Activism, Inclusion and a Changing Campus

Like many college campuses across the country, CU Boulder was an important site for advocacy, protest and social transformation during the 1950s to 1970s. Racial equity efforts gained traction, led by advocates like Mildred and Charles Nilon. Faculty continued to advance CU Boulder’s reputation for groundbreaking research and creative work, resulting in the launch of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 1958 and the university’s addition to the Association of American Universities (AAU) in 1966, among many additional achievements. Student activism surged amid Vietnam War protests. The Chicano social justice movement’s efforts to achieve parity of racial representation within the student body figured prominently in CU Boulder’s history during this time, centered on the tragedy of Los Seis de Boulder in 1974. CU Boulder students led in establishing the environmental movement in the United States through the establishment of the nation’s first student-led environmental center and recycling program. After growing from the university’s extension beginning in the 1920s, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs was officially founded as a distinct University of Colorado campus in 1974. Missing from many narratives during this era of CU Boulder’s history are LGBTQ+ voices and Indigenous activism, mirroring dynamics happening across the nation at the time. Today, University Libraries has a collection of the Boulder Gay Liberation—an on-campus student group from the 1970s and 1980s. In 2023, students cataloged the collection and made it searchable.