The Colorado Pledge

Colorado College is launching the Colorado Pledge, a historic undertaking to address affordability concerns in higher education. CC’s Colorado Pledge is a financial aid initiative designed to ensure Colorado College is as affordable for Colorado students from low- and middle-income families as the state’s flagship public university.

The Colorado Pledge is a pilot program aimed at supporting Colorado families with adjusted gross incomes below $200,000. All students admitted to the next fall’s incoming class and transfer students who meet the eligibility criteria will receive this award. Early Action and Early Decision deadlines are Nov. 1.

Colorado College is one of only a handful of colleges in the nation to consistently meet the full demonstrated need of every admitted student. The Colorado Pledge goes one step further and is a bold initiative aimed at making a private education as affordable, or more affordable, than many public universities.

Colorado College’s pledge is that:

• For students from Colorado families with an adjusted gross income of less than $60,000, there will be no parental contribution for tuition, room, and board at CC.
• For students from Colorado families with an adjusted gross income between $60,000 and $125,000, there will be no parental contribution for tuition at CC; they will only pay for room and board.
• For students from Colorado families with an adjusted gross income between $125,000 and $200,000, CC pledges that the parental contribution for a Colorado College education will be the same or less than the cost of attendance at the flagship state university in Colorado.

CC’s strategic plan calls for an additional $20 million in fundraising, which will allow the college to endow the program for future students, thus opening the doors more widely to a Colorado College education for the best and brightest students in the state. The college already has received more than $3.5 million from generous donors, including a gift that has been issued as a challenge to other donors to match their own contributions of $50,000 or more to the Colorado Pledge.

Currently about 15 percent of CC students are from Colorado. The pledge comes as Colorado College seeks to cultivate a more diverse student body across the socio-economic spectrum. By making the cost of attending Colorado College as affordable as the state’s flagship university, CC can attract and enroll a higher percentage of students from low- and middle-income Colorado families.

Colorado College, which was founded two years before Colorado became a state, has always had a strong commitment to meeting the full demonstrated need of all admitted students. The Colorado Pledge is about affordability; it’s a commitment to students in Colorado that CC is not only the most selective college or university in the region, but is just as affordable and accessible.

The college administers a financial aid budget that exceeds $40 million annually, and approximately 50 percent of CC students receive scholarship support each year.

As part of Building on Originality: The Campaign for Colorado College, a $435 million fundraising initiative that includes a $100 million effort to secure funds for financial aid, the college is raising $20 million specifically to support the Colorado Pledge.

Read more about the specifics of the Colorado Pledge.

Professors Whitaker, Valtierra Publish Book

Congratulations to Professors Manya Whitaker and Tina Valtierra (both Education) who recently published “Schooling Multicultural Teachers: A Guide for Program Assessment and Professional Development.”

Whitaker, a developmental educational psychologist with expertise in social and political issues in education, and Valtierra, a scholar-practitioner who has spent more than 15 years as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and educational consultant, write that the cultural identities of teachers inevitably influence the interactions they have with their students. The book offers guidance for enhancing teachers’ inclusive instructional practices by using the Dispositions for Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Scale (DCRPS). Developed by Whitaker and Valtierra, this is the only validated scale that measures the diversity-related beliefs, values, and attitudes that underpin multicultural teaching practices.

Read more here.

CC Welcomes New Faculty Members

During the 2018-19 academic year, Colorado College welcomes 14 new faculty members into tenure-track appointments and four new Riley Scholars-in-Residence. The new tenure-track faculty are:

• Ike Agbanusi, Mathematics and Computer Science
• Michael Angstadt, Environmental Studies
• Yogesh Chandrani, Religion and Asian Studies
• Daniel Ellsworth, Mathematics and Computer Science
• Baran German, Film and Media Studies
• Chris Hunt, Religion
• Adam Light, Physics
• Nate Marshall, English
• Rachel Montgomery Paupeck, Art
• Florencia Rojo, Sociology
• Danielle Porter Sanchez, History
• Monica Sanchez, Theatre
• Sarah Schanz, Geology
• Jake Smith, History

The Riley Scholars-in-Residence are:

• Ryan Buyco, Asian Studies
• Gregorio Gonzales, Anthropology and Southwest Studies
• Michael Kim ’05, Philosophy
• Solomon Seyum, Geology
  

Read more about these talented teacher-scholars here.

A Peek into New Student Orientation

Fitzhugh Appointed to National Committee on Learning Disabilities

Lynne Fitzhugh, lecturer and director of Colorado College’s Master of Arts in Teaching – Literacy Specialist Program, recently was appointed to serve on the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD). Fitzhugh will serve as one of 24 members on the committee and will represent the Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA).

Fitzhugh, a nationally recognized expert on dyslexia and related learning disabilities, structured linguistics, and literacy, is president-elect of ALTA and currently serves on the board of the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC). She is a past board member of the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) and helped develop IDA’s Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading.

Read more here.