University of Colorado Boulder

On March 14, 1876, the Colorado territorial legislature passed an amendment to the state constitution that provided money for the establishment of the University of Colorado in Boulder, the Colorado School of Mines in Golden , and the Colorado Agricultural College in Fort Collins . Two cities competed for the site of the University of Colorado: Boulder and Cañon City . The consolation prize for the losing city was to be the home to the new Colorado State Prison . Cañon City was at a disadvantage as it was already the home of the Colorado Territorial Prison (there are now six prisons in the Cañon City area). The cornerstone of the building that became Old Main was laid on September 20, 1875. The doors of the university opened on September 5, 1877. At the time, there were few high schools in the state that could adequately prepare students for university work, so in addition to the university, a preparatory school was formed on campus. In the fall of 1877, the student body consisted of 15 students in the college proper and 50 students in the preparatory school. There were 38 men and 27 women, and their ages ranged from 12 to 23 years. [ 23 ] During World War II , Colorado was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a navy commission. [ 24 ] CU hired its first female professor, Mary Rippon , in 1878. [ 25 ] It hired its first African-American professor, Charles H. Nilon, in 1956, and its first African-American librarian, Mildred Nilon , in 1962. [ 26 ] Its first African American female graduate, Lucile Berkeley Buchanan , received her degree in 1918. [ 27 ]

The CU Boulder campus The main CU Boulder campus is located south of the Pearl Street Mall and east of Chautauqua Auditorium . It consists of academic and residential buildings as well as research facilities. The East Campus is about a quarter-mile from the main campus and is composed mainly of athletic fields and research buildings. CU Boulder's campus has been ranked as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States by Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler . [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] Architecture CU Boulder's distinctive architecture style, known as Tuscan Vernacular Revival, was designed by architect Charles Klauder . [ 31 ] The oldest buildings, such as Old Main (1876) and Macky Auditorium (1923), were in the Collegiate Gothic style of many East Coast schools, and Klauder's initial plans for the university's new buildings (approved in 1919) were in the same style. [ 31 ] A month or so after approval, however, Klauder updated his design by sketching in a new wrap of rough, textured sandstone walls with sloping, multi-leveled red-orange- tiled roofs and Indiana limestone trim. [ 31 ] [ 32 ] This formed the basis of a unified style, used in the design of fifteen other buildings between 1921 and 1939 and still followed on the campus to this day. [ 31 ] The sandstone used in the construction of nearly all the buildings on campus was selected from a variety of Front Range mountain quarries. Sewall Hall

Currently, freshmen and others attending the University of Colorado Boulder have an option of 24 on- and off-campus residence halls. [ 33 ] Residence halls have 17 varieties of room types from singles to four-person rooms and others with apartment-style amenities. [ 34 ] There are several communities of residence halls located throughout the campus, as well as in a separate area called Williams Village which is located approximately 1.5 miles off of the main campus. There is a free bus service that transports students to the main campus from Williams Village and vice versa. The university also offers Residential Academic Programs (RAPS) in many of its Residence Halls. RAPs provide students with in-dorm classes tailored to academic interests (international affairs, environmental studies, etc.). Engineering Center

The Engineering Center on the North-East side of campus houses the nation's largest geotechnical centrifuge as well as ion-implantation and microwave-propagation facilities, spectrometers , electron and other microscopes, and a structural analysis facility. In 2021, the Rustandy Building joined the Engineering Center to the Koelbel Building, in order to increase collaboration with the School of Business. [ 35 ]