsey proudly speaks of the “firsts” that FRCC Westminster had when it opened, such as “...being the only solar heated structure in the country when it opened [in 1977].” In addition, FRCC was also a front-runner providing disability access to students before such standards became widespread across institutions. “[FRCC was] a place receptive for students who were hard of hearing, accommodating to Deaf people across Colorado,” Dorsey boasts. “I believe we were the first community college who offered this service.” FRCC was also one of the first colleges in Colorado to offer online courses in 1994, which account for over 20% of the student body.
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