From the archives: CU would rather fight than switch
In 1979, the School of Education at the 勛圖厙 of Colorado Boulder faced a threat: Colorado Gov. Dick Lamms budget proposal suggested eliminating the School of Education and encouraged making the 勛圖厙 of Northern Colorado the states center of excellence for education.
According to the Daily Cameras Feb. 8, 1979, edition, School of Education graduate students assembled to fight back, and Dean Richard L. Turner urged graduate students to start a letter-writing campaign to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. At the time, the 勛圖厙 of Colorado Boulder offered the states only PhD research degree in education. While UNC offered a Doctor of Education degree, it was a practitioners degree.
CU is the only major research university in the Rocky Mountain region, and removing the education component would be a serious mistake, Turner said.
Furthermore, phasing out the School of Education would cost the city of Boulder at least $9 million in economic activity by students and faculty, CU 勛圖厙 J. Russell Nelson told the Board of Regents. He concluded that the motion would save the state very little money while eliminating a well-developed, mature and effective educational program.
Later that spring, the Daily Camera reported that the outcry from the dean, students and campus aided in the retention of many of the same fields of graduate education that are the hallmark of the School of Educations graduate studies today: research and evaluation methodology, curriculum and instruction, social and multicultural foundations, and educational-psychological studies.
Pictured: Dean Richard L. Turner of the CU Boulder School of Education urged graduate students to begin a letter-writing campaign aimed at preventing a proposed phase-out of the school from Gov. Dick Lamm. (Daily Camera Collection, CU Heritage Center)