May 11, 2015: 50 Year by The Scribe

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Celebrating Vol. 39, Iss. 28

50 Year Anniversary Edition, May 11, 2015

University of Colorado Colorado Springs

years

o honor the 50 year anniversary of The University of Colorado Colorado Springs, The Scribe compiled articles after speaking with students, alumni, faculty and staff. They shared their memories and moments of what deﬁnes UCCS as the community that it is today. This special 16-page edition of The Scribe takes a look at the history of UCCS through the eyes of those that made it.

News Culture Opinion Sports

Professor stories 2-3

Colorado Springs 6

College grad 13

First coach 15

Campus buildings 4-5

Timely photos 7-8

UCCS impresses 13

Sports infancy 15

The neighborhood 5

Notable alumni 10-11

Looking back 13

Teams, athletes 16

Long-time professors talk about early memories at UCCS

The history and importance of the structures on campus UCCS’ long-time relationship with the Cragmor area

Dive into the relationship between the city and campus

See photos of how the campus has changed through time

Spotlights on some of the most distinguished graduates from UCCS

The impact the campus has made on a Scribe senior Why the school will continue to make history

Long-time professor shares 20 years of memories at UCCS

Original women’s basketball coach recalls experience

How the athletic program developed into maturity A look at the best UCCS teams and athletes

News

May 11 , 2015

Long-time professors look back on campus history

Allen Schoffstall, chemistry and biochemistry professor 47 years The Early Years Allen Schoffstall said UCCS was first called the Colorado Springs-CU Extension. “I think the attitude of people around town was that we were some kind of Boulder thing,” he said. “There was no grand design for this campus. It started as a bootstrap organization and we were an old sanatorium. We had the old buildings, we had dirt parking lots, we had snakes in the building.” Colleges at CU-Boulder established various subcolleges on the UCCS campus. “When I was here for the first five years, I had to go to Boulder once a week to go to departmental meetings,” he said. “Then I would shop at Boulder because that’s where the stockroom was. We did not have a stockroom and so I bought chemical supplies, whatever else I needed, and brought them in my vehicle.” When UCCS did create a stockroom, it was in the old kitchen of the sanatorium. “Our stockroom, which was very small, it was in the butcher shop. They actually carried the butcher block out of the back door and part of it landed on my toe. I had a black toenail for about five weeks, six weeks,” Schoffstall said. In 1974, UCCS was permitted to award degrees. “My wife got a bachelor’s in psychology, she’s a University of Colorado-Boulder graduate,” said Schoffstall. “She never took a class at Boulder.” “People started here and they had to complete their work, some of them had to transfer.” Campus offices were

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for the development of the campus.”

Scotland the Brave Schoffstall used to go up on the roof of Main Hall with an English professor. “It was a lovely place. We would just go up there for lunch,” he said. The professor, whom Schoffstall said might’ve been Scottish or of Scottish descent, mentioned to Schoffstall that he played the bagpipes. “So there was a day, it was a Saturday or a Friday where nothing was going on and we went up there and he had these bagpipes that he brought so he played a bagpipe song up there on the roof,” Schoffstall said. “He was pretty good. He would play the popular song, the one you always play on bagpipes.” The Search for an Academic Leader When the campus decided to get an academic leader, Schoffstall was assigned along with another professor to lobby the Regents. “We won by one vote,” Schoffstall said. Then came the struggle to find an academic leader. Chuck Hinkle was the first academic leader, the vice provost. “Chuck did a really good job. He was the first effective vice provost we had.” Then the school was allowed to have a vice chancellor. A man named Walker that was hired for the job changed his mind, so Lawrence Silverman became the vice chancellor. Silverman had been on the committee to find a vice chancellor. “He had gotten to kind of like us and he was charmed by the campus. And so he went back to Fred Thieme (president of CU) and requested that he be allowed to be our vice chancellor. So Thieme agreed, we agreed, and Dr. Silverman became the vice chancellor.” “He was very popular and he did lots of good things

In the middle of class, he stopped whatever he or they were talking about, said ‘Is nobody going to point out the fact that so-and-so is sitting there stark-naked this morning? And of course, the answer he already knew: heck no, nobody’s going to point that out. —Kenneth Pellow

Kenneth Pellow, English professor 46 years The Library with the Books in the Bathtub Before South Hall became the place for the rat labs, it was used as a library. South Hall, which was originally the nurse’s quarters when the campus was a sanatorium, was equipped with unplugged commodes, bathtubs and washbowls. “We didn’t have nearly enough shelf space in that building, so the books would be stacked in the bathtubs,” Pellow said. “It’s one of the things that anybody who’s been here that long remembers about – ‘Ah, yes, South Hall, the library with the books in the bathtub.” Pellow said the bathtubs, which had long since dried up, made good storage places until the books could be catalogued and the school could build more shelves. “If you came in looking for a book and the librarian was pretty sure, ‘Yes, we have that, it’s not catalogued yet,’ by then the search began. ‘You take that bathroom, I’ll take this one, and we’ll see if it’s in there somewhere.’” Following an accreditation visit that complained about not having a decent library, Dwire Hall was built as a solution. The first floor of Dwire housed a library and a theatre and the second floor had science labs. The Naked Girl’s Experiment An anthropologist who was teaching sociology classes decided to do an experiment. The professor had been working on how some things are so taboo that no one will call attention to them when they happen.

“He wanted to bring up that point in a class and so he talked a young woman student in the class into coming to class without a stitch of clothing,” Pellow said. The student had asked Pellow if she could use his office as a changing room and he agreed. The experiment went exactly the way the anthropologist thought it would. “In the middle of class, he stopped whatever he or they were talking about, said ‘Is nobody going to point out the fact that so-and-so is sitting here, stark-naked this morning?’ And of course, the answer he already knew: heck no, nobody’s going to point that out.” Pellow said the girl told him that everyone looked in her direction as she entered and then quickly turned their heads. “And so everybody spent the hour, some of them blushing and snickering to one another, but nobody looking in her direction,” he said. “The attention of the class had never been so thoroughly focused on the instructor for the whole semester as it was that day.”

then no longer used. Cream of Elephant Soup There used to be an old water tower that stood behind where Dwire Hall is now. “It had long since ceased to be in use by the city to hold any water. It was, as far as anybody knew, empty,” Pellow said. At one point, art students decided the water tower needed to be decorated. The students painted the water tower to look like a large can of Campbell’s soup and labeled it “Cream of Elephant Soup.” Schoffstall’s daughter noticed the students painting it. “She said, ‘Daddy, there’s somebody painting the water tower.’ And it made a national newspaper, I think it made papers all over the country,” Schoffstall said. “It became one of the most famous landmarks that we had on campus,” Pellow said. “When you talked about where you went to school or where you taught up at CU and Cragmor, somebody in town would say, ‘Oh, by the Soup Can, is that where you go to school?’” The Soup Can, which was used by people for target practice, was later torn down after a chancellor decided it was too much of a liability. “It was to the regret of many people. We really sort of liked our one really stand-out landmark,” Pellow said. “I didn’t like it [being torn down.] I liked the Soup Can,” Schoffstall said. courtesy | uccs communique

nooh alrashid | the scribe

To commemorate the school’s 50th anniversary, The Scribe asked long-term and retired professors about the early days of UCCS.

located in Main Hall and Cragmor Hall. Senior faculty had the Cragmor Hall offices, which were considered more deluxe. “Cragmor Hall was somewhat more modern because it was kind of like a motel. Each room had its own bathroom, bathtub and they didn’t take those out before the campus got started,” Schoffstall said. “Some people had offices complete with bathtubs in them.”

nooh alrashid | the scribe

awefler@uccs.edu

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April Wefler

The Duplicating Room The Duplicating Room, in use when the campus used mimeograph and Spirit Ditto machines to make copies, had a doorway hung within a wall, two walls on either side and no fourth wall. “What constituted the fourth wall was earth and rock,” Pellow said. “Some poor secretary wandered in there early in the morning … and as soon as she flipped on the light, there was a large rattlesnake going up in the middle of the room.” The secretary fled and shortly after, the room had a fourth wall built into it and was

Thomas Napierkowski, English professor 43 years When Thomas Napierkowski first came to UCCS, the road to campus was dirt. The cafeteria consisted of three or four vending machines on the second floor of Main Hall. There weren’t any athletic teams, fraternities or sororities.

