The University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) commits to acknowledging the land on which we reside. We honor our Native Indigenous communities past, present, and emerging, and recognize the original inhabitants and traditional guardians of what is now Colorado Springs.

We honor this land as the ancestral home of the ‘Nuuchiu’, which includes the Northern Ute, the Southern Ute, and the Ute Mountain Ute Peoples. The ‘Nuuchiu’ originally referred to Pike’s Peak as ‘Tava-kaavi’, or Sun Mountain, being the first peak of the Shining Mountains to see the sun’s rays.

We also recognize the many Indigenous Peoples in this region, including the Apache Nation, the Arapaho Nation, the Cheyenne Nation, the Comanche Tribe, and the Kiowa Tribe, and their historical and continuing relationships as stewards of this land.

Land acknowledgments do not exist in the past or as historical context. Colonialism is a current and ongoing practice, and thus we remain mindful of its present impacts. As an institution of higher education, we share the responsibility to actively listen, reflect, and center the histories and lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples.

In community, we will work to dismantle the tragic and oppressive systems that displaced Native Peoples and commit to promoting Indigenous visibility and re-indigenizing our spaces.

The Campus Pride Index has a strong theoretical research foundation in LGBTQ current programs, practices and policies for safer, more inclusive campus learning environments. The index tool has been tested extensively since 2001 and recently updated with new, higher LGBTQ national benchmarks in 2015. 

The Campus Pride Index is a vital tool for assisting campuses in learning ways to improve their LGBTQ campus life and ultimately shape the educational experience to be more inclusive, welcoming and respectful of LGBTQ and ally people. The index is owned and operated by Campus Pride, the leading national nonprofit organization for student leaders and campus groups working to create safer, more LGBTQ-Friendly learning environments at colleges and universities. 

First Generation-Serving Institution Designation

While enrollment of first-generation students is an important first step, it is equally important to ensure that first-generation students receive the support they need to be successful in higher education. CDHE strives to elevate first-generation student experiences and close equity gaps so that first-generation students have similar outcomes (in retention and graduation rates) as their counterparts. In future years, CDHE will showcase additional postsecondary success measures with more data disaggregation so that the success of persistence and completion rates of first-generation students (and other student populations) can be compared across Colorado institutions of higher education.