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Colorado State University is a public land grant institution of higher learning located in Fort Collins, Colorado in the United States.
It was founded in 1870 as the Agricultural College of Colorado, and received its first students in 1879. The current enrollment is approximately 22,000 students. The university has approximately 1,400 faculty in eight colleges and 55 academic departments.
The university mascot is the Ram, and the colors are green and gold.
History
Early Years
The act to create the university was signed by Colorado Territory governor Edward McCook in 1870 arising from the Morrill Act. During the first years of its official existence, the university existed only a paper. A board of 12 trustees was formed to "purchase and manage property, erect buildings, establish basic rules for governing the institutions and employ buildings." But the near complete lack of funding by the territorial legislature for this mission severly hampered progress.
The first 30-acre parcel of land for the campus was deeded in 1871 by Robert Dazell. In 1872, the Larimer County Land Improvement Company contributed a second 80 acre parcel. The first $1000 to erect buildings was finally allocated by the territorial legislature in 1874. The funds were not sufficient, however, and trustees were required to find a matching amount, which they eventually obtained from local citizens and businesses.
Among the institutions which donated matching funds was the local Grange, which was heavily involved in the early establishment of the university. As part of this effort, in the spring of 1874 Grange No. 7 held a picnic and planting event at the corner of College Avenue and West Laurel Street, and later plowed and seeded 20 acres of wheat on a nearby field. Within several months, the university's first building, a 16-foot-by-24-foot red brick building nicknamed the "Claim Shanty" was finished, providing the first tangible presence of the institution in Fort Collins.
After Colorado statehood in 1876, the territorial law establishing the university was required to be reauthorized. In 1877, the state legislature created the 8-member State Board of Agriculture to govern the school. The legislature also authorized a railroad right-of-way across the campus, and mill levy to raise money for construction of the campus' first main building, Old Main, which was completed in December 1878. Despite wall cracks and other structural problems during the first year, the building was opened in time for the welcoming of the first five students on September 1, 1879 by university president Elijah Evan Edwards.
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