News officer. “He was very good and we didn’t need any more. The biggest police challenge we had one time was when we had a commencement on campus, in which there was a streaker who ran kind of in front of the stage and off into the Bluffs. Our police officer chased him away,” Napierkowski said. Schoffstall said the streaker was then tied to a telephone pole. Before UCCS had athletic teams, students, faculty and staff played in the city leagues. About 16 or 17 teammates were on the soccer team. “We were not great soccer players, but enjoyed the game,” Napierkowski said. The team played a group from Fort Carson, “which didn’t bode well because these guys would know how to play soccer.” Napierkowski went to Boulder that day for a meeting and called a colleague when he returned. He was told that the team lost 11-1. “My colleague said, ‘I always thought Fort Carson was an American army fort. No one on that Fort Carson team spoke English.’ They were all speaking Spanish and Slavic languages. These were immigrants who had joined the

army and had grown up playing soccer and were really good and they crushed us.” When UCCS did establish athletic teams, it needed to find a mascot. “At one point, we considered making the mascot for UCCS a consumptive buffalo, a buffalo that coughed,” Napierkowski said. “CU Buffaloes up in Boulder and we inherited a tuberculosis sanatorium, why not a consumptive buffalo?”

courtesy | uccs

“What brought people down that dirt road was the desire to get an education,” Napierkowski said. Many students were nontraditional, 40 to 60 years old. “It was not at all unusual for many of [the professors] to be among the youngest people in the class,” he said. Parking wasn’t an issue. “It didn’t become a problem until we started to grow so very significantly. We were surrounded by dirt lots. The biggest problems were snowstorms and rainstorms when things got very muddy and kind of ugly,” he said. “You could just drive up Cragmor Road from Nevada … and Cragmor Road just came up right past campus and ended out here in a cow pasture. So it was no big deal to park,” Schoffstall said. He said that parking was initially free and that people weren’t happy when the campus decided to start charging five dollars for parking. “I think everybody was upset that they were gonna charge anything. They decided to start charging for maintenance of the dirt road,” Schoffstall said. There was one police

May 11 , 2015

Joan Ray Retired, English professor emerita 35.5 years At age 27, Joan Ray interviewed at UCCS fresh from getting her doctorate at

Brown University. Ray, who was born and raised in New York City, was in for a surprise. “I was quite shocked to see the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs had a dirt road in front of it. I thought, ‘what the heck am I getting into here?’” “I went to Brown for my master’s and Ph.D., a very well-established school with beautiful buildings, beautiful lawns, sidewalks to walk on.” She said the professors, including Kenneth Pellow and Thomas Napierkowski, were all kind to her and liked the presentation she did on Shakespeare criticism. “When I walked in to my first semester, which was English 1020, I was the youngest person in the program. I had a man in his 80s in my class. When I walked in, they couldn’t believe I was the professor for the class.” Ray liked her students. “I’ve had some wonderful students. My best students would be best students at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cornell, Brown,” she said. “It was heartening to me to see women who raised families and soldiers who have come back to school as veterans. Even in my Jane Austen class,

some of my best students in that class over the years have been veteran men.” Ray said there was a good sense of community. “Whenever any faculty member in the English department had a family illness or someone who’s ill and can’t teach, we all pitch in and suddenly become experts and teach the classes for that person.” “When my husband was ill, suddenly people who hadn’t read British literature in years were teaching my classes.” Ray chaired current Chancellor Pamela ShockleyZalabak’s promotion committee to full professor. “She moved up, up, up and she really built that communication department from nothing,” Ray said. “Now communication is one of the biggest departments.” Ray, former president of the Jane Austen Society of North America, is now on the board of trustees of Chawton House Library for the Study of Early Women Writers in Hampshire, England. She advises the library on collection and travels all over the world speaking about Jane Austen and her novels, as well as Austen’s literary predecessors and successors.

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News

May 11 , 2015

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A look at the history of UCCS buildings April Wefler

awefler@uccs.edu

Colorado’s desire to attract Hewlett-Packard to Colorado Springs helped create UCCS. According to the 2007 Kraemer Family Library Dwire Hall Exhibit, HP co-founder David Packard wanted a University of Colorado campus in Colorado Springs for the continued development of HP. Cragmor Estate, formerly a tuberculosis sanatorium, was given to the University of Colorado by Cragmor Sanatorium managing director, George Dwire, in June 1964. The estate became the Colorado Springs Extension Center and was not considered a CU school until a 1972 amendment to the Colorado State Constitution. Dwire told Governor John Love that he wanted the Cragmor Estate to remain public property instead of becoming a housing development. A patient of Cragmor Sanatorium for an estimated 20 years, Dwire became secretary and treasurer of the Cragmor Foundation after its reorganization in 1936. After the 1870s, east coast TB patients were drawn to the west through slogans such as “Go West and Breathe Again!” Sanatorium brochures proclaimed luxurious places of rest, but wooden shacks were often the reality. Edwin Solly of London, a close friend of General William Jackson Palmer, “envisioned a luxurious ‘Sun Palace,’ similar to the spas of Europe.” Solly planned, promoted and worked for 30 years to raise funds for the sanatorium, which became an area of 110 acres, 400 feet above town and nestled in the bluff. Colorado advertised its climate cure and people flocked to the state. In 1962, Cragmor started to decline and the last of its tuberculosis patients left. The state didn’t have any interest in the building, so Dwire decided to give it to CU. Cragmor’s 82.5 acres, valued at $1.5 million, was given to the university for a dollar per year. In 1965, when the university opened, there were three buildings on campus: Cragmor Hall, Main Hall and South Hall.

megan lunsford | The Scribe

Cragmor Hall Dubbed “Crapmore” because of the abundance of toilets and flushing heard through thin walls, Cragmor was an under-furbished building with poor lighting, poor carpeting and no heating and cooling system. According to Douglas R. McKay’s “UCCS – The First 25 Years,” some students would use the beds on the deserted upper floors of Cragmor, formerly called Manor Hall, for “sleeping and other activities.” According to a 2004

Communique article, the university planned for Cragmor to be renovated with Main Hall, but withdrawn state funds halted the Cragmor renovation. After $3.5 million, mostly from private donations, the new Cragmor Hall opened in January 2004. In fall 2012, the Visual and Performing Arts department remembered the building’s history as a sanatorium with a production of a multimedia hyperopera called “The Sun Palace,” which featured student actors and members of community.

megan lunsford | The Scribe

Main Hall Main Hall used to be the tuberculosis clinic. It hosted patients that hoped that the clean, fresh air of Colorado Springs would cure their condition. The state of the building itself, though, was less than optimal when it was acquired by CU. According to McKay, Main Halls’ “hallways were dark and filthy … its rooms a haven for wasps, birds,

courtesy | uccs archives

South Hall Although campus legend tells that South Hall burned down, long-time English professor Kenneth Pellow said that isn’t exactly true. “It really only burned a little bit. It burned enough, there was enough structural damage to it that fixing it would have taken so much work that we wouldn’t have been able to retain the grandfather clause,” said Pellow. To bring South Hall up to modern code would’ve been too expensive and the building was abandoned. South Hall used to be library and nurse’s dormitory during the sanatorium days. It was later used for the psychology Columbine Hall Columbine Hall was built in 1997 due to a need for classroom space and has never been renovated. Campus Services Building The Campus Services building was needed as the campus

department’s rat labs. “[The rats] had left behind aromatic memories; the building stunk to high heaven. And it was falling apart,” Pellow said. Prior to the fire, there was a meeting to discuss what to do about South Hall. “One of the deans very facetiously offered the suggestion that he knew some guys that he could make a phone call to who could come out, take care of that building for us,” he said. “It wasn’t about a month or two after that, the darn thing burned, and I’m pretty sure that dean got lots of phone calls from his fellow deans, saying, ‘you surely didn’t call those guys you know, did you?’”

expanded, according to Mary Rupp, archives librarian. It was created in 1996. El Pomar Center In 1965, a campus library was nonexistent. According to McKay, the library consisted of tattered novels from the sanatorium and books from professors’

bats, and rats.” The cost to renovate Main Hall was more than the university was willing to pay. In 1976, fire code violations led to renovations of the doors, corridors and stairways. The campus initially planned to demolish the building in 1982, but the cost was too high. Main Hall was renovated in April 2002, at a final cost of $9 million.

megan lunsford | The Scribe

Dwire Hall Planning for the first major campus structure began in 1967. The building, named Dwire Hall in honor of George Dwire, was created to house labs, classrooms, an auditorium and a library. The original proposal meant to tear down structures remaining from the sanatorium, creating an entirely new campus, but the plans were halted. Designed by Lamar Kelsey and Associates and constructed by H.W. Houston Company, construction for Dwire began in August 1970. During Christmas break of 1971, the library moved into Dwire.

personal libraries. The psychology department built up its own library by the early 1970s. 10,000 volumes were contributed to the department from students and faculty. Construction for a $3.7 million LibraryClassroom Building began in 1975. The building was 73,000

Dwire was meant to be functional, not beautiful. It opened in January 1972 at a final cost of $1,330,900. By 1982, a layer of clay, called montmorillonite, was found under the foundation of Dwire Hall. It began to cause structural problems, which led to a break in the sewer lines and a wall plaster explosion in a classroom. Repairs were made from 1985-91. In 1990, under Chancellor Dwayne Nusum, the Joint Budget Committee approved $500,000 to renovate Dwire. In 1997, a plan was proposed to do a full interior remodel, but it wasn’t until 2006 that renovations began. The new Dwire Hall was completed in 2007.

square feet, with faculty offices, nine classrooms and an AV/ TV studio. When it was remodeled in 2001, the Library Building became El Pomar Center. The remodel included the driveway under the library. The entire back half of the current library used to be the Library Building.

