For those of a certain age, it has been known by many names. Today, though, it is simply Colorado State University Pueblo. However, it may be known, one thing that is certain about this educational beacon is that it remains the ‘go-to’ choice for young Pueblo students and their regional counterparts.
CSU Pueblo continues to fill the talent pipeline for its home city along with the scores of small towns that dot so much of rural southern Colorado. Without a doubt, the region’s largest university has served not only Pueblo but the Arkansas and San Luis Valleys providing a ready supply of talent in everything from government to banking to healthcare and beyond.
“Always,” said CSU Pueblo President Timothy Mottet, “when I talk about the impact of the university, I always ask alums to stand. I ask people to look at the men and women standing, what kind of work and contributions they have made to the community.”
Mottet, the school’s 24th president, said the university’s mission has not changed over the course of its existence; instead its focus has been sharpened. “We are here to help develop professionals, to develop local talent who can take care of people and also help drive economic development.”
For the past fifteen years, CSU Pueblo has also worn the designation of Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI). To earn this designation a school must serve a Hispanic student population of 25 percent. During the last academic year, the school’s Latino enrollment was 34 percent.
CSU Pueblo, said Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce President Duane Nava, has been instrumental in identifying, enrolling and nurturing young Latino students. Nava, a school alumnus, gives the school credit for his professional success. “It was absolutely important,” he said.
Nava was working in a low wage job and struggling to provide for his family when he learned of CSU Pueblo’s extended studies program. Signing up for it, he said, “gave me the flexibility to not only work full-time but start on a degree program.” Many other Latino community business leaders and entrepreneurs, he said, also benefitted from the same kind of opportunities.
So many others who came from other places to attend school at CSU Pueblo not only found the school the perfect fit for them, but also Pueblo. “They came from so many other places and decided to stay.” Because of their experience with the school and the skills it provided them, said Nava, they have found their niche in business, industry and government in his hometown.
Mottet, who announced last Spring that he would be leaving the school at year’s end, said that when he arrived, the school was moving ahead but at a much slower pace than he liked.
“When I was hired,” he said, “I wanted to develop a bold vision (for the school). We were not the voice of higher education in the southern part of the state.” In his seven years at the helm, Mottet believes the school has clarified and refined its mission. CSU Pueblo, the veteran educator says, “now has a sense of pride and purpose that was not here before.”
Mottet, a strong believer in diversity, calls the CSU Pueblo student body one of its strengths. “We are a Hispanic Serving Institute,” he says. “We do not hide behind it—we lead with it!” “We work with underrepresented students and first generation students,” he said. The school also helps prepare other students “who are not as prepared for college as we would like them to be. But we will meet them where they are. It’s who we are.”
A challenge that Mottet admits neither he nor the school has met with the degree of success that he would like is retaining well-trained graduates and keeping them in Pueblo.
“About two thirds of our students do not remain in Pueblo,” he said. Armed with a degree, many leave the area and head north. “They go to Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins as well as numerous other places.” While not happy with this reality, he said he understands why there’s an exodus of talent. “They have to leave. There is huge opportunity,” for them elsewhere, opportunities that comes with a wage scale unavailable in Pueblo and southern Colorado.
Despite this reality, Mottet believes there is evidence that things are changing. “I believe that a manufacturing base will remain critically important to this region.” He points to Pueblo’s Transportation Technology Center, an operation that has joined forces with the school to advance its mission.
Pueblo also recently landed CS Wind, a Korean company that manufactures wind towers and that very likely will make Pueblo the world’s largest manufacturer of the components that will play a key role in future energy independence. CSU Pueblo, Mottet believes, will be an indispensable part of Pueblo and southern Colorado’s future economic vitality. “The potential to transform the economy of the city and region lies in our ability to attract and develop a newer economy.” He says the school’s ability to turn out quality graduates in biotech, health care and the suddenly essential field of cyber security will be invaluable to the future of Pueblo.
In order to do that, Mottet wants families who live north of Pueblo along the Front Range to consider Pueblo as the next step in their children’s education experience. And that is something the school has begun working on. The school commissioned a marketing survey that has already provided insights into how best to ‘introduce CSU Pueblo’ to them.
One of the findings of the survey proved what so many at the school had already suspected. “The majority of Coloradans don’t have an impression of Pueblo,” he said. Mottet said these families don’t have to come to Pueblo, though he would like them to visit the campus. Instead, they can visit the new Spur Campus, a joint undertaking by CSU Fort Collins, CSU Global and CSU Pueblo that explains the missions of the three school. The Spur Campus is located on the grounds of Denver’s National Western Stock Show.
Mottet will mark his last day at CSU Pueblo when the semester ends in December. His future plans are still coalescing, he said. But one thing is certain. He has been accepted into the prestigious Fulbright Program. The program brings together individuals to study “practical, multi-field discipline” to train students to understand, communicate and accomplish specific goals outside their own cultures. Mottet’s Fulbright will take him to Paris for two weeks in 2024.
As he leaves Pueblo and the school he has helmed for seven years, his departure, he said, will be bittersweet. “Living and working here and leading the University has been the highlight of my career and the honor of a lifetime.”
