General History of Fort Lewis College
Military post, Indian school, rural high school, junior college, liberal arts college – Fort Lewis has played all those roles over the past 110 years. Isolated in southwestern Colorado, Fort Lewis was part of the army’s picket line of defense that separated two cultures, two peoples, who both sought to live in their own way in this beautiful land of soaring mountains, haunting mesas, fertile river valleys, and dry uplands. Then came the day when the army was no longer needed – the larger, more technologically advanced American-European culture had emerged victorious.
Fort Lewis evolved in 1891 into an Indian boarding school that served to direct the now reservation-bound people down the white man’s road. For nearly twenty years young men and women, Indian and some Angelo and Chicano, attended school at the old post. Swords were literally turned into plowshares.
Sacred Trust: The Birth and Development of
Fort Lewis College, Duane A. Smith, 1991
From its origins in the American settlement of the Southwest, Fort Lewis College has, since 1962, operated as a wholly undergraduate, state-supported, liberal arts college, currently enrolling approximately 4,300 students. Fort Lewis numbers among an even smaller group of colleges in its mandate to enroll qualified Native American students tuition-free. This provision, in place since 1911 when the property was deeded to the State of Colorado by the federal government, is based on Fort Lewis’s historic role in Indian education and in recognition of the College’s initial location in Hesperus, Colorado on land appropriated by the federal government from its original inhabitants.
A junior college A & M program was added to the existing high school curriculum in 1925. The high school curriculum was discontinued in 1933, and the College offered two years of college work as a branch of Colorado State University. In 1956, the College moved to its permanent campus overlooking Durango, received its first North Center accreditation as a junior college in 1958, and introduced the first seven majors of its new baccalaureate program in 1962. Today, all that remains of the curriculum of the College’s roots as an A & M school is its two-year program in agriculture, which ably continues to serve students in the still heavily agricultural southwest.
Mission
Founded on, and continuing a scared trust with Native Americans, Fort Lewis College offers accessible, high quality, baccalaureate liberal arts education to a diverse student population, preparing citizens to make contributions for the common good in an increasingly complex world.
Vision
Fort Lewis College envisions itself as the premier public liberal arts college in the western United States.
Core Values
-
Student success is at the center of all College endeavors. The College is dedicated to the highest quality liberal arts education that develops the whole person for success in life and work. Learner needs, rather than institutional preferences, determine priorities for academic planning, policies, and programs. Quality teaching is demanded, recognized, and rewarded.
-
Diversity is a source of renewal and vitality. The College is committed to developing capacities for living together in a democracy whose hallmark is individual, social, cultural, and intellectual diversity. It fosters a climate and models a condition of openness in which students, faculty, and staff engage with tolerance and equity. The College is further dedicated to our historical missions to educate the nation’s Native Americans within the liberal arts framework.
-
Informed and engaged citizens are essential to the creation of a civil and sustainable society. The College values the development of the responsible citizen, self grounded in honesty, courage, and compassion, and committed to advancing democratic ideals. Through service learning, the College engages students in community involvement with time for formal reflection on their experiences.
-
Service to Southwest Colorado and the Four Corners area, including access to the College, is a public trust. The College is committed to forging partnerships and being responsive to the Four Corners region. It strives to make available its knowledge resources, services, and educational offerings at times, places, in forms and by methods that will meet the needs of its constituents.
-
Connected knowing, independent learning and collaborative learning are basic to being well educated. The College structures interdisciplinary learning experiences throughout the curriculum to endow students with the ability to think in whole systems and to understand the interrelatedness of knowledge across disciplines. Emphasis is placed on the development of teamwork skills through collaborative opportunities. Overall, the College practices the art of collective learning and collaboration in governance, operations, and planning.
The College
Fort Lewis College is a four-year, state-assisted, undergraduate institution that offers quality baccalaureate degree programs in the arts and sciences and in the professional areas of education and business. The College has an enduring commitment to develop and maintain its programs at a level equal to these of other outstanding undergraduate institutions in the nation. Fort Lewis College has an approximate enrollment of 4,000 students. Fort Lewis College sits on a mesa-like terrace overlooking the City of Durango with wonderful views of the 13,000-foot peaks of the La Plata Mountains.
Degrees Offered
Fort Lewis College offers a number of programs leading to the bachelor’s degree. The Bachelor of Science degree is offered in biology, chemistry, geology, and physics; the Bachelor of Arts degree is granted in all other four-year programs. In addition, the College offers a program leading to the Associate of Arts degree in agricultural science.
The Fort Lewis College teacher education programs have been approved by the Colorado Department of Education. Licensure programs are offered for the following: early childhood (pre-school, K-2), middle childhood (elementary), young adult (secondary), and K-12 (art, music, physical education).
The Campus
The distinctive architecture of custom stonework found on the Fort Lewis campus reflects the heritage of Southwest Colorado’s Ancestral Pueblo Indians. The backdrop of the rugged San Juan Mountains creates a learning environment of incomparable natural beauty and sets off the architecture that is based on the ancient and contemporary living sites of the first inhabitants of this region.
Academic activities are centered in Chemistry Hall, Education and Business Hall, Center of Southwest Studies, Sage Hall, Art Hall, John F. Reed Library, Theatre Building, Dan Noble Hall, and the academic wing of Berndt Hall. The College Union Building houses a cafeteria, snack bar, post office, bookstore, lounge and meeting rooms, as well as Student Government offices, the student newspaper, public radio station, and Student Activities.
The on-campus Housing Office, Financial Aid Office, Records Office, Native American Center, Advising Center, Career Services, and Health Center are in Miller Student Center.
About 1,580 students live on campus in residence halls and apartment complexes. Physical education and recreation facilities include the Student Life Center, Outdoor Pursuits, a large gymnasium, indoor swimming pool, football stadium, tennis courts, softball fields, soccer fields, track, nature trials, and nearby, cross-country ski tracks in winter and golf course in summer.
