Upon arriving at Colorado State University Pueblo, university president Timothy Mottet was charged by the Board of Governors and the Chancellor to “develop a bold vision and an identity for this campus” that they could support financially.

A year later, a cross-functional group appointed by Mottet, and led by his vice president of operations and advancement, Donna Souder Hodge, developed that bold vision for CSU-Pueblo to become “the people’s university of the Southwest U.S.” by 2028. That’s a pretty tall order. But, says Mottet, it fits.

The city’s very name, Mottet explains, comes from the Latin word “populus,” or “the people.” In Spanish, the term was adapted to mean “town” or “village.” The city of Pueblo, home today to about 160,000 people, began in 1842 as Fort Pueblo. Then in the 1880s the area’s nearby iron ore deposits led to the construction of steel mills.

Pueblo quickly, according to Mottet, became known as “the people’s town” because its business leaders readily accepted immigrants who came to work in the burgeoning steel industry. Today, nearly two-thirds of the university’s student population are the first in their families to attend college. A high percentage of the students work full-time jobs, and many are in their twenties or even older when they matriculate. Hardly an elitist institution.

It took fifty years after the city’s first steel mills for Pueblo to gain its first institution of higher learning: Southern Colorado Junior College was chartered in 1933. The college grew into a four-year institution, Southern Colorado State College, in 1961. By 1975, Pueblo’s college was offering a sufficient number of advanced degrees, such that it was folded into the Colorado State University system and renamed the University of Southern Colorado.

In 2002, a year before becoming CSU Pueblo, the university first achieved formal status from the Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) – one in which at least 25% of students are of Hispanic origin. The designation entitles qualifying institutions to additional federal grant monies.

Legislation signed in 2002 formally changed the name and the mission of the university to Colorado State University Pueblo. Today, the 4,000-student university is a regional, comprehensive institution that focuses heavily on professional studies such as nursing, teacher education, social work, and business. Many graduates fill jobs in local educational and medical institutions and businesses. CSU Pueblo is truly a “people’s” university.

In 2008, CSU Pueblo was named the top HSI in the nation by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Hispanic enrollment has jumped from barely 25% in 2002 to about 34% today. But that’s just part of the success story in Pueblo.

CSU Pueblo had begun a major renovation in 2007, and in the following decade the campus had added a new student recreation center, a greatly expanded library and academic resources center, a 1.2-megawatt solar array, and three new residence halls. Shortly after Mottet’s arrival, the ribbon was cut on a newly renovated student center. The energy was running high.

Mottet, Souder Hodge, and the university’s advisory team, in setting the agenda for 2028, decided that the university’s existing vision statement – to enhance CSU Pueblo’s reputation as a premier comprehensive regional university that offers a wide range of undergraduate degrees as well as specialized graduate degrees – was too bland and nonspecific. They wanted something more challenging – they wanted to be challenged.

But the team also insisted that their bold words – to be THE people’s university of the American Southwest -- be accompanied by bold deeds. That meant expanding the vision for the university far beyond the 275-acre campus and taking a broader look at the impact the university could have in every city and hamlet in southern Colorado.

On the high end, that meant seeking additional financial resources for a student population that was mostly paying its way through college one semester, sometimes one course, at a time. The HSI status itself ensured a substantial flow of federal dollars into the institution. But CSU Pueblo also applied to the Department of Education to qualify as an experimental site for work-study dollars to assist students who live and work off-campus while enrolled.

On another level entirely, Mottet and his team insisted that faculty and staff look beyond the classroom to serve students better by learning about their real-life challenges and making accommodations for those struggling to make ends meet while attending college to seek a better future. This included acknowledging that many CSU Pueblo students need more than average support to finish their race to a diploma and a professional career. It meant recognizing that one size cannot fit all.

One example of the increased focus on the “whole student” is a new initiative, launched during the COVID pandemic, to create an adult “academy” concept via a partnership with Straightline.com. The online education platform offers, at very discounted prices, college credit courses that help would-be CSU Pueblo students complete general education courses, increase college readiness, and qualify under the university’s admission (and readmission) guidelines.

The academy structure enables students whose high school course work left them short of meeting CSU Pueblo’s admission guidelines, and former students whose earlier attempts to succeed in college fell short, to gain (or regain) admission to degree programs. It also keeps them in the CSU Pueblo loop and under the watchful eyes of school counselors.

CSU Pueblo has tripled the number of “academic success coaches” – counselors who work closely with every student to help them succeed in their first two full years of college. The university has created a very formalized, comprehensive coaching model that reaches out to the students’ families in support of the students’ academic and career paths.

Another part of the CSU Pueblo vision that is being fleshed out is to embed university track centers in every high school in southern Colorado. The best way to prepare students to succeed in college is to guide them through the courses they will need to qualify for enrollment.

CSU Pueblo must be doing something right. This Fall they experienced some growth in new students, even during the pandemic. Mottet is certain that this growth, along with increasing retention numbers (fewer dropping out), is linked to the university’s redoubled commitment to investing in the whole student – with their academic performance, but also with their finances and their time management.

The university’s vision also extends to connecting with the families and communities in their target area of southern Colorado. The goal is to build into the entire education system, the entire region, a model for academic success as a key to prosperity and personal satisfaction.

And that’s why CSU Pueblo believes it can be – and maybe already is – the “people’s university” that can serve as a model for other “people’s universities” to follow and emulate. Instead of just herding students through one class after another while turning a blind eye to those who struggle to stay in school and succeed in life, this university is striving to help as many as possible to cross the college finish line.

Duggan Flanakin ( dflanakin@gmail.com ) is a policy analyst and journalist who frequently comments on education issues.