On Friday, May 12, in a special meeting at Fort Lewis College, the Southwest Colorado Forum on Post-Secondary Education’s charter was approved and the organization became official. The Forum is a group of educators and public officials who have agreed to work together to maximize the opportunities for post-secondary education and training in the region and to improve access to that area.

The idea for the Forum grew out of conversations among Kendall Blanchard, president of Fort Lewis College; Tim Foster, executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, and Tim Raughton, a former community college CEO and now special consultant to CCHE. It was generally felt that the citizens of Southwest Colorado could be better served and that area high school students would be more likely to pursue some form of post-secondary education if there were a mechanism in place for ensuring closer communication and articulation among the various education providers in the region.

The Forum is a group of 18 board members who represent particular institutions or constituencies. These include Blanchard; Joe May, president of Pueblo Community College; James Henderson, president of San Juan College; Bill Lewis, director of San Juan Technical Institute; Mark Larson, state representative from the 59th District; Jim Dyer, state senator from the 6th District; Ann Putnam, appointed to represent the governing boards of the four-year institutions; and Ed Lyell, appointed to represent the governing board of the community colleges.

The other members are the superintendents of the school boards in the region: Mary Barter, Durango; Don Davis, Dolores; Larry Swain, Mancos; Bill Thompson, Montezuma-Cortez; Terry Allen, Pagosa Springs; Don Magill, Bayfield; and Charles Grant, Ignacio. At-large members of the business community include Patty Burkholder of Norwest Bank in Durango and Scott Tipton of Mesa Verde Pottery in Cortez. CCHE Executive Director Foster is an ex-officio member of the Board.

The Forum is currently housed at Fort Lewis College under the umbrella of the Western Regional Issues Institute (WRII), an organization created and managed by David Eppich, assistant to the president for external affairs. Blanchard and May are serving as co-chairs.

In an effort to enhance access to higher education, improve graduation rates at both high school and college levels, and ensure that southwestern Colorado is well-served by its public education providers, the Forum board has embarked on several projects.

It is developing a web site that will provide a current listing of all post-secondary courses (both credit and non-credit) that are available through any of the participating institutions. It is working to bring together instructors from the various institutions to improve each student’s ability to transfer from one level of the educational process to the next. For example, it is putting together a group of mathematics teachers who will be charged with creating a seamless web process of math education. It is hoped that as a result of this process, area high school graduates will be prepared to master the mathematics skills needed in the post-secondary environment, whatever that happens to be.

The Forum is also working on a plan that will increase the amount of technical options that are available in the Southwest Colorado region. It is the assumption of board members that this will not only increase the educational options of those seeking such training, but will also make it easier for the region to attract high-tech firms who depend on the availability of highly skilled technicians.