Collection M 001, Record Groups 1 through 6:
Fort Lewis College governance and external affairs records in the Archives

Record Group 1:     Colorado Commission on Higher Education
(includes Colorado Commission on Higher Education [CCHE] records on the Colorado State University system governance issue, ca. 1984-1985 and 2000-2002)

• Historical note: includes the former State of Colorado Legislative Committee for Education beyond High School, in the 1950s.   As reported at the June 18, 1965 meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, the First Session of the 45th General Assembly approved legislation establishing a Commission on Higher Education in Colorado, with membership on the Commission to be appointed by the Governor.  The same legislation provided for an Advisory Committee to serve the Commission, to be composed of members of the Legislature and representatives of the governing boards of state-supported colleges and universities.

Series 1.1     Agenda and minutes, 1965- 1999, in 1 records box and 10 document cases. 

Series 1.2     Reports, 1949-, in 8 document cases.  Includes volumes of Colorado Department of Education laws published by CCHE; reports and related correspondence of the Association of State-Supported Institutions of Higher Education in Colorado, ca. 1958-1969; reports by the Colorado Legislative Council, 1956; and relevant executive orders issued by the Governor of Colorado.

Series 1.3     Printed materials (includes publicity materials) 1975- , in 1 document case.

Series 1.4     Memoranda and correspondence, 1957- , in 3 document cases.

Series 1.5     State of Colorado annual budget reports, 1952-1974 (missing 1980-1983), in 2 document cases, and 2 records boxes.   Includes State of Colorado construction budgets, Colorado General Assembly Joint Budget Committee and Joint Sub-Committee on Appropriations annual reports on appropriations, and State Controller's annual financial reports.

Series 1.6     Manuals, 1975-1981, in 1 document case.   Includes Postsecondary Education Master Planning manuals, 1981 July, 2 vol., and 1983 May, 1 volume.

Series 1.7     Association of State Institutions of Higher Education in Colorado records, in 1 document case.   Includes bylaws, 1962; agenda and minutes, 1955- 1965; and budget, 1962, for this voluntary organization of presidents of Colorado institutions of higher education.

Historical note:  The original name for the organization was the Presidents Association, ca. 1955-1961.  In 1961-62 the group was formally organized as the Association of State Institutions of Higher Education in Colorado.

Record Group 2:    Colorado State University System

• Historical note: This system was created by 5-1 vote of the State Board of Agriculture on July 26, 1984, effective August 1, 1984.   The member institutions were Colorado State University, University of Southern Colorado, and Fort Lewis College, with Dr. Philip Austin as the first Chancellor in addition to his duties as President of Colorado State University.  Fort Lewis College President Rexer Berndt spoke strongly against this move, stating that this was a poor means of attempting to solve the severe problems of USC and CSU and arguing that it was not in the best interest of  Fort Lewis College to be submerged in a bureaucratic higher education system.  (USC had recently gone through five presidents, at the rate of about one every two years, and CSU had been without a permanent president since Ray Chamberlain resigned in early 1980.)   Dr. Berndt resigned on the spot, but the Board refused to accept his resignation and ordered him to stay until the time of his retirement in December of 1984.  A motion to exclude Fort Lewis College was defeated 5-1 at the Board's meeting on Nov. 16, 1984.  Board member Pat Conley was the lone opponent of including Fort Lewis College in the CSU System, pointing out the long and successful relationship between Fort Lewis College and the State Board of Agriculture extending over many decades.  Mr. Conley noted that in 1948 a petition signed by thousands of San Juan Basin residents was submitted to Governor Lee Knous requesting that Fort Lewis College be divorced from the control of CSU and be made an independent and autonomous institution.  The Governor and the State Legislature granted that request, and the college's enrollment grew from 180 in 1948 to 3,600 in 1984.  (Sources: SBA minutes, and Fort Lewis College press release dated July 27, 1984 in Series 1.2.)

(see also Colorado State University system governance issue records in Series 4.7, clippings in Series 2.2)

Series 2.1     Chancellor's reports and correspondence, June 2002, in 1/2 document case.
Series 2.2     Publicity materials, 1979-1993, in 1/2 document case.
Series 2.3     Reports, 1940-1999, in 1/2 document case.
Series 2.4     Audits records (FTE audits of various college departments), 1992-1997, in 1/2 document case.

