2011-2012 Catalog

Location

Please note the Academic Calendar now lists an Early Registration period for fall and spring semesters. CMC now practices standard registration periods at all CMC campuses. Students are strongly encouraged to register for classes as early as possible to avoid low enrollment class cancellations or class waitlists.

For more information, go to: www.coloradomtn.edu

Learning here is personal. Classes are small. Faculty are friendly. Our graduates say that Colorado Mountain College has provided a solid foundation for the challenges they have faced. Whether you need help registering for classes or planning for your future, you’ll find CMC teachers and staff who will take time with you. They know that if you are happy with your college and comfortable in your environment, you’ll have a better chance of succeeding. We want to give you more than a diploma or certificate. We want to foster an environment that helps you succeed in all areas of your life.

District and Service Area Map. Colorado Mountain College serves 12,000 square miles in the Rocky Mountains.

Locations

The Colorado Mountain College service area covers all or part of nine counties in the center of the Rocky Mountains. Our 12,000 square mile service area includes homestead ranches, wilderness, Victorian boomtowns, mining, and the cultural atmosphere that has grown alongside international resorts.

Colorado Mountain College includes 11 teaching locations in the Colorado Rocky Mountains plus online learning. Three of these locations are full-service, offering residence halls, dining, library, and complete student services. These campuses are located in Leadville, Steamboat Springs, and near Glenwood Springs at Spring Valley. Our other locations primarily serve local residents, although some students come from outside the region. See the District and Service Area Map for all of our sites.

Begin Your Four-Year Degree

Colorado Mountain College’s Associate of Arts (AA) and Associate of Science (AS) degrees are designed to transfer to four-year colleges and universities. This is the course work traditionally taught during the freshman and sophomore years.

Colorado public four-year higher education institutions will honor the full transfer (60 credits) of an AA or AS degree earned at Colorado Mountain College. When you earn an AA or AS degree at Colorado Mountain College, completing the State Guaranteed General Education Courses with a grade of “C” or better in each course applied to the degree, you will transfer with a junior standing into any arts and science degree program offered by a participating Colorado public four-year college. Additionally, there are signed transfer agreements for the Associate of Arts degrees for Business, Elementary Education, and Early Childhood Education that, when completed in their entirety, will transfer to participating Colorado public four-year colleges and universities.

You should be able to complete your Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree program in no more than 60 credit hours and your baccalaureate (four-year) degree in no more than a total of 120 credit hours, unless there are additional degree requirements recognized by the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE). This means that if you complete your AA or AS degree at Colorado Mountain College, you can complete your four-year degree with the same number of credits as students who began at the receiving institution. If you have received credit for prior learning, advanced placement, or correspondence courses, this will be reviewed by the receiving institution.

The Associate of General Studies (AGS) Degree combines professional or career training with academic transfer courses. Colorado Mountain College has signed agreements or transfer guides for our specific AGS degrees in Engineering, Criminal Justice, and Outdoor Recreation Leadership. We recommend that you work with your Advisor for specific transfer options and requirements.

Our Career and Technical (CTE) programs are comprised of the Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degrees and certificates. Many of these AAS degrees have signed agreements that allow for a smooth transfer to four-year colleges and universities for further career and technical opportunities. We recommend that you work with your Advisor for specific transfer options and requirements.

The quality of a CMC education is recognized throughout Colorado and across the country. Our students have transferred to the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, Stanford University, the University of Denver, Colorado College, Wellesley College, Vanderbilt University, Middlebury College, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, and others. We want to help you succeed while you’re here and expand your possibilities after you leave Colorado Mountain College.

Start Your Career

Several Colorado Mountain College certificate and degree programs have become the reference standard for the entire country. While earning a degree or certificate, students can learn specialized skills demanded by today’s job market. Many of our occupational certificates and degrees were developed to take advantage of our mountain environment and lead to immediate job opportunities in specific careers. See the Programs of Study  chapter for more information.

Experiential and International Learning

We believe that learning changes more than your mind, and a good education goes beyond the classroom. At Colorado Mountain College you can challenge yourself on wilderness trips through the Rockies or the Desert Southwest.

Outdoor Education courses such as rock climbing help you develop mental discipline and physical conditioning beyond the traditional classroom. Through these experiences, you can develop confidence and a sense of physical well-being that will enhance all aspects of your life, not only at college but beyond. Several programs allow you to combine your outdoor interests with your career.

In addition to local outdoor experiences, many of our programs offer international study abroad and exchange student opportunities.

Then there are your classmates. Colorado Mountain College students have come from 46 U.S. states and 24 different countries. The varied student population at many of our locations allows you a diversity of perspective and broadens your experience.

Community Outreach and Partnerships

Colorado Mountain College reaches beyond its campuses to build partnerships with many K-12 school districts and other organizations in our region.

For learners requiring additional assistance, we offer GED courses and English literacy programs.