University Center The UC was built in 1975 and consisted of a small cafeteria seating 200, a lounge for more than 180, a bookstore, an entertainment area, student organization offices, two conference rooms and a pub. The building was first envisioned at a

News student Joint Board meeting in November 1970 and was dedicated in April 1977. The first UC expansion was in 1988 to include a 500-seat gymnasium, what is now Berger Hall. The UC was considered “the living room of campus,” according to McKay. The UC was expanded in 2001. The area the bookstore is in was the original entrance to library. Engineering Building The Engineering Building had several delays. It was dedicated in October 1985 at a cost of $9.2 million. The building consisted of research facilities, labs, five tiered classrooms, 40 faculty offices, a 4,400 square foot microelectronics class and 10 clean rooms. Summit Village Construction of Summit Village happened in two phases, the first in 1996. The housing initially consisted of seven residential halls, among them Monarch, Keystone, Breckenridge and

Vail. The Lodge was built along with Summit Village. In 2013, Copper and Eldora were added to bring the total to nine residential halls.

Building, Osborne Center was renamed in honor of its largest donors, Ed and Mary Osborne, according to a Communique article. The building opened in 2009.

University Hall

Recreation Center

University Hall, which was originally the home of Compassion International, was purchased by the university in 2003 and remodeled for use. UHall was not part of the Cragmor Estate, but rather was Cragwood property. Beth-El and Theatreworks moved into the building in 2003. The departments of mechanical and aerospace engineering, network information and space security center and the Lynn Institute, which also moved into UHall, have since been broken up into different colleges.

The original 54,000 square foot Rec Center was finished in 2007. The building is home to amenities such as a pool, indoor track, basketball courts and exercise room and equipment. A $16.3 million expansion, currently in progress and expected to be completed during the fall 2015 semester, will add over 47,000 square feet to the building.

Osborne Center for Science & Engineering Originally named the Science & Engineering

May 11 , 2015

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megan lunsford | The Scribe

Centennial Hall Plans for the Science Building, what is now Centennial Hall, began in November 1977. The building was intended for

the chemistry, biology, psychology and foreign language departments. The building opened in September 1980. It was later renovated with the new name, Centennial Hall, in 2010.

Alpine Parking Garage and Field The $23 million Alpine Parking Garage and Field opened in fall 2014 after delays. The building has over 1,200 parking spots as well as an athletic turf field on the top of the garage.

megan lunsford | The Scribe

Academic Office Building The AOB opened in 2014 at a total cost of $16 million and has 110 faculty offices.

The construction of this building alleviated some of the overcrowding in the faculty offices on the first floor of Columbine.

UCCS, Cragmoor neighborhood have grown together Evan Musick emusick@uccs.edu

Across Austin Bluffs Parkway lies UCCS’ quiet colleague, the Cragmoor neighborhood. Cragmoor existed as a small county community prior to 1969. But in the court case Adams v. City of Colorado Springs, some members desired to be annexed by the city. On Dec. 23, 1969, city council granted their wish. The Cragmoor area is filled with residents who have lived there 20-plus years, and in some cases, members have lived in the community prior to its annexation. Qwen Martin has lived in her brick façade house since March 1963 and recalls the history of UCCS and the surrounding area. The original function of Main Hall was a tuberculosis sanatorium. The building’s purpose has changed since the university was founded in 1965 and is now used as an administrative building. Prior to the Great Depression, wealthy patients moved to Colorado Springs to receive treatment from the center.

“They were rich people, and they came out here for treatment. And some of them stayed,” said Martin. At the time Martin and her late husband moved into their home, UCCS was no longer a sanatorium, but a nursing home. The Cragmoor area was also different. “It was just gravel out there, no paved streets or anything,” she said. In order to receive paved streets, curbs and sidewalks the county said homeowners had to pay for half of the project. Most of the neighborhood agreed to pay for the upgrade, except for one. “The Lutheran Minister lived there alone, and he didn’t want to pay for any of those so half the street was paved, half of it was gravel,” Martin said. Once Colorado Springs’ City Council annexed the Cragmoor community, things changed. “It changed the rules and regulations so much that everything from the sidewalk, including the street, belonged to the city, and we had no control over it, yet we had paid for the up keep and stuff,” Martin said. “But

you had to operate under their rules.” “Finally, the city came through and paved the whole street. And that took care of a lot of problems.” Other neighbors have their own recollections of the Cragmoor area and the university. Edy Kline has been acquainted with the neighborhood since the first years of UCCS, and attended the university when her parents lived in the Cragmoor area. UCCS looked quite different when her folks purchased the house in 1968. “It didn’t have any signs up there or anything. It had the original building, and on the hill to the right, if you’re looking at the campus, it had a whole bunch of old houses and a few buildings. And then the ROTC was still up on the hill,” Kline said. “All those buildings were condemned, those old houses and stuff, and they still held classes in them,” she said. Her parents objected to the idea of the property becoming a university campus. “My dad didn’t like the building, and remember how many years ago this was, didn’t like the building and

turning it into the school because there was some ‘if’ over whether they were really going to use it as a campus or not,” Kline said. “He didn’t like it at all, the first thing out of his mouth was ‘where in the hell do they think they’re going to park?’” Kline said. She also recalled the original food service the university provided. “When there was only that main building, and they used the old dining hall as the cafeteria, they put vending machines along one side. And I lived on the cheese dogs that were in there when I was up there, because they were fast and really cheap. But, you know how it is when you’re running from class to class.” Kline believed that there was a general sense of disappointment among faculty and students at that time. “The instructors didn’t

seem to want to be there, we didn’t want to be there,” she said. But the water tower behind campus on the bluff was a hot spot. “All the kids through high school would go up there and make out. They thought that nobody knew they were up there,” she said. “Occasionally, when I was up there with my friends, the cop would come through, but as long as everyone was sitting up in the car, the cops didn’t bother you. But they would roust out the ones that made the windows all fogged up.”

eat out that appealed to her and her friends. There was also a small, plain building that was a club near Fort Carson that opened its doors every once in a while to students for a night of sober entertainment, Kline said. Skiing and rock climbing were still the key outdoor activities. “Everybody went skiing in the winter, and climb rocks in Cheyenne Canyon in the summer and spring to stay in shape for skiing, and that was it. There really wasn’t a lot to do,” she said. After her years at the Kline recalled what university, Kline moved teenagers did around the out in 1971 and returned area for fun. to her parents’ house in “There was just 1999. Now, she tends nothing in the springs. to her dog and three pet Every kid I knew ran to rabbits. Denver for any excuse. Martin commented on Just, concerts or you her long life and how the know, dinner out,” Kline neighborhood has grown. said. “There’s something Giuseppe’s Pizza very important to learn, was the only place to too. Because, if you live to be my age, to the When there was only that main building, and golden years as I they used the old dining hall as the cafeteria, call them, it’s not a piece of cake, and it’s they put vending machines along one side. very difficult, because And I lived on the cheese dogs that were it changes your life in there when I was up there, because they completely,” Kline said. were fast and really cheap. But, you know “You may get old, how it is when you’re running from class to but if you try to keep a class. young heart, that’s all – Edy Kline that matters.”