Record Group 3:    Fort Lewis College governing board

• Historical note: The Colorado State Board of Agriculture served as the governing board for Fort Lewis College until August 1, 2002.  On June 4, 2002, Colorado Governor Bill Owens signed House Bill 1419 approving the creation of a stand-alone Board of Trustees for Fort Lewis College.  The State Board of Agriculture (SBA) had governed Fort Lewis since it first became an agricultural high school in 1911 until the passage of this new legislation.  Additionally, in 1984 the SBA created the Colorado State University System, which consisted of Colorado State, Fort Lewis College, and the University of Southern Colorado; the new legislation moves Fort Lewis College out of the CSU system.  The 2002 legislation called for the appointment of a new, nine-member Board of Trustees by August 1.  The trustees, working in conjunction with the SBA, were charged with developing agreements to transfer all assets and liabilities by Sept. 1, 2002.  The bill enabled Fort Lewis College to offer professional programs and a limited number of graduate programs to serve regional needs.  It also established the college as a regional education provider with two-year authority, explicitly recognized that "the Center of Southwest Studies provides a valuable regional, national and international resource," and provided for the continued use of campus property for the state Forest Service facility, and provided for the use of the Hesperus property.

Series 3.1     Agenda, minutes, and meeting reports, 1923-ongoing, in 45 document cases, 5 records boxes, and 3 flat boxes.  The items in the 3 flat boxes are 3 canvas-bound ledger volumes of SBA minutes for July  1948 through October 1976.  Prior to July of 1948, Fort Lewis was a branch of Colorado A & M College (now Colorado State University).

• Note: the Fort Lewis College archives is lacking  this series' records for 1927-1947.  Some of it is cited in Joe Perino's report in 2005.
• Recent years' board meeting minutes are online at http://www.fortlewis.edu/board_trustees/meeting_minutes.asp

Series 3.2     Regulations and manuals, 1925-1984, in 1 document case.  Includes annual Resource Book.

Series 3.3     Reports, 1924-1954, 1995-, in 2 document cases.  Includes Colorado Agricultural College reports.

Series 3.4     Memoranda and correspondence, 1924-2002, in 4 document cases.  Includes State Board records on the Colorado State University system governance issue, circa 1982-1987.

Series 3.5     Publicity materials, 1923-2002, in 1 document case.  Includes newspaper clippings.

Series 3.6     Fort Lewis Agricultural and Mechanical College Committee records and correspondence, 1959 June 24.

• Historical note: this was a subcommittee of the State Board of Agriculture.

Series 3.7     State Board of Agriculture governing board membership directories, circa 1958-1984, in 1 folder.

Series 3.8      Legal and legislative materials, 1862 and 2002.  Consists of  two folders:

1. Colorado House Bill No. 62, dated March 8, 1962, which provided funds to implement the trimester course of instruction leading to the baccalaureate degree at Fort Lewis College (according to the attached note p. 11 typed by then Fort Lewis College President Dale Rea, who worked for its passage).   This is a photocopy of a photographic copy (Rea's p. 10) of the Act for the Bill.  The Act, the Lindy Auditor's Fine Pt. ballpoint pen (green plastic) used by Colorado Governor Steve McNichols to sign it, and a photograph (Rea's p. 9) of the three men (President Dale Rea, Governor McNichols, and State Board of Agriculture member Dave McGraw, a Durango area businessman who had the Pepsi franchise for the region) with the Act in the Governor's hands are framed and hanging near the reference desk in the Delaney Library (accession 1997:01010).
    
2. Colorado House Bill 1419, signed by Governor Owens on June 4, 2002 to grant Fort Lewis College its independence as Colorado's public liberal arts college.

Record Group 4:    Fort Lewis College President, 1923-

• Historical note: Click here for a list of presidents of the College and their dates.
• Click here to read the qualifications the State Board of Agriculture listed for the position in February of 1962.

Series 4.1     Organizational charts and mission statements, 1968-2001, in 1 document case.

• Historical note: On March 13, 1959, the State Board of Agriculture approved an organizational chart.  On October 18, 1968 the Board approved the "Role and Mission of Fort Lewis College" for submission to the CCHE as part of "Strengthening Higher Education in Colorado."  In November 2001 the President's Office prepared a Fort Lewis College Role and Mission Report for the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Higher Education for the 21st Century, which was likewise submitted to the CCHE and is included in this series of records.

Series 4.2     Annual and semi-annual reports, 1923-ongoing, in 6 document cases and 2 records boxes.  Includes annual Academic Initiative report, 1995-ongoing.   See Series 3.1 and Series 4.5 for the President's monthly reports.

Series 4.3     Institutional self-studies and accreditation reports, 1949-ongoing, in 20 document cases.  Includes North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools examination reports and Fort Lewis College's annual institutional reports.
See Series 18.F.2 for more detailed institutional research records; related correspondence is under the title North Central in Series 4.7 and Series 14.5.