Working with four-year institutions, Colorado Mountain College delivers teacher certification programs using our interactive video network. Through a transfer agreement with Mesa State College students can complete a four-year elementary teaching degree.

Single parents in Garfield County are eligible to enroll in the Gateway program. This program provides a wide range of services designed to foster success in earning a certificate or degree.

Campus-based noncredit continuing education programs provide training for business and industry and lifelong learning opportunities for district residents.

Senior citizens benefit from tuition grants and programs tailored to their needs.

Many advanced high school students take Colorado Mountain College courses, allowing them to combine their first two years of college with their last two years of high school. Any high school student who is less than 21 years of age and is enrolled in the 9th grade of high school or higher is eligible for the CEPA program. Be sure to complete the following steps so you can enter the CEPA program:

• Get approval from your high school Counselor.
• Get approval from your school district’s Superintendant.
• Submit a Concurrent Enrollment form with parent’s, high school officials’, and CMC Academic Counselor’s signatures.
• Submit completed and signed CMC application and course registration with parent’s signature. Adhere to CMC student rules and regulations as outlined in the Student Handbook.
• Take the Accuplacer assessment in English, reading, and mathematics for placement purposes.
• Create an academic plan of study with your Academic Counselor that will help you satisfy all of your graduation requirements.
• Basic skills remediation may be available through CMC in math, English, and reading for students preparing for graduation to better prepare them for college level work.

Students in our occupational certificate and degree programs reach into their communities with service projects.

The College, with many civic organizations and businesses, sponsors the First Ascent Leadership program. This program helps young people learn vital leadership skills, building self-esteem through outdoor activities.

Customized Business Services

Prepare Your Business for Success. At Colorado Mountain College, it is our vision to become your first choice in partnerships when your goal is to improve employees’ performance by providing them high-quality, affordable training and development opportunities.

Founded on the belief that learning should be available wherever people work, at the time they need to learn, CMC’s Customized Business Services team provides:

• Training for businesses and organizations of all sizes
• Customized for your staff, from front-line staff to executive leaders
• Onsite or on campus
• Scheduled at your convenience

We work hard to meet your unique training and development needs through services that range from providing a guest speaker to customizing an in-house training program leading to a certificate. Dedicated to providing high-quality, effective, and affordable training, CMC works with organizations to create a direct line from learning initiatives to business outcomes.

We deliver personalized business training when you need it, where you need it.

We will continue to establish community partnerships that provide access to success and accomplish our vision of being the “First Choice for Learning.”

Colorado Incarcerated Offender Post-Secondary Program (CIOPP)

Colorado Mountain College partners with the Colorado Department of Corrections to offer the Colorado Incarcerated Offender Post-Secondary Program (CIOPP). Through this program, Colorado Mountain College offers credit courses at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex. Many offenders take college courses and earn their degrees or certificates while incarcerated, which enables them to find relevant occupations once they are released. These college courses count toward many degree programs offered at Colorado Mountain College and may also transfer to other public colleges in Colorado as well.

Vision, Mission, and Values

Vision

Over the next ten years, Colorado Mountain College is committed to being our communities’ first choice for “learning, partnerships, and leadership.”

Mission

Colorado Mountain College is creating a better future for our students, our communities, our partners, and our team members by:

• Anticipating new curriculum needs.
• Maximizing student learning and success.
• Focusing on education partnerships.
• Focusing on business partnerships.
• Building our capacity for organizational excellence.
• Recruiting, rewarding and retaining the best employees.

Core Values

Our values are embodied in the phrase “T2R2”: Truth, Trust, Respect and Responsiveness.

Truth

By revealing, understanding, and blending diverse personal perceptions, biases, and “truths”, as well as providing accurate and fact-based information at the start of a decision, vote, or discussion, we come closer to an inclusive Truth, thus resulting in the best course of action.

Evidenced by:

• Providing accurate and fact-based information versus guessing at the truth and having an adverse impact on sound decision making.
• Understanding others experiences and backgrounds, as well as our own bias, perceptions or understandings of the truth.
• Acknowledging internally that each of us can be wholly attached to our own perception of a situation (the Truth in our mind) and thus, may be closing ourselves off to “hearing” another viewpoint or perception of the truth.

Trust

Trusting that others are relaying the truth as they see it and are working in the best interests of the College and the students we serve by ensuring decisions and actions are guided by a commitment to student and personal success, accountability, maintaining confidentiality, keeping promises, and a commitment to life-long learning.

Evidenced by:

• Ensuring decisions and actions are guided by a profound commitment and sense of accountability to the public interest and to each other.
• Ensuring decisions and actions are guided by a profound commitment to the provision of lifelong learning enrichment to our community and to ourselves.
• Listening actively and attentively while others are speaking.
• Acknowledging and giving credit for contributions of others.

Respect

Valuing and acknowledging individual differences, opinions, and contributions by communicating openly, honestly, and directly, and treating each other fairly and consistently.

