Fort Lewis College is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

college in Durango, Colorado. Because of its unique origins as a military fort turned Indian boarding school turned state public school, FLC follows a 1911 mandate to give qualified Native Americans a tuition-free education and awards approximately 16% of the baccalaureate degrees earned by Native American students in the nation. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Education designated FLC one of six Native American-serving, non-tribal colleges. FLC is a member of the

Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges The Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) is a consortium of 30 public colleges and universities in 27 states and one Canadian province. Established in 1987, COPLAC advances the aims of its member institutions and drives awareness of the ...

and is accredited by the

Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...

, with additional program-level accreditations for specific programs. The college offers 30 bachelor's degrees through its four academic units.

History

The first Fort Lewis army post was constructed in

Pagosa Springs, Colorado The Town of Pagosa Springs (Ute dialect, Ute language: Pagwöösa, Navajo language: Tó Sido Háálį́) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat, the most populous community ...

, in 1878, and was relocated in 1880 to

Hesperus, Colorado Hesperus is an unincorporated community and a U.S. Post Office in La Plata County, Colorado, United States. The Hesperus Post Office has the ZIP Code 81326. A post office called Hesperus has been in operation since 1891. The community takes i ...

, on the southern slopes of the

La Plata Mountains The La Plata Mountains are a small subrange of the San Juan Mountains in the southwestern part of Colorado, United States. They are located on the border between Montezuma and La Plata counties, about northwest of Durango. Their name is Spani ...

. In 1891, Fort Lewis was decommissioned and converted into a federal, off-reservation

Indian boarding school American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the United States from the mid 17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" or assimilating Na ...

. In 1911, the fort's property and buildings in Hesperus were transferred to the state of Colorado to establish an "agricultural and mechanic arts high school." That deed came with two conditions: that the land would be used for an educational institution, and “to be maintained as an institution of learning to which Indian students will be admitted free of tuition and on an equality with white students” in perpetuity. Both conditions have been the missions and guides for the Fort Lewis school's various incarnations over the past century. The Fort Lewis high school expanded into a two-year college in the 1930s, and in 1948 it became Fort Lewis A&M College, under the State Board of Agriculture's control. The "Aggies" studying at the Fort Lewis Branch of the Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanics could take courses in agriculture, forestry, engineering, veterinary science, and home economics. Fort Lewis in Hesperus 1880s

Fort Lewis College began another period of growth and changes in 1956, when the college moved from its longtime home in Hesperus to its present location, 18 miles east, atop what was then known as Reservoir Hill, overlooking Durango. Here, FLC became a four-year institution, awarding its first baccalaureate degrees in 1964. Also in 1964, the college dropped the "A&M" moniker, changed its mascot from the Aggies to the Raiders, and changed the school's colors from the green and yellow of the Colorado State University system it had been affiliated with to blue and gold. In 1994, the college's mascot became the Skyhawks. In 1995, FLC joined the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, and in 2002, it became independent of the Colorado State University system and formed its own governing Board of Trustees.

Campus

The 247-acre Fort Lewis College campus is in southwestern Colorado, 6,872 feet atop a mesa overlooking the Animas River Valley and downtown Durango. A network of trails as well as city bus service (free to students with FLC IDs) connects the campus and town. The campus's distinctive architectural theme utilizes locally quarried sandstone to acknowledge the region's Native pueblo building style and evoke the Four Corners landscape and colors. The style was crafted by Boulder architect James M. Hunter, whom the college contracted to establish a campus building plan in the late 1950s, after its move from Hesperus to Durango. Today, on-campus housing is in six residence halls and two apartment buildings, with singles, doubles, and suites. Also on campus are 14 academic buildings, as well as a Student Life Center, Aquatic Center, and Student Union. On-campus athletic facilities include Ray Dennison Memorial Field, Dirks Field, the Softball Complex, Whalen Gymnasium, and the Factory Trails, an off-road bicycling race course. Fort Lewis College in Durango Colorado

The new Student Union opened in 2011, and hosts the college's cultural centers, the Native American Center and El Centro de Muchos Colores, student government, the Environmental Center, the post office, and the bookstore. The Student Union also offers several dining options, and houses both a Leadership Center and a Media Center that includes the college's news magazine, literary journal, and KDUR radio station. The

U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...

awarded the Student Union LEED Gold status for its sustainability features. It is the third LEED Gold building on campus, along with the Berndt Hall Biology Wing and Animas Hall. Those environmental awards helped FLC be named one of "America's Coolest Schools" by ''Sierra'' magazine, the official publication of the Sierra Club, in 2011.

Academics

Fort Lewis College is divided into four academic units, offering 32 baccalaureate degrees. Programs are accredited by the

, the Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology, the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education, and the

National Association of Schools of Music The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) is an association of post-secondary music schools in the United States and the principal U.S. accreditor for higher education in music. It was founded on October 20, 1924, and is based in Reston ...

Athletics

The college's athletic teams, the Skyhawks, compete in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

at the Division II level as a member of the

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...

(RMAC); as well as the

Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association The Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (WILA) was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II lacrosse-only college athletic conference composed of schools located in the Western United States. All schools are member ...

(WILA) for women's lacrosse and a nationally ranked cycling program that competes at the Division I level of USA Collegiate Cycling. In 2017, FLC's cycling program won its 23rd national championship at the 2017

USA Cycling USA Cycling or USAC, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the national governing body for bicycle racing in the United States. It covers the disciplines of road, track, mountain bike, cyclo-cross, and BMX across all ages and ability level ...

Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ; fla, label= Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork ...

. The term student-athlete was coined in 1957 following a lawsuit that arose after the death of Ray Dennison, a Fort Lewis A&M College football player. Men's sports *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

* Cross Country *

Cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from t ...

* Football *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

* Soccer Women's sports *

* Cross Country *

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

* Soccer *

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Notable alumni

* David M. Beazley –

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

developer and author *

Chris Camozzi Christopher Allen Camozzi (born November 20, 1986) is an American professional Glory kickboxer and mixed martial artist who competes in the Light heavyweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2006, Camozzi has formerly competed in th ...

(attended) – competed in wrestling and rugby; professional

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorpo ...

Nicco Montaño Nicco Montaño (born December 16, 1988) is an American mixed martial artist who last competed in the bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. She was the inaugural UFC Women's Flyweight Champion. Background Of Navajo, Chickas ...

– professional

Mixed Martial Artist Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorpo ...

, inaugural and current

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

Flyweight Champion. First UFC Champion with Navajo descent. * Pamela Neary – Minnesota state legislator * Brianne Nelson – distance runner * Scott Stamper –

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

for the

San Antonio Gunslingers The San Antonio Gunslingers were a professional American football team based in San Antonio, Texas, that played in the United States Football League (USFL) in 1984 and 1985. Owned by oil magnate Clinton Manges, the team played its home games in ...

in the USFL * Scott Tipton –

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

(CO-3 R)

References

External links

* {{authority control

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

Liberal arts colleges in Colorado Public universities and colleges in Colorado Buildings and structures in La Plata County, Colorado Colorado Western Slope Durango, Colorado Education in La Plata County, Colorado Educational institutions established in 1911 1911 establishments in Colorado Tourist attractions in La Plata County, Colorado Public liberal arts colleges in the United States