Series 4.4     Long range planning reports, 1966-ongoing, in 11 document cases. 
See also Series 20.E.1 and--for the Fort Lewis Farm--Series 21.2.

Series 4.5     Other reports, 1951-1972, in 1 document case.

Series 4.6     Special programs and projects files, 1966-ongoing, in 14 document cases.  Includes Strengthening Developing Institutions Program grants funded by Title III, Higher Education Act of 1963, circa 1980s.   (The unfunded Project Trail Title III grants records are in Series 18.G.3.)

Series 4.7     Central administrative subject files, 1948-ongoing, in 74 document cases.  Includes staffing files, 1965-1990.  The arrangement of this series is alphabetical by subject; the contents of each folder topic are in reverse chronological order within most files.  Also includes records of the Fort Lewis College Durango campus dedication ceremony, 1957 May, and Fort Lewis College records pertaining to the CSU System governance issue and FITE; subsequent additions of more recent files in this series will be in a separate alphabetical arrangement.   (For pre-1962 records, see also Series 11.D.1; see also Subgroups 20.D and 20.E.)

Series 4.8     Memoranda and correspondence, 1951-ongoing, in 9 document cases.  Includes President's chronofile of outgoing correspondence.  Arrangement is strictly chronological.  Contains scarcely any records from the tenure of President John F. Reed (1962-1969).

Series 4.9     Publications and speech transcripts, 1950-ongoing, in 1 document case.  Includes the Family Newsletter (inaugurated in September 2004).

Series 4.10     Regulations and manuals, 1952-1991, in 1 document case.

Series 4.11     Presidential search records, 1962, 1985, 1996-1998, 2002-, in 2 document cases.  Arrangement is chronological.

Series 4.12     Legal case files, 1971-ongoing, in 10 document cases and 1 records box.  Arrangement is chronological by when case was initiated; all records pertaining to a case are filed together.

Series 4.13     Association of Public College and University Presidents (APCUP) agenda and minutes, 1949-1955 and 1980-1985,  in  1/2 document case. 

Series 4.14     Newspaper clippings, 1917, 1940-ongoing, in 1/2 document case.

• Historical note: also known as the Fort Lewis College Citizens Advisory Board or just the Citizens Advisory Board.

Series 4.15   FLC-Announce and FLC-Official email messages, 1999-nearly current.  Includes announcement of annual campus-wide events such as the holiday reception for faculty and staff.

Series 4.16     Appointment books of the President, 1988-nearly current, in 3 document cases.  Through 2003 these are original spiral-bound volumes; effective December 2003 (currently through June 2004) the record is a printout from the Microsoft Outlook electronic planning calendar.

Series 4.17     Student correspondence, 1988-1996, in .5 document case.  Arrangement is in reverse chronological order.  This material, along with other records in this Record Group, is restricted/ confidential. 

Series 4.18     Colorado Campus Compact records and correspondence, 1992-1997, in  .5 document case.

Series 4.19     Featured Scholar records and publicity, 1999-nearly current.  Oversize posters (each was originally displayed in a glass case in the foyer of Berndt Hall for a half-year) are housed on the top shelves in the northwest corner of the basement archival storage vault.

• Historical note:  (quoting from the press release by FLC student Stephanie Euwema that was published October 19, 2004 by the Office of External Affairs:)  The Featured Scholar Award was established during the 1999-2000 academic year by former Fort Lewis President Kendall Blanchard. “Scholarship, defined in its broad and most inclusive sense, is vital to the academic integrity of Fort Lewis College,” Blanchard told the campus when announcing the first Featured Scholars in Jan. 2000. “It is important that our students and the larger community we serve recognize that being a member of the professional ranks at Fort Lewis College involves more than daily classroom performances. Our faculty members are actively engaged in the creation and application of knowledge as well as in its dispersal.”  Through the Winter 2002 semester, two Featured Scholars were selected. Starting in the 2002-03 academic year, one Featured Scholar was selected in the fall and another in the winter.