Culture

May 11 , 2015

Colorado Springs culture influenced by UCCS as school developed Rachel Librach rlibrach@uccs.edu

50 years ago, UCCS was nothing more than a twinkle in a developer’s eye. Not only has the size of the campus changed but also the people and culture of Colorado Springs. Randy Case Randy Case, a 1983 graduate, is proud to have three generations who all attended and graduated from UCCS. In 1967, his mother was the first member of the family to start at UCCS. “She was studying for her master’s degree in education. My mother was a working woman as well as student at UCCS, and finished her degree in 1972,” Case said. His other relatives who attended the school obtained business or economic degrees, which were the more popular fields of study at the time. Case said business and engineering firms were attracted to the school and moved to Colorado Springs. This gave students the opportunity to not only attend college and study for their major, but find work down the street that would help them advance their educational and working career. “My favorite professor in my public speaking class previously worked at [HewlettPackard] and came to UCCS to teach classes,” he said. “The school attracted some of the top professors in their field to come and teach which was encouraging to many students since they knew their teachers had direct connections with the subjects they taught.” Case worked as a firefighter in the day and commuted to classes at night. “This is the working person’s campus. In other words, the class schedule works around yours, making this educational system incredibly flexible for each individual’s needs,” he said. He also discussed the increase in clubs and organizations on campus and

what effect this variety has had on students. “The clubs back then were more structured to develop skills and strengths within your major,” Case said. “Today, the variety of clubs encourages creativity and a healthy escape for students who want to be a part of something productive yet separate from their studies.” This is the working person’s campus. In other words, the class schedule works around yours, making this educational system incredibly flexible for each individual’s needs. – Randy Case He expanded on the cultural impact UCCS has made over the years. “Back when I was in school, women were just beginning to move into the work force and education. UCCS was highly encouraging of women students as were the businesses associated with the school; this gave women the chance to pursue higher education.” The impact of adding dorms to the campus was also significant. “Now with the addition of on-campus living, students from all over the world can attend UCCS and not have to worry about housing or meal plans. There has definitely been an increase in international students and people who attend college with a stronger devotion to their studies,” Case said. Mary Ellen McNally Mary Ellen McNally, a former member of the District 11 Board of Education and the Colorado Springs City Council, is involved in several non-profit organizations. She moved to Colorado Springs in 1964, one year before UCCS began. McNally recognized the true value of the school and the impact it has on the community. “The classes are streamlining education to help get you to your goal or degree

in a timely fashion,” she said. “The flexibility of its hours and classes per semester help people, especially those in the military, stay on track with their majors.” McNally said the school has made a tremendous positive impact on students and the community surrounding it and will only continue to improve. “The university has added dorms on campus which greatly increases the college experience that so many people today value when choosing a school,” she said. “There’s no denying that this campus has grown dramatically in the past few years,” McNally said. “The larger this college becomes, There’s no denying that this campus has grown dramatically in the past few years. The larger this college becomes, the more businesses and job opportunities are brought to this community. Students see that UCCS is a modern campus providing leadership, growth and opportunities. – Mary Ellen McNally the more businesses and job opportunities are brought to this community. Students see that UCCS is a modern campus providing leadership, growth and opportunities.” She believes that as the campus and the variety of majors grow, students will gain an increased sense of potential and innovation. “The [Bachelor of Innovation] program, that is so unique to UCCS, is very progressive and has the students looking to the future. The kind of early and hands-on experience this school offers students will unlock doors for them in their careers and their ability to innovate.” Pamela Shockley-Zalabak The chancellor has witnessed the growing

influence the university has had on the community. Shockley-Zalabak started working at UCCS as a professor teaching just one lecture course. “I fell in love with the students and with what the campus was trying to do, and I subsequently went on to get my Ph.D. and became the first person hired to form the communication department,” Shockley-Zalabak said. After receiving her Ph.D., Shockley researched and taught for many years to become the vice chancellor of Student Success. In 2001, the chancellor and members of the leadership team at the time resigned. ShockleyZalabak became interim chancellor that year and then chancellor in 2002. “This was all during a very turbulent time; 9/11 just occurred, we had vacancies from retirements, the chancellor resigning and going to another position, and the budget impact,” she said. During the economic upheaval that followed the attacks, UCCS lost millions of dollars. Shockley-Zalabak’s husband also passed away during that time. “It was an almost surreal set of experiences,” she said. “But people pulled together on the campus and worked very, very hard. I think we became stronger as a result of a very trying situation.” In response to declining enrollments, Shockley-Zalabak and her team started the first recruitment program at UCCS. “Before, we had sort of created a ‘field of dreams’ mentality; if you build it they will come,” she said. They started to visit high schools on college days, work with counselors and created a high school counselors advisory group. “It was really a shock to people in high schools when we started showing up and saying ‘We would like your students to consider coming to UCCS,’” Shockley-Zalabak said. “It was exciting to see that just an

awareness of what we had to offer would bring a remarkable number of new students.” With the influx of new students, UCCS started to see an increase in the number of international students and the resulting effects of the high caliber of education being offered. Shockley-Zalabak said having more international students creates a rich experience for all. According to ShockleyZalabak, the university has had a $450 million impact on the community this year. She said that one in 50 jobs in El Paso County are “related to the university in one way or another.” “We impact employment because we are building buildings on campus, we have about 1,450 employees in faculty and staff and another 1,400 student jobs,” she said. “We also provide excellent employees to the community once students graduate, and our students are employed while going to school here. We have very much developed the employment ecosystem of the community.” Shockley-Zalabak believes that the core culture of UCCS has continued to be the same. “I think this focusing on undergraduate students was very much the culture when I came here and I think that remains,” she said. “This caring about student’s success was definitely part of the culture then and now. We have had a culture that is more inclusive of not just diverse populations but inclusive in the ways of viewing the world.” Shockley-Zalabak said she is proud to be a part of such a hardworking and rewarding school environment, and is especially excited to see what the future holds. “I think we are in a positive place, our students are doing exceptionally well and I am proud of that because, for the most part, they are very hard working and they care about their own futures, and I think that’s exciting and it’s exciting to be a part of that.”

Check out scribe.uccs.edu uccs .com our website!

Culture

May 11 , 2015

Then

he Scribe found old photos of campus and replicated them in their current state. Turn the page to see the same locations as they are now.

1. UCCS welcome sign 2. The University Center 3. Library periodicals 4. Engineering Building 5. The Lower Plaza 6. Campus parking 7. Library mural

4 7 5 6

Photos courtesy | uccs archives

Culture

May 11 , 2015

Now

1. UCCS welcome sign 2. The University Center 3. Library periodicals 4. Engineering Building 5. The Lower Plaza 6. Campus parking 7. Library mural

he Scribe took photos of campus as it currently is. Turn the page to see the same locations as they once were.

4 7 5 6

Photos By megan lunsford | the scribe

Culture

May 11 , 2015

Recent significant events at UCCS highlight student involvement

courtesy | uccs office of student activities

3OH!3, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Randi Zuckerberg and LeVar Burton have all visited UCCS for significant events.

Kyle Guthrie kguthri2@uccs.edu

UCCS has hosted its fair share of important and exciting events over the years. Stephen Cucchiara, assistant director of the Office of Student Activities, discussed some of the most well-known events on campus. The first large scale concert on campus was in 2010. 3OH!3, a band native

to Denver, performed. “It really set the tone for future events, and it was our first really large scale culture event,” Cucchiara said. Other concerts that OSA and UCCS Radio have hosted include performances from bands Flobots, Air Dubai, Outasight and American Idol contestant Elliot Yamin. The university has also brought important and influential people to campus for speeches. The first presenter of the

Significant Speaker Series was in 2011 and featured Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s. UCCS brought Bill Nye the Science Guy in 2012; Neil deGrasse Tyson in 2013; Randi Zuckerberg in 2014; and LeVar Burton for 2015. “In terms of significant speaker events, [LeVar Burton] had the largest student attendance of any,” Cucchiara said. “Over 50 percent of the folks

who attended were UCCS students.” UCCS is also a prominent component of the annual Colorado Springs Festival of Lights Parade. Former grand marshals include Chancellor Pamela Shockley-Zalabak and first ever UCCS graduate, Arnold Taylor. This year, the UCCS men’s basketball team advanced to the NCAA Division II Championship, broke their previous record for wins and won their

first RMAC Tournament championship in program history with strong student support. It was an event that Cucchiara said “highlights a lot of what we have accomplished.” “That was significant because we didn’t host the championship game. We had to travel, but we beat one of the top seeds in the conference and had such a large student following going to those games.”

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Culture

May 11 , 2015

Notable Alumni

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Eli Bremer: Olympic modern pentathlete, successful entrepreneur Rachel Librach rlibrach@uccs.edu

Eli Bremer, a United States Air Force Academy graduate, went on to earn his MBA at UCCS in 2004. Originally, Bremer worked for the Air Force for eight years in contract management and helped develop a satellite and communications system. When the military started to downsize, he decided to make the transition to private business. His wife was already going back to school for her MBA and convinced Bremer that it would be wise for him to do the same.

