 "Photo:")
The story of how the Auraria Campus and the three schools at Auraria came to be is one chalk full of controversy and heartache.
An aspiring scholar in Denver would have found little options for a local post-secondary education until the mid 1960s. Before the Auraria Higher Education Center opened on Jan. 21, 1976, Denver lacked a campus or a university that could provide for the needs of a student seeking to attend college.
Following World War II, Denver and Colorado began to grow at an extremely rapid rate and the university system within the state was slow to adapt to the changing times and increasing demand for more conduits for obtaining a higher education.
The foundations for a higher education center in Denver formed on Feb. 5, 1958 when the Colorado Legislature created the Legislative Committee on Education Beyond High School. On June 25, 1960, the Legislative Committee created a subcommittee on Education Beyond High School in the Denver metropolitan area and by Jan. 1961, the committee approved the subcommittee's recommendation for a creation of a higher education center in Denver.
In the subcommittee's finalized proposal to the state legislature they stated a higher education center was, not only a want, but also a full-blown necessity. The legislature adopted the committee's proposal, yet the future Denver Higher Education Center faced a fierce battle within the state legislature before it would be built.
The beginnings of the Metropolitan State College of Denver took root in a November 1962 meeting of the Task Group on Post High School Education in the Denver metropolitan area. The task group decided to propose the founding of an urban university to serve the needs of thousands of Denver area high school graduates seeking to further their education. In May 1963, Colorado Governor John A. Love signed House Bill 349, which officially established the Metropolitan State College. However, Metro would not come to call Auraria home until more than a decade later.
Initially Metro began as a two-year university, offering baccalaureate programs. The school opened on Oct. 4, 1965 with a freshman class of 1,189 students. Classroom space was basically non-existent and students had to travel to several places within the metropolitan area in order to attend classes. In March 1967, the college expanded into a traditional four-year program offering a myriad of bachelor degrees.
Almost immediately after Governor Love approved the forming of the Metropolitan State College, the University of Colorado began to frantically scramble in order to obtain a position at the future Denver Higher Education Center. Fearing the loss of thousands of potential students, CU sighted an old extension program within Denver as the right to establish a University of Colorado at the future Denver Higher Education Center.
The Community College of Denver opened three years after Metro in the fall of 1968. CCD developed out of the local populace's desire for a two-year vocational and occupational training school. The state legislature approved a three-campus CCD program in March 1967. When CCD opened in the fall of 1968, it was forced to utilize classroom space in Adams County.
By 1968, all three schools had staked claim to the future Denver Higher Education Center; however, no site had been selected as the future home for the three schools.
The old Auraria neighborhood presented an ample locale. The historic heart of Denver had fallen on hard times. Predominantly a community of blue-collar workers and comprised of mostly buildings built late in the 19th century or in the early parts of the 20th century, Auraria had begun to dilapidate into disrepair and neglect. The problem got so severe that the Federal Urban Renewal Program slated the area for redevelopment in the 1960s. This distinction would prove to be, ironically, a valuable one.
By late 1967, the despondent Auraria neighborhood began to gain prevalence in the on-going debate as to where the Denver Higher Education Center should be formed. However, there were still many opponents of the Auraria location. Many felt that the future home of CCD, UCD, and Metro should be outside of downtown Denver and closer to the rapidly growing metropolitan suburbs. A compromise of some sorts arose as the two sides agreed to allow Auraria as the future sight of the Denver Higher Education Center provided the area would be obtained at no cost to the state.
The distinction of Auraria as a spot for federal urban renewal soon came into play. In early 1968 the state and city began to petition the federal government for fiduciary means with which they could redevelop Auraria into a campus for higher education. The federal government eventually agreed and fronted the $12 million to the city and state needed to the purchase the 125-acre Auraria district. The Denver Higher Education Center adopted the name of the name of the old neighborhood and became the Auraria Higher Education Center known today as AHEC.
With a site set in stone, the state still needed to allocate an estimated $125 million more for the construction of campus facilities. In order to save money the three presidents of CCD, MSCD and UCD reached an agreement to share classroom space and operate general students services, such as the library. This greatly diminished the building cost of the campus, while simultaneously ushering in the unique atmosphere of the campus. Eventually, the state allocated the necessary fiduciary means for constructing a learning center in the heart of downtown Denver. Construction began in the early 1970s and contractors finished constructing the basis of today's campus in early 1976.
The campus's current layout mirrors that of a park; Auraria contains wide-open spaces and lush vegetation presenting an exceptional, extraordinary, green oasis amidst the bleak concrete jungle of downtown Denver.
The 9th Street Historical Park, which was not initially included in the campus blueprint, helps to enhance the natural environment on campus and lends a greater sense of community to the campus.
Don Etter, the primary force behind the preservation of 9th Street and the declaration of 9th Street Park as a historical landmark, said about the campus and 9th Street's role in producing a nature like setting, "It's the roots of a tree of the campus."
Ninth Street, the Tivoli Union and the historic churches served as the base for the campus to be built around. The Auraria Campus opened its doors on January 21, 1976 and has served the Denver community for three decades. Hopefully, the campus which had to displaced hundreds of families in order to be constructed will continue to fulfill the needs of the community for years to come.
Be the first to comment on this article!