 Fort Lewis College’s Featured Scholars:

TERM	NAME	TITLE
Winter 2000	Michael Anziano	Professor of Psychology
Winter 2000	Philip Duke	Professor of Anthropology
Fall 2000	Ron Estler	Professor of Chemistry
Fall 2000	David Kozak	Associate Professor of Anthropology
Winter 2001	Roy Cook	Associate Dean, School of Business Administration
Winter 2001	Janet Jones	Professor of Psychology
Fall 2001	Bill Dodds	Professor of Marketing
Fall 2001	Rob Milofsky	Associate Professor of Chemistry
Winter 2002	Nancy Oppenheim	Assistant Professor of Law and Finance
Winter 2002	Catherine Ortega	Assistant Professor of Biology
Fall 2002	Kenneth Hunt	Professor of Marketing
Winter 2003	Rochelle Mann	Professor of Music
Fall 2003	Ray Kenny	Associate Professor of Geosciences
Winter 2004	Ziarat Hossain	Associate Professor of Psychology
Fall 2004	Duane Smith	Professor of History and Southwest Studies
Winter 2005	Doug Lyons	Professor of Management
Fall 2005	Kathy Fine-Dare	Professor of Anthropology
Winter 2006	Jeffrey Fox	Political Science
Fall 2006	David Gonzales	Associate Professor of Geosciences
Winter 2007	Monte Helm	Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Fall 2007	Chad Colby	Assistant Professor of Art
Winter 2008	Linda Mack	Professor of Music
Fall 2008	Craig Tyler	Assistant Professor of Physics

Record Group 5:    Administrative Cabinet

• Historical note: previously known as the Core Cabinet or the President's Cabinet, and before that--from 1953 to 1968--as the Executive Committee.  This Record Group also includes the former Administrative Conference, circa 1963.  Currently, members include the President, VP for Academic Affairs, VP for Business and Financial Affairs, VP for Student Affairs, VP for Institutional Advancement and Dean of Admissions, and the deans of the schools of Arts and Sciences, Business and Administration, and Education.

Series 5.1     Minutes, 1958 April-ongoing, in 4  records boxes.
Series 5.2     Reports, 1953-ongoing, in 1 records box.
Series 5.3     Memoranda and correspondence, 1959-1964, in 2  records boxes.
Series 5.4     Attorney General of Colorado opinions records and correspondence, 1950-1976, in 1 records box.
Series 5.5     Publicity materials (includes newspaper clippings).

Record Group 6:    External Affairs

• Historical note: this records group also includes records of the previously functioning President's Council.
• Records location note: publicity materials issued by this office are housed in Record Group 10, records of the Office of Public Relations, which  is part of External Affairs; its records include pre-2000 publicity materials of its predecessor, the Office of College Relations.  The functions of the Office College Relations were divided between the new Office of Marketing and Publications (Sub-group 7.G) and the new Office of Public Relations in July of 2000.
• Note: The Equal Opportunity Office (formerly Affirmative Action) (RG 8) and the Extended Studies Program (Subgroup 18.D) are also part of External Affairs.

Series 6.1     President's Council minutes, 1962-1988, in 1/2 document case.
Series 6.2     President's Council memoranda and correspondence, 1963-ongoing, in 1/2 document case.
Series 6.3     Office of Public Relations director's records and correspondence, 2000-ongoing, in 1 document case that holds records through Series 6.6.
Series 6.4     Office of Public Relations/ External Affairs publicity materials 1999-ongoing.  Includes newspaper clippings and emails pertaining to this office.
Series 6.5     Office of Public Relations/ External Affairs  records and correspondence.

Sub-group 6.6     Professional Associates of Fort Lewis College records and correspondence
Note: The Professional Associates of Fort Lewis College is an organization comprised of recognized leaders in the business, government, and education who are now residents of the Four Corners region.  The mission of the association is: "Improve quality of life for residents of Four Corners using Fort Lewis College resources to interact with the community and in turn to benefit students of the College."  In the 2001-02 inaugural year of the program, the associates began work on the Lifelong Learning  lecture series (an adult education program, featuring nationally known speakers), a mentoring program for students at Fort Lewis College, and a work in progress on business ethics and character.

Series 6.6.1     Professional Associates publicity materials.  Includes seasonal brochures describing upcoming Lifelong Learning events, and newspaper clippings.

Series 6.6.2    Professional Associates directory, 2000.

Series 6.6.3    Professional Associates records and correspondence.

Series 6.6.4     Lifelong Learning lectures recordings.  Originals are on mini-digital videocassettes.  The Center is duplicating selected Southwest-focused recordings onto DVD for broader access.

 Doing your own research:  This description of a portion of the collections at the Fort Lewis College Center of Southwest Studies is provided to inform interested parties about the nature and depth of the repository's collections.  It cannot serve as a substitute for a visit to the repository for those with substantial research interests in the collections.

Fort Lewis College Archives guide

Guides to the collections at the Center of Southwest Studies

Information for doing research at the Center of Southwest Studies

Center of Southwest Studies

Page last modified: October 07, 2008