Colorado Women's College
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Colorado Women's College was a division of the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
in
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
, focusing on evening, weekend, and online courses for women. It originally opened in 1909 as a
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women's college Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male stud ...
and merged with the University of Denver in 1982.


History

Colorado Women's College was founded by the Rev. Robert Cameron, the pastor of Denver's First Baptist Church, who wished to open a women's college in the
Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
that would be equivalent to
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
in terms of prestige and academic offerings. Incorporated in 1888, the college did not open until 21 years later. It received its accreditation from the
Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...
as Colorado Woman's College in 1932, which it maintained until its closing. The college was renamed Temple Buell College in 1967 in honor of a local
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who made a $25 million (
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) gift to the college the year before. The name-change alienated old grads and their donations fell. The Buell "gift" was a legacy in the will of Temple Buell (1895–1990). In response to these financial struggles, the college reverted its name to Colorado Women's College. As residential college, it had an active social life for students. The campus newspaper was titled ''The Western Graphic''; other publications included yearbooks and scrapbooks. The college also had athletic offerings, including field hockey and
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. By the late 1970s, the college had experienced continued falling enrollment and funding, with higher education specialist Gary A. Knight deeming the college "financially desperate" and lacking enough prospective students, the "lifeblood" of the college, to sustain itself. In 1982, the college's assets were sold to the University of Denver, a private university that opened
The Women's College of the University of Denver Colorado Women's College (CWC) was one of eight undergraduate colleges at the University of Denver and the Rocky Mountain Region's only all-women's college. It was formerly the Colorado Women's College before merging with the University of Denver i ...
that same year. The university considered that unit, which subsequently regained its original name as the "Colorado Women's College," to stand in historical continuity with the original, independent, "Colorado Women's College." The original Colorado Women's College campus was home to the Women's College until 2001, when it became the Denver campus of
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.


Reimagining

In 2015, Rebecca Chopp, the first female chancellor at University of Denver, discontinued the Colorado Women's College bachelor degree program in favor of developing innovative and nontraditional models to educate and advance women. Colorado Women's College has a long and rich history of creating access and educational opportunities for both traditional and nontraditional female students, so the decision to move away from the degree granting program continues to support that legacy as the current model in higher education is regularly being challenged. Moving forward, Colorado Women's College is advocating for gender equity in evolving structures of work and higher education by engaging in solution-focused research and offering programs to support women and promote gender equity.


Closure

In 2020, Denver disbanded the Women's College and its remaining programs were reassigned to other university departments in the name of financial exigency.


Notable alumni

* Rebecca Ann King, Miss America 1974 *
Edna Ahgeak MacLean Edna Ahgeak MacLean or Paniattaaq (born November 5, 1944) is an Iñupiaq academic administrator, linguist, anthropologist and educator from Alaska, who has specialized in the preservation and revitalization of the Iñupiaq language. Early life a ...
, Inuit educator and activist for the Inupiaq language *
Cleo Parker Robinson Cleo Parker Robinson (born July 17, 1948 in Denver, Colorado) is an American dancer and choreographer. She is most known for being the founder, namesake and executive creative director of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. She was inducted ...
, professional dancer


References


External links


Colorado Women's College Alumnae Association
{{authority control Former women's universities and colleges in the United States Defunct private universities and colleges in Colorado University of Denver Universities and colleges in Denver Educational institutions established in 1888 Educational institutions disestablished in 1982 1888 establishments in Colorado History of women in Colorado