CU president announces partnership with Ute tribe

CU president announces partnership with Ute tribe

Nov. 2, 2000

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

The recently appointed president of the University of Colorado, Elizabeth Hoffman, tells one of her favorite stories to illustrate some of the adjustments students from rural schools face when attending a large university.

"When I was teaching at the University of Wyoming I would have students who would sign their papers with their first name, because they came from schools where there would be 10 students in their class," recalled Hoffman. "They didn’t understand that there might be a situation where the professor might not be able to identify them by their first name," she said, laughing.

Hoffman recounted the story during her Western Slope community-tour outreach program on Thursday.

While in Southwestern Colorado she announced the newest addition to CU’s pre-collegiate program, a partnership with the Southern Ute tribe that will allow a maximum of 20 tribal students to participate in the program.

The pre-collegiate program focuses on rural and underserved students in Colorado, as a method of helping them make the transition from a small-town high school to a large research university.

"We identify students who are interested in going to college, who have the capability and the motivation to go to college, but who aren’t sure they can make the social transition, the big-city transition, or the big-campus tradition," explained Hoffman.

The first part of the program includes sending CU faculty to rural communities to teach advanced courses. The selected students are then brought to Boulder for one- to two-week periods to live in the dorms. They are paired with students with similar interests, attend classes, participate in extracurricular activities, and go to sporting events.

"They get a taste of college life and then they go home, and then they come back six months to a year later and have another experience," said Hoffman.

She also pointed out that students have the opportunity to attend one of three CU undergraduate campuses. Hoffman recommends rural students try out the Colorado Springs campus, which she says offers smaller classes and a smaller campus. But for students who want to jump immediately into city life, they also have the option of attending college at the Denver campus.

"We offer three quite different experiences for undergraduates, but they’re all first-rate academic environments," she said.

Hoffman said so far she is satisfied with the quality of students coming into the university.

"You look across the country, and you ask what is the difference, between students today and students 30 years ago. Students today are better prepared in math and science; they are very technologically savvy."

Although there has been a recent jump in student enrollment in the classics, economics, and political-science departments Hoffman said that the humanities are not necessarily students’ fortes coming into the university system.

"As a general statement, this generation doesn’t read, and they’re not interested in history. They watch TV, and they are very facile on the Internet."