Center of Southwest Studies : About

Our Mission

The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College connects individuals and communities with opportunities to explore, study, and experience the Southwest's dynamic heritage.

Our Vision
exhibit entrance We envision the Center of Southwest Studies to be a central gateway where people can learn the unique nature of the American Southwest through the understanding of its people and their dynamic relation to the landscape. We envision a sustainable future for our region and see the Center as an active but impartial leader in helping to foster positive solutions to the complex issues that affect us. We envisage a region of informed and spirited citizens who are active stewards of our historic, cultural, and natural resources. To make this goal a reality, the Center features innovative educational programs and research opportunities that promote a greater awareness of the deep connections between people and natural systems.

Core Values
• Stewardship. The Center will preserve its own archival, library, artifact collections according to the highest professional standards. We take an active role in the preservation of memory, and the natural and cultural resources of our region.

• Passion. This powerful force drives all of what we do. We believe our landscape and its diverse cultures, both past and present, deserve our respect and support.

• Teach. We aspire to foster a greater understanding of the uniqueness of the Southwest through programs that introduce audiences to the diverse cultures, landscapes, and issues that define our region.

• Engagement. We acknowledge the diversity of our audiences’ backgrounds, cultural beliefs, different interests, and learning styles. We carry our mission outside our walls to reach our broader publics.

• Collaboration. We value partnerships and active collaboration. We believe the strength of many overshadows that of one. We are ready to work cooperatively with other organizations which share our goals and service.

• Excellence. We operate from the highest standards of professionalism and quality in all our programs and conduct.

• Audacity. We seek innovative ways to raise awareness of our various constituencies by addressing prevailing issues of our region to promote personal responsibility.

• Value Fairness. We acknowledge our own frames of reference and understand the validity of other points of view.

Our History

The Center's founding in 1964 was envisaged by Fort Lewis College President John Reed, funded by Arthur and Morley Ballantine with a supplemental contribution from Mr. A. M. Camp, and facilitated by Fort Lewis College's contribution of space and staffing. The Center's first Director, the late Fort Lewis College history professor Robert W. Delaney, served for twenty-two years, and stated that "the original and stated purpose of the Center was to collect, collate, and have ready for use by qualified users, all aspects of the history of the Southwest."

The Center's first home was a temporary lean-to attached to the northern side of the Academic Building now known as Berndt Hall, which then housed the general library. The Center outgrew those quarters almost immediately, but fortunately the two-story Reed Library was being designed. The College added a third floor to the building plans and the Center moved to the top of Reed Library in 1967. By 1985, the Center had run out of space on the top of Reed Library.

CSWS in winter In 1989, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education recognized the importance of the Center of Southwest Studies, selecting it from hundreds of applicants as one of five programs of excellence in state funded higher education. The honor came with five years of special appropriations, part of which were utilized for collection development, the purchase of proper storage supplies and equipment, and the hiring of an archivist. In 2001 the institution moved into its purpose-designed facility (pictured at left) that joins the Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall as part of the Southwest cultural complex on the north end of campus. The primary architectural firm for the project was Klipp Colussy Jenks DuBois of Denver and the associate/local architect was R. Michael Bell & Associates of Durango.

The Center facilities include an exhibit space, an archival repository, a special collections library, the Office of Community Services, and classrooms, labs, and offices for the College's Anthropology and Southwest Studies academic degree programs. The groundbreaking ceremony on May 7, 1999 was followed by a fifteen-month period of construction before the building's occupation by staff and the collections in the spring of 2001.