Evidenced by:

• Valuing and acknowledging individuals, listening to them, and accepting their individuality.
• Seeking to understand feelings, beliefs, values, and needs; taking these seriously and giving them genuine consideration.
• Accepting differences of opinion with graciousness.
• Listening actively and attentively while others are speaking.
• Acknowledging and giving credit for contributions of others.

Responsiveness

Being able and ready to respond, at all times, in support of our communities by remaining readily accessible, timely, solution-seeking, well-informed, accountable to our values and norms, encouraging, and responsible for our own actions.

Evidenced by:

• Awareness that, as public servants, we have the obligation to be individuals of good character, prepared at all times to be good stewards of the public trust.
• Passionately endeavoring to deserve the great support our communities give.
• Bringing our best every day.
• Keeping ourselves readily accessible to students, colleagues, and our community.
• Being timely in responding to or acknowledging the needs and requests of others.
• Being solution-oriented and proactive in facilitating solutions when problems are identified.
• Endeavoring to keep each other well-informed so accurate responsiveness is possible.
• Courageously holding each other accountable to our values and norms.
• Accepting responsibility for the outcomes of our own actions and apologizing for our behavior when we need to.

Accreditation

Colorado Mountain College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The Commission can be reached at:

230 North LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500
Chicago, IL 60604-1411
Telephone: 1-800-621-7440

In its quest to become a Learning College, Colorado Mountain College has chosen the Higher Learning Commission’s alternative accreditation through AQIP (the Academic Quality Improvement Program).

Approved for:

• General Studies Degree
• General Studies Degree
• Associate of Applied Science Degrees
• Nursing Degrees Occupational Proficiency Certificates
• Veterans’ Training
• Foreign Students (Steamboat Springs, Leadville, Glenwood Springs – Spring Valley)

Approved for:

• Colorado Department of Higher Education
• Colorado Community College System (CCCS)
• Colorado State Board of Nursing
  This nursing education program is a candidate for accreditation by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC).

NLNAC
3343 Peachtree Road NE
Suite 500
Atlanta, GA 30326
Ph: 404-975-5000 Fax: 404-975-5020
www.nlnac.org

Equal Opportunity Statement

Colorado Mountain College is dedicated to the principle of providing equal opportunity with regard to all prospective and current employees and students. In addition, the College shall continue to take positive steps to ensure non-discrimination based on age 40 and over, race, sex, color, religion, national origin, disability, ancestry, sexual orientation, or any other protected class.

The College complies with regulations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 in regard to sex discrimination and section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in regard to disability discrimination.

Inquiries or specific complaints of alleged discrimination and/or compliance with Federal or State regulations may be directed to the College’s Vice President of Human Resources who serves as the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) Officer; or to the Vice President of Student Affairs who serves as the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Officer at:

831 Grand Avenue
Glenwood Springs, Colorado 81601
(970) 945-8691

Complaints may also be filed with the Office for Civil Rights:

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Region VIII
1961 Stout Street, Room 1426
Denver, Colorado, 80294
(303) 844-2024
(303) 844-3439 (TDD)

Contact Us

Current information, services and contact information are available on the Colorado Mountain College website: www.coloradomtn.edu

We offer online registration and payment processing via the website. Registration information and class listings and times are available in our class schedules.

Call our Central Services Office at: 970-945-8691 or 1-800-621-8559.

Colorado Mountain College – (USPS 023-404) (Summer Volume 6, Issue 4, June, 2011) is published quarterly during the months of August, December, April and June with multiple editions of each publication (except June). Publications are produced by campus and central staff of Colorado Mountain College at 831 Grand Avenue, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601. Periodical postage rates paid at Glenwood Springs, CO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CMC Marketing Communications, Colorado Mountain College, 831 Grand Avenue, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601.

This catalog is certified as true and correct in content and policy as of its publishing in June 2011. Realizing that flexibility in education can be beneficial, Colorado Mountain College reserves the right to alter tuition, fees, calendar dates, curricula, and other information contained in this catalog as deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees,  administration, or state agencies. The most current catalog information will be posted on our website at: www.coloradomtn.edu/catalog. Colorado Mountain College is dedicated to the principle of providing equal opportunity with regard to all prospective and current employees and students. In addition, the College shall continue to take  positive steps to ensure non-discrimination based on disability, race, creed, color, sex, age, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, and religion. The College complies with regulations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 in regard to sex discrimination and section 504 of the Vocational  Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in regard to disability discrimination. Inquiries or specific complaints of alleged discrimination and/or compliance with Federal or State regulations may be directed to the College’s Vice President of Human Resources who serves as the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) Officer; or to the Vice  President of Student Affairs who serves as the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Officer, at 831 Grand Avenue, Glenwood Springs, Colorado 81601, 970-945-8691. Complaints may also be filed with the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Region VIII, 1961 Stout Street – Room 1426, Denver, CO 80294, 303-844-2024; 303-844-3439 (TDD).