“I really didn’t know what to expect going into it, but once I got into the programs at UCCS I truly enjoyed the real world experience I was gaining,” he said. “I learned a lot and it gave me the business foundation I needed to pursue my career.” Bremer competed as a modern pentathlete in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. A modern pentathlon features events in fencing, 200-meter freestyle swimming, show jumping, pistol shooting and a 3,200-meter cross country run. In 2008, he was also one of the regional finalists for

the White House Fellows Program. “I enjoy being involved with my work and over the years I have become really good at time management,” he said. “I find that the more work I have to occupy my time, the more productive and efficient I can be.” Bremer took night classes to complete his MBA while training for the Olympics. “I found that my classes provided a mental escape from the stress and rigorous training,” he said. Bremer is a large part of Socon Health, a software company, and is in the process of buying out another business in hopes of

courtesy | elibremer.com

settling its financial debts and creating a stronger management system. “I see much potential in

this company’s product and I want to help it grow twoto-five fold in the next two years,” Bremer said.

Brandon Del Grosso: People, coffee and culture Evan Musick emusick@uccs.edu

Brandon Del Grosso combined his passion for coffee and history and turned it into a business. Del Grosso, who graduated in 2004 with bachelor’s degree in history, owns Switchback Coffee Roasters, one of Colorado Spring’s premier coffee businesses. “History has been a passion of mine, people and cultures,” he said. Specifically, he’s interested in people’s values and “what makes them tick.” To Del Grosso, coffee has a

evan musick | the scribe

large part to do with the way people live their lives. Del Grosso said his dream

started while he was attending ministry school in Portland, Ore., which had a thriving

coffee scene. “Why is there not that kind of scene here?” he asked. Del Grosso said his business began in a small shop in a garage with family, friends and people on Facebook. But, people had to drive down an alley to find them. Two years later, the shop was moved to a location in Old Colorado City with a front facing store and sign. For the past year and a half, Del Grosso has located his operation just east of downtown Colorado Springs. “It’s a lot of friggin’ work,” he said.

“But it’s so fun, because of what we create as a community space, the interactions we get to have with people,” he said. Del Grosso’s coffee supplies major shops such as The Wild Goose, Peak Place Coffeehouse and Fifty Fifty Coffee house, which Del Grosso also owns. Del Grosso offered advice for current students. “It’s OK to walk out with a degree, still not knowing what you’re going to do,” he said. “Have a dream, start pursuing it. But it may look very different than what you actually thought it was going to look like,” Del Grosso said.

Brandon Fibbs: Foundation for film built at UCCS Audrey Jensen ajensen4@uccs.edu

Sometimes taking the extra time to graduate pays off. Brandon Fibbs, 2004 alumnus English major and film study minor, has had experience as a research coordinator for the television series “Cosmos,” producing and working on shows such as “Guiding Alaska” and “Man vs. the Universe.” Fibbs started at UCCS in 2001 with a film class. “In that class I discovered that I more than liked [film], I loved it. I never considered doing anything with it, because it felt like an irresponsible thing to go into, that I would be poor the rest of my life.” UCCS professor of German and film studies Robert von

Dassanowsky encouraged and mentored Fibbs in the start of his film career as a student. Despite the uncertainty Fibbs had about pursuing a film career, Dassanowsky told him to go for it because he could tell it was his passion. After graduating, Fibbs worked at Motion Pixel Lab in Colorado Springs to learn how to shoot and edit film. From there, he went to New York University for graduate school and started a blog with movie reviews. In his second year at NYU, former editor for The Gazette’s entertainment section Warren Epstein contacted Fibbs, asking him to write movie reviews for the Colorado Springs paper. After five years of evaluating films, Fibbs decided he wanted to be the person making them. “I decided I was tired of

writing about other people’s movies. I wanted them to write about mine,” he said. Without knowing where he would work, Fibbs packed his bags and moved to Los Angeles. But he had a contact that helped. Fibbs had previously met astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who said he would help Fibbs find a job. As a result, Fibbs was given a tour of the set for the 2014 science documentary miniseries, “Cosmos,” received an interview from the producer and became the research coordinator. While “Cosmos” was shut down for script work, Fibbs was asked to work at Morgan Freeman’s company Relevations Entertainment to develop a mini-series on the science channel. He attributes UCCS for the

courtesy | imdb.com

foundation of everything he knows about cinema studies, even after attending NYU for a master’s in film. “Even when it was small you

had professors that took their jobs seriously,” Fibbs said. “I don’t think I learned anything at NYU that I didn’t learn at UCCS.”

Culture

May 11 , 2015

| 11

Joe Griebel: Professor partnership leads to a sleeping hat Alexander Nedd anedd@uccs.edu

Finding employment after graduation is daunting, so if a professor offers you a job within your field of study it might be wise to accept it. Joe Griebel, a 2011 and 2013 UCCS alumnus, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and attained his master’s degree. Griebel now works for Mind Rocket

Design. Impressed by his work and skill ethic, Griebel was given the chance to work with Michael Larson, an aerospace and mechanical engineering professor at UCCS, and has helped develop technological gear. The fruit of their partnership was featured on FOX 21 News. Griebel and Larson’s product is called the “Sleep Shepherd.” The device is a sleeping hat that monitors

your brain waves and uses a biofeedback looping sound to put you to sleep, according to FOX 21 News. Early success has dictated Griebel’s goals for the near future. “Our next project is a head massager,” Griebel said. “[You] strap it on, press go and you don’t need hands. It’s called the Vibe Band.” Outside of creating technology, Griebel enjoys outdoor activities such as

courtesy | tissuefusion

hiking, snowboarding and kayaking. Griebel offered tips for students who might follow in his footsteps. “Take advantage of every opportunity you get,” he said. “Never underestimate opportunities, keep as many positive relationships in your life as possible.” “You never know when your grad school advisor will help you start a company and offer you a job.”

John Herrington: Communication, analytical thinking needed in aviation and NASA careers Audrey Jensen ajensen4@uccs.edu

The first enrolled member of a Native American tribe to go to space went to UCCS. Former NASA astronaut and naval aviator John B. Herrington, whose ethnicity is traced back to the Chickasaw tribe in Oklahama, graduated from UCCS in 1983 with a degree in math. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Idaho. He was selected in 1996 to work at the Johnson Space Center for two years and again in 2002 as the chief engineer

for safety on the 16th NASA mission, STS-113 Endeavour. Before working for NASA, Herrington also worked as a naval aviator and is now a travelling public speaker. He said taking a biology course at UCCS gave him the ability to be analytical and look at the world in a way to solve problems. “That’s something I didn’t think I had early on. I developed it from the education I earned there,” he said. “In my military career that is what I was called to do. Perform under pressure, perform systems and understand

the mechanical attributes.” During his first year at UCCS in 1976, Herrington said he was more interested in rock climbing than studying and worked full-time at the Sunbird Mountain Grill and Tavern. A rock climber that Herrington worked for eventually convinced him to go back to school. When NASA looked at Herrington’s school transcripts, they asked why he did not do well his first year in college and how he improved upon returning. “I had a motivation and desire to learn that I didn’t

have early on,” he said. “Just because you don’t do well at the beginning doesn’t mean you can’t do well at the end. You have to believe you have the ability in you to do that.” “Getting a degree to me was the license to really learn. It teaches the fundamentals to get out in the real world and put it in practice.” Herrington attended CUBoulder for a short time but expressed that he preferred UCCS’ atmosphere. “I had a lot of good friends that felt like family and we studied together. It was a small environment. I enjoyed having

friends and a common desire to study.” Herrington remains friends with some of the people he met at UCCS and believes it is important that students value the friendships they have. “One of the things I found in my career is that you can be a really smart person, but if you can’t work well with others there’s not a lot of jobs you can go into you can perform well at,” he said. “Learn how to communicate and use your time at UCCS to develop those skills because that’s what employers want from you.”

Becky Medved: Alumna utilized UCCS to increase business potential Rachel Librach rlibrach@uccs.edu

Becky Medved is an accomplished businesswoman who is responsible for several of her own startup companies and is involved in nonprofit organizations such as the Myron Stratton Home and the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Medved and her husband, Jon, received the 2015 UCCS Business Lifetime Entrepreneurship Award on May 8 for their 30 years of working toward revolutionizing the business world and aiding non-profit organizations. Becky Medved earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado

Boulder in 1974. She came to UCCS to complete here MBA in 1987. She explained her early interest in business and what drew her to UCCS. “I wanted to have more business knowledge and background if I was to succeed in the workplace,” Medved said. “The company I worked for supported people who wanted to go back to school and advance their education, so I thought what a great opportunity it was to go back and earn my MBA.” Medved appreciated the classes UCCS offered since she had to take classes at night to attain her degree. “UCCS was catering to needs of community, and that

courtesy | becky medved

was an important aspect for me getting my degree.” Taking what she learned and immediately applying it to her workplace and the connections she made are two

things that Medved enjoyed as a student. “The connections I made in school continue to today in terms of being valuable to my life and my career. Through

those connections I found my two business partners simply as a result of being involved at UCCS.” It was important to Medved to stay connected and involved with the school as much as possible. She was a part of the fundraising effort for the remodel of Dwire. In order to form a successful business, Medved knows that it’s not always important to have everyone’s approval. “You have to be transparent and open with what you want to do. Respect for others plays a huge role as well. I think my management style is open and collaborative in decision making, but ultimately, I do make the final decision.”

