Colorado State University - Pueblo
Colorado State University-Pueblo (CSU-
Pueblo)
Established:
July 13, 1933
Type:
Public
President:
Joseph A. Garcia
Faculty:
384
Undergraduates: 4,610 (Fall 2008)
Postgraduates:
174
Location:
Pueblo,
Colorado,
United States
Campus:
Urban
Colors:
Red and Blue
Nickname:
ThunderWolves
Mascot:
Wolfie
Website:
www.colostate-pueblo.edu
Colorado State University-Pueblo (CSU-
Pueblo officially) is a public institution of
higher learning located in Pueblo, Colorado
in the United States. Until 2003, the school
was known as the University of Southern
Colorado.
History
Colorado State University-Pueblo has evolved
from a three-room junior college at the
Pueblo County Courthouse on the third floor
with 63 students and two (2) instructors to a
university offering 29 baccalaureate and six
master degree programs, serving more than
4,000 students from all 50 states and 23
countries. Over the past 75 years under four
different names, the institution has gradu-
ated more than 35,000 students from 41
states and 32 countries. Today, more than
14,000 graduates live in Colorado.
1933 to 1959
The idea for starting a college in Pueblo ini-
tially was proposed in 1926, when a bill was
put before the state Senate to begin a four-
year school in the city. The bill was defeated
by one vote, which put a halt to the idea of
starting a college in Pueblo.
In the years following the Great Depres-
sion, the idea for a college in Pueblo was re-
vived through the efforts of a local school
teacher at Centennial High School, Eric T.
Kelly.
At the time, Pueblo’s primary employer,
steelmaker Colorado Fuel & Iron Corp., no
longer was hiring, a drought and dust storm
was plaguing all of Southern Colorado and
the city still was trying to recover from the
devastating floods of 1921.
Kelly organized a committee composed of
several local business leaders to discuss the
possibility of getting a college started, among
them Frank Hoag, Jr., publisher of The
Pueblo Chieftain and Star-Journal newspa-
pers, Dr. C.N. Caldwell and J.