Faith Wilson: The high school student who graduated from college Eleanor Skelton eskelton@uccs.edu

Faith Wilson earned her high school diploma and her bachelor’s degree from UCCS on the same day. Wilson, who was technically still in high school, graduated from UCCS in spring 2011 with a degree in English. “I think a lot more [people] are doing it now, I felt pretty special at the time,” Wilson said. “One [other] girl

graduated from CTU in the early college program, and she was 19.” Her parents homeschooled her until she lost interest in ninth grade. She then applied to Colorado Springs Early Colleges to further her education. “By the time I enrolled in Colorado Springs Early Colleges, I was in my sophomore year and I had exhausted my Pikes Peak credit, so they just said go on

over to UCCS,” she said. Because Wilson was under 18 for most of her undergraduate career, she had to reapply to the school every semester. “Since you were technically not a student, you were bottom of the barrel for picking classes because you had no degree standing [due to being] high school concurrent,” she said. “I made it work every semester, but when you’re in that situation, they don’t know

what to do with you.” Wilson accumulated 168 undergraduate credits. “My last semester, I couldn’t graduate until I had degree standing, and I couldn’t get degree standing until I had a high school diploma,” she said. Wilson transferred to another early college program to take an online social science class which finished her high school requirements. She finished the course in three

days. “Technically, because of all my college credits, I was valedictorian of that school I’ve never been to,” she said. “And their graduation was the same day as UCCS graduation.” Since graduating, Wilson has considered graduate school, but is satisfied in working from home as a content editor for a company in Denver and modeling for an alternative fashion group in Colorado Springs.

eDitOriAl

May 11 , 2015

UCCS is 50: A thank you to all who helped build it Scribe Staff

scribe@uccs.edu

Dreams have an impenetrable power to live on, despite the obstacles that are thrown in front of them. UCCS is a perfect example. This university has faced challenges throughout the 50 years. Everything from finding the proper name to ensuring students have welcoming places to learn has been tackled through our history. Critically, as with anything that lasts 50 years, UCCS has seen that universal law of life: change. In Colorado, the saying is “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” At UCCS, the saying could be “If you come back five years later, do you recognize the campus?” UCCS has exploded in recent

years, both in enrollment and physical footprint. Often, areas so familiar to students in the past are unrecognizable. Even for current students, the new buildings and students have come in at an almost inconceivable rate. But the dream has continued, despite the massive amounts of change. So it is with great respect, and a bit of amazement, that we thank all those who helped turn UCCS into what it is today. To all the administrators who saw a university when they looked at an old sanatorium, thank you. To the students who dared to be the first (and there have been a lot of firsts, that continue to today), thank you. To the faculty who saw the bluff on the outer reaches of Colorado Springs as a nexus of higher learning, thank you.

Overall, to all of those who strive and have striven to make this a better place on a daily basis, thank you. UCCS would not be where it is, as one of the fastest growing universities in the country, without your efforts and commitment. With all this change in our past and present, it is tough to find a definitive history of all that has happened here. It’s tough to talk about history when you are still busy making it. Therefore, The Scribe owes a big thank you to our sources, especially campus archives librarian Mary Rupp, in helping us unearth our stories. UCCS has done a lot in 50 years, and we continue to make great strides as a campus. To all those who have made this a great 50 years, thank you. Here’s to the future, whatever it may hold. We have a feeling it’ll be pretty great.

A lot has changed at The Scribe, too

Jonathan Toman Editor-in-Chief

Samantha Morley Managing Editor

Taylor Hargis Copy Editor

Eleanor Skelton News Editor

Audrey Jensen Culture Editor

Alexander Nedd Opinion Editor

Alexander Nedd Life on the Bluffs Editor

Brandon Applehans Sports Editor

Megan Lunsford Photo Editor

Davy Mellado Layout Editor

April Weﬂer Media Manager

Reporters

DeKeveion Glaspie Kyle Guthrie Rachel Librach Evan Musick April Wefler

Photographers Nooh Alrashid Reilly Flood

Business Manager Jennifer Curry

Ad Representative Hussain Albahrani

Advisor

Laura Eurich

Letters to the Editor: scribe@uccs.edu

On campus: UC 106 Phone: (719) 255-3658 www.uccsscribe.com

facebook.com/uccsthescribe courtesy | uccs archives

1966: The first page of the first edition of what was then known as ‘The Cragmor.’ The articles were typed on a typewriter and the entire paper was four pages. Today, The Scribe is created entirely on computer and consists of 12 pages.

@uccsscribe

| 12

Opinion

May 11 , 2015

| 13

I am graduating from UCCS, UCCS will continue as a pillar to Colorado Springs and it’s breaking my heart

Samantha Morley smorley2@uccs.edu

I came to UCCS to get a bachelor’s degree in English. I wasn’t keen on making friends. I didn’t want to become attached to my teachers. I just wanted to get my degree and move on with my life. That was my plan, but it didn’t work out quite as I had anticipated. My mother convinced me to transfer to UCCS. I previously studied at Pikes Peak Community College, but needed to transfer in order to continue my English degree. I never would have imagined coming to UCCS, let alone enjoying it. Since transferring here in 2012, I have consumed a plethora of information and fostered meaningful relationships that will have a strong impact on the rest of my life. Some of the classes were incredibly boring. But quite a few were spectacular and allowed me to open up in ways I never could before.

Teachers actually let me speak against them if it was productive. They let me present my own perspective on the course materials and even appreciated my sass. I had confidence that I could openly express my ideas and not worry about repercussions from my teachers or classmates. That is the true beauty of this school. UCCS let me be me. Then there’s The Scribe. That is the true beauty of this school. UCCS let me be me. I started out as a reporter that wasn’t expecting too much. I had no idea how to write journalistically. I didn’t even know The Scribe was a reputable publication. But I learned that the students who run the newspaper every week are more than just people who are looking for an on-andoff job that pays. They’re actually students who care about what is being printed. We are the only newspaper that covers UCCS news and events. Because of that, we’ve printed some amazing stories and endured difficult trials as a publication. I’ve been under the leadership and guidance of three Editors-in-Chiefs: Sara Horton, Jesse Byrnes

and Jonathan Toman. Together we have shifted from an everyother-week newspaper to a weekly; we campaigned to keep the newspaper in print; and we’ve increased the overall presence and importance of the publication throughout campus. We have grown. All of us, together. Graduation week is a bittersweet experience. I will be getting a degree that I’ve worked very diligently for, but will be leaving behind an institution that I treat with great respect and love. I adore both UCCS and The Scribe. Both have provided me with experiences I could never have had otherwise. I didn’t expect to become so attached to the people at The Scribe, the students or the faculty and staff. I have so fully embedded myself into the campus community that it is a struggle to snap the roots I have worked so hard to establish. I’m going to miss the environment, the politics and the people of this school more than any place I have left before. I am honored and proud to be part of the graduating class of such a monumental achievement, 50 years of UCCS. I hope that with this, my last article for The Scribe, my contribution to the university will be both useful and remembered. Happy 50th Anniversary, UCCS.

Alexander Nedd anedd@uccs.edu

It’s rare to witness a campus’ growing success, let alone be a part of its legacy as it continues to build itself into one of the top universities in the nation. But that’s exactly what students at UCCS are experiencing today. 50 years is a long time. For many of us, it’s twice our age. Historical events such as the height of the Civil Rights movement and our first spacewalk were radical signs of change and progress in our nation in 1965. It also marked the first class of graduates to walk from UCCS. I can only imagine what they felt. When I first arrived at UCCS, I didn’t know what to expect. I had few friends, and wasn’t happy that my choice of major, journalism, wasn’t offered. I desperately wanted to move away from my parents. But immaturity and lack of

funds eventually placed me on the path toward UCCS, where I have been since 2011. Since then, I have befriended a number of peers, joined several clubs and attended school dances. The campus has provided me a job, allowed me to network with professors and provided the opportunities that have led to three internships. All of this has been accomplished without a journalism major. But that’s what makes UCCS great. I’m learning things outside my field with the chance to still become properly prepared for a job after graduation. And now more than ever, students need to be diversified in their learning instead of focusing on one narrow field of study. UCCS has the ability to adapt to growing demands, and even though we might complain about the parking, the ability for a university to continue to meet and exceed present and future goals only enhances its footprint on the future, as well as those of its graduates. The initiative taken by UCCS shows it puts its students first, from advances in green technology to planning ahead for future business and resident students. The construction on campus can be almost unbearable. But it

provides a visual of the growing changes coming to UCCS. The time to be at UCCS is now. So many success stories from Colorado Springs begin with a common denominator, a degree from UCCS. A number of my professors and mentors have taught me valuable lessons that show how to get jobs right here at home. For an undergrad student, that is music to my ears. Let’s not forget the chance to be a part of history. For those who are graduating, congratulations. Not only is it a personal achievement, the feat marks the great job UCCS and the community are doing in providing students with an excellent well-rounded education, an act that will only benefit society as the campus continues to thrive. The university is small enough to engage with others around campus yet large enough to accommodate a growing number of people who choose to study here. When I first began, enrollment was under 10,000. That number has grown by almost 2,000, enough to add a second parking garage and more dorms to the campus. This is what makes our university great, and what will continue to make UCCS a factor for the next 50 years.

Reminiscing about my 20 years at UCCS The nice thing about all of this was that you felt you were helping to build something.

Guest opinion Prof. David Nelson scribe@uccs.edu

It seems as though time speeds up as you get older. Either that, or there is something messed up in the time-spacecontinuum (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 timespace-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.

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Things I love about UCCS

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Campus Chatter DeKeveion Glaspie, dglaspie@uccs.edu

Where do you see UCCS in the next 50 years and how do you believe the university will affect your future? Kayla Gronseth, junior, communication “I see UCCS getting stronger, lots of improvement to the school that will better the student’s experience. The university will affect my future life by me getting a degree [and] benefitting my future knowledge.” Carole Huber, professor, geography and environmental studies “I see the school getting a lot bigger and a growth in students in classrooms. Whether it will be good or bad I don’t know, but I worry for the student-faculty relationships. However, there is a push for online classes.” Anthony Cordova, staff, director of MOSAIC “No doubt UCCS will grow and become a great quality institution. It has a great foundation and dedicated faculty and staff. I see UCCS in 50 years as still a part of my life.”

First 50 yrs at UCCS

1966

Arnold Taylor becomes the ﬁrst student to graduate. Taylor was the grand marshal of the annual Colorado Springs Festival of Lights Parade in December 2014.

1988

First Ph.D. degrees are awarded.

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1992

1970

First scholarship awarded: $500 from the school of business.

The annual opervating budget for campus reaches $23.8 million.

1. BECAUSE IT’S UCCS THAT’S WHY 2. The Rec Center 3. clyde 4. YikYak of UCCS 5. The basketball teams 6. Small class sizes (for the most part) 7. One-on-one time with professors 8. Free laundry 9. Clyde’s 10. Diversity of clubs 11. The distance it is from chipotle 12. Jimmy John’s at basketball games 13. School spirit 14. Mountain Lion Confessions 15. The engineering building 16. Asian Pacific Islander Student Union events 17. The Random Acts of Kindness club 18. The feeling you get when you find the perfect parking spot 19. Free shirts at EvERy event 20. Kimberly Holcomb’s Peep Show class (Take It) 21. Alpine Field 22. Graduate school 23. Easy access to the city bus 24. Fun and interesting people

1972

First campus police force is made available. Six ofﬁcers patrolled the campus.

2005

The ﬁrst parking garage opens on campus.

2010

25. Amazing student plays 26. Puppies on campus during dead week 27. diversity of language classes 28. Military supporting environment 29. Galleries of contemporary Art exhibits 30. Yearly concerts 31. coffee shops 32. UCCS One Card 33. The beautiful snow 34. UCCS Radio 35. The Undie Run 36. Taco Tuesday at The Lodge 37. Academic advisors 38. Excursions 39. beautiful people 40. Dances 41. Greek Week 42. Quidditch 43. Great Resident Assistants 44. Awesome Halloween parties 45. The randomness in the dorms 46. Funny class debates that are completely off topic 47. Student talent 48. Tailgate parties 49. Friendly neighbors (even if they are loud) 50. Spectacular views

1987

Men’s basketball is added to UCCS as a varsity sport. The team had their best season in 2014-15, winning the RMAC Tournament.

Clyde’s pub opens.

2015

UCCS Celebrates 50 Years.

Sports

May 11 , 2015

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First women’s basketball coach reflects on time, changes at UCCS Jonathan Toman jtoman@uccs.edu

Celia Slater didn’t have a team when she became the first head coach of the UCCS women’s basketball team in August 1989. So she turned to the student body for help. “I basically just set up a table in the student union, put a sign over it and said ‘women’s basketball players wanted,’” Slater said. “That’s how I recruited my first team.” Slater, who coached UCCS for six seasons from 1989-95, is the most successful and longest tenured coach in school history. In the 1992-93 season, UCCS took second in the Colorado Athletic Conference with an 18-9 record. She is a member of the 2012 inaugural UCCS Athletics Hall of Fame. A friend who graduated from the Air Force Academy told Slater about the opening at UCCS, right in the middle of a state she had traveled to as a kid. “I always loved Colorado and I was looking for a way to move out there.” She was struck by the campus, surrounding views and the vibe created by the people that interviewed her. She got the job, and “had a lot to do to get ready for the season.” Step one was to find a team, which included tabling and asking who had played in high school. “It was kind of interesting,

courtesy | uccs comminique

Celia Slater was the first women’s basketball coach at UCCS.

coming in at the end of August and not having a team,” she said. “I had to get creative to recruit them.” That first season, 1989-90, her team finished 3-20. Slater said despite the record, her first season was a positive experience. “We had quite an interesting cast of characters and it was just a really wonderful group that played extremely hard and gave it their best,” she said. “I was really fortunate with the group that I got because they made it a very pleasant season.” Slater saw continuous improvement, to go along with an increased ability to compete.

“It was probably one of my more rewarding seasons, actually, ever coaching,” she said. “They played beyond their ability level as a unit, they started to come together and click.” “We had a really scrappy team.” Slater came in at a time when UCCS Athletics was in its infancy, a job she described as “a little daunting.” But there were two sides of the athletics coin. “I think people were generally really excited about adding athletics and yet there was a real sense of realism around it because there wasn’t a whole lot of funding at the time.”

Fee money to support athletic programs was approved by a supportive student body. “I felt like the support for it started to grow organically, there’s more sports on campus the more [students] come to watch.” Slater sees the addition of athletic programs as a turning point in UCCS history. “It was kind of exciting, it was a real shift in the atmosphere at UCCS,” she said. “Going from that commuter feel to what it is today, it was really fun to be at the beginning of that.” Changes, in all facets of UCCS, have come since her time coaching, including improved offices and facilities, the addition of dorms to campus to help capture a more traditional feel and a more solid athletic department, she said. “I think the biggest thing that’s changed is that there is just a really overall commitment from the top down,” she said. “It’s good to see [athletics is] in good hands.” Slater explained that after six seasons at the helm, she was burnt out. “I was working really hard to build that program and I kept thinking we were going to get more funding, and the funding just didn’t show up.” After her time at UCCS, Slater pursued an opportunity in New York to become an agent for professional women’s basketball players. She returned to coaching at

Lynn University afterward. In 2011, she cofounded the Alliance of Women Coaches, a membership organization for women coaches of all sports. She then decided to branch out on her own and found True North Sports in 2014, where she launched a year-long assistant coach immersion program for both men and women who coach women. UCCS athletic director Steve Kirkham will be on a faculty panel and women’s basketball assistant coach Shannon Rousseau will attend the program. “I think the majority of my career after coaching has been dedicated to coaching coaches,” she said. “Primarily supporting women in coaching, because we’re losing women in coaching.” As for her time at UCCS, Slater highlighted the season the team finished second in the conference, 1992-93, as a high moment. “That was a really fun year, to beat some teams that had really throttled us at the beginning of the program,” she said. “We wound up building a really nice following.” Slater said UCCS was a great place to start her career as a young coach, adding she might have stayed longer had she known what she does now. “Some of my most fond memories of coaching were at UCCS,” Slater said. “I really enjoyed my experience there.”

From humble beginnings: The early years of UCCS athletics Jonathan Toman jtoman@uccs.edu

The first news release about athletics at UCCS concerned a powderpuff game. On Dec. 12, 1966, a team from the Colorado Springs Center of the University of Colorado faced off against a team from Squadron 19 of the Air Force Academy. The teams tied 28-28. Club sports got the ball rolling to bring an athletic department to UCCS. A men’s soccer club team was formed in fall 1983, after intramural teams had ventured into Colorado Springs to look for tougher opponents than just on campus. The chancellor at the time, Jack Sherman, then appointed the Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Committee in spring 1984. The first athletic director of UCCS was a work-study student named Gary Fleming.

During the 1984-85 academic year, when Fleming was hired, student government allocated some of its fee money in support of athletics. The largest source of funding in 1984-85 was from campus vending machine revenues. Club sports that year included coed golf, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s basketball and coed judo. The regents approved the first fee specifically for athletics in the summer of 1985. Then, the first varsity intercollegiate sports at UCCS, men’s soccer and volleyball, were approved for competition in the 1986-87 school year. The school joined the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics to compete. “With NAIA membership, we will be working with NAIA members in the Rocky Mountain Region for future

scheduling in a number of sports,” Fleming said in a July 9, 1986 news release. “It will help us with our club sport scheduling and get our foot in the door for future varsity sports.” “This means a step forward for intercollegiate athletics at UCCS.” A separate release from 1985-86 explained the reasoning for adding an athletics program. “Its chief purpose is to add to the quality of campus life and provide a vehicle for our students who are interested in participating in a competitive sports program.” “Funds and facilities, although modest, are adequate and no money generally available for academic programs will be diverted to the sports program.” Men’s basketball remained a club sport until 1987-88. An essay by former dean of students Ron Wisner in the book “UCCS – The First 25 Years” by Douglas McKay

explained some of their troubles. “They had to beg and borrow for practice and playing time at a variety of gymnasiums around the city, using seven different ‘home courts’ during the course of the season,” Wisner said. “The team’s first uniforms were borrowed from CUBoulder, but they had to be ‘taken in’ considerably to fit our down-sized athletes.” The first gymnasium on campus was completed in fall 1988, with the home opener on Nov. 16. The gym, known

as the “Gold Pit,” was part of the University Center expansion and is now Berger Hall. In 1989-90, the university was part of the founding of the now-defunct Colorado Athletic Conference. The school joined the Division II level of the NCAA as part of this process. Now, UCCS supports 12 athletic programs and is part of the RMAC, an organization the school joined in 1996 as an associate member. UCCS became a full member of the RMAC in 1997.

Current Sports at UCCS and the school years they started varsity competition 1986-87: Men’s Soccer, Volleyball 1987-88: Men’s Basketball 1989-90: Men’s Golf, Women’s Basketball, Softball 1996-97: Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Cross Country 1998-99: Men’s Track & Field, Women’s Track & Field 2008-09: Women’s Soccer 2013-14: Women’s Golf

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The best: A look at four exceptional UCCS athletes brandon Applehans bappleha@uccs.edu

Talented athletes in the RMAC can come along and change the way people look at Division II athletics. Four athletes come to mind for UCCS. Crystal Krebs Crystal Fish, formerly Crystal Krebs, is one of the best softball players in UCCS history. The catcher broke records, was the first two-time softball AllAmerican and was elected to the UCCS Athletic Hall of Fame in the inaugural class. She is the first softball player to have her jersey number, 22, retired. In two seasons for the Mountain Lions (2004-05), Fish hit 44 homeruns, including 25 in 48 games in 2005. She finished with a .490 batting average and 129 RBIs. “Homeruns just came,” she said. “If I tried to hit a homerun, I would usually pop-up or strike

out, but when I just tried to make contact, hit the ball hard and get a hit for my team, the homeruns would come.” “I feel truly blessed to be so recognized by my coach, school and conference for a game I just loved to play.” Fish is a teacher at LewisPalmer High School in Colorado Springs. Nikki Kinzer Another star came into play a few years after Fish graduated. Nikki Kinzer, the first volleyball All-American at UCCS, was a middle blocker who transferred from CU-Boulder and played from 2010-12. She was voted a Daktronics All-South Central Region member and to the All-RMAC First Team. “I feel like I was at UCCS when the school and the athletics program was really at its turning point,” said Kinzer. “So to be so successful when I was really allowed me to feel like I contributed to the school.”

the accolades she received were both humbling and honoring. “It’s a pretty incredible feeling,” said Kirchoff. “The RMAC Player of the Year and All-American [accolades] would never have been possible without my teammates.” “My freshman and sophomore years I never thought I would have ever broke the record for scoring,” she said. “I’m so lucky to have had this experience at UCCS and so blessed to have spent all four years at this school.” Kirchoff will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communication this spring. Derrick White Derrick White emerged as the go-to guy for the UCCS men’s basketball team. White (2012-15) was the first Daktronics Second Team All-American for the men and is the all-time leading scorer for UCCS. This year, White and his teammates won the RMAC

Kinzer said the choice of UCCS was simple. “My old high school coach Keith Barnett was there, and he was hands down the best coach I’ve ever played for,” she said. “I was also transferring from CU and found myself missing the Springs. It ended up being a perfect fit.” Kinzer graduated in 2014 and is a teacher at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs. Abby Kirchoff Abby Kirchoff soon rose to the spotlight. Kirchoff travelled from Barrington, Ill. to attend UCCS. The sharpshooter is the all-time leading scorer for women’s basketball and was the first AllAmerican and RMAC Player of the year for the program. Kirchoff and her teammates reached the NCAA Sweet 16 this year, the furthest the team had evwer advanced. Looking back on her time at UCCS (2011-15), Kirchoff thinks

Tournament for the first time in program history and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the furthest the team had ever been. White said accolades followed him due in part to the team accomplishments. “It means a lot to me being an All-American because it means that all my hard work has paid off,” he said. “It means that the team is having success, too. You don’t make an All-American team if you are on a bad team so it means a lot to me in that aspect.” “It has been an amazing ride here at UCCS and playing here was always a great experience,” he said. “When I signed to play at UCCS I couldn’t imagine being one of the best basketball players to play here. It’s humbling and I will always be thankful for the opportunity.” White will transfer to CUBoulder for his final year and be eligible for the 2016-17 season.

The best: Three successful Mountain Lion teams bappleha@uccs.edu

courtesy | sPorts information

The 2014-15 Mountain Lion team that advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.

“Both are very special but the team had a lot of special guys,” he said. “Witte was one the best players we’ve had play for us. He knew how to win and it made everyone else better.” “Eddie was capable of scoring even when he didn’t have his good stuff. Players like that are rare.” That season, the team advanced to the regional and then national championship, finishing 10th in the country. The 2014-15 men’s basketball team took flight in a similar

manner. In his third season as head coach, Jeff Culver led UCCS to their second consecutive RMAC Championship appearance. But they made history in the 2014-15 season when they won. “It was a lot of fun coaching,” said Culver. “Especially with what has happened in the previous years leading up to it. Just the building process.” The Mountain Lions defeated Metro State, the team that beat them in the championship in 2013-

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14, in 2014-15. UCCS won 82-65. “The moment once you win, and it wasn’t until late in that ballgame, even though we won by a sizeable margin, that we really understood that we had won,” Culver said. “The game was very intense, and that moment afterwards, getting people up the ladder to cut the net and looking at the sea of black and gold, it was pretty special.” The team finished 27-6 on the year and won the program’s first

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Every so often, universities are blessed with teams containing larger-than-life players, coaches and an organization that backs them. For UCCS, three teams rank on the greatest-of-all-time list. In spring 2013, the men’s golf team stood above the pack in the RMAC. The Mountain Lions won the RMAC title, tallying a final team score of just five over par. The two leaders for UCCS were Kevin Witte, shooting six under par, and Eddie DeLashmutt with two under par. Going into the championship, head coach Phil Trujillo said the group had something to prove. “It was incredible, those guys were competitors and they didn’t like being picked fifth in the beginning of the year,” said Trujillo. “They took that to heart and made it their mission to win it.” The team had great players, but to Trujillo, Witte and DeLashmutt stood out from the rest.

NCAA Division II Tournament game before falling in the second round. In the same season, 2014-15, the women’s basketball team had an unprecedented run. In his first season as a Mountain Lion, head coach Shawn Nelson led the team to the NCAA Tournament for the first time and a sweet sixteen appearance. “It’s very special because it’s never been done before, but all the credit goes to our basketball team because they had a decision to make at the beginning of the year of buying into what we wanted to do,” said Nelson. “They bought in and they really wanted to win.” The team finished 26-7 overall. At the end of the 2014-15 school year, both basketball teams were honored at a celebration where the team banners were unveiled. The 2013 men’s golf team, as well as the men’s and women’s basketball performances in the 2014-15 season, will forever go down as some of the best teams in Mountain Lion history.

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