Care & Belonging at UCCS
Foundational Value of Inclusion
We value inclusive care and belonging for all as a foundation for teaching and scholarship that prepares students, faculty, staff, and community members for both local and global multicultural realities.
Commitment to Belonging
UCCS is committed to being a leading educational institution where all who attend, work, and benefit from the campus are valued and respected.
Creating a culture of belonging requires active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with the UCCS community to ensure everyone can thrive. We foster a supportive campus environment that embraces a culture of belonging, engagement, and learning for all, including individuals with intersecting backgrounds, social identities, abilities, and cultures.
UCCS Strategic Plan
Foster a Community of Learning, Engagement, and Inclusive Belonging to Nurture the Growth and Success of Faculty, Staff, and Students.
- Cultivate a culture of inclusive excellence that responds to the diversity of our campus community.
- Advance a culture of innovative and inclusive pedagogy that is relevant to the academic and professional needs of today’s students.
- Deepen curricular and co-curricular experiences to foster global perspective, experiential engagement, and professional preparation.
- Strengthen our culture of health, safety, and wellbeing.
UCCS Land Acknowledgement
The University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) commits to acknowledging the land on which we reside. We honor our Native Indigenous communities past, present, and emerging, and recognize the original inhabitants and traditional guardians of what is now Colorado Springs.
We honor this land as the ancestral home of the ‘Nuuchiu’, which includes the Northern Ute, the Southern Ute, and the Ute Mountain Ute Peoples. The ‘Nuuchiu’ originally referred to Pike’s Peak as ‘Tava-kaavi’, or Sun Mountain, being the first peak of the Shining Mountains to see the sun’s rays.
We also recognize the many Indigenous Peoples in this region, including the Apache Nation, the Arapaho Nation, the Cheyenne Nation, the Comanche Tribe, and the Kiowa Tribe, and their historical and continuing relationships as stewards of this land.
Land acknowledgments do not exist in the past or as historical context. Colonialism is a current and ongoing practice, and thus we remain mindful of its present impacts. As an institution of higher education, we share the responsibility to actively listen, reflect, and center the histories and lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples.
In community, we will work to dismantle the tragic and oppressive systems that displaced Native Peoples and commit to promoting Indigenous visibility and re-indigenizing our spaces.
Age-Friendly University
UCCS has been designated an Age-Friendly University (AFU), demonstrating its ongoing commitment, dedication and efforts to support the aging population and create an inclusive campus environment. The designation is bestowed by the Age-Friendly University Global Network, an organization of higher education institutions that is “committed to promoting positive and healthy aging and enhancing the lives of older members of the global community.”
Basic Needs Campus Designation
UCCS has received the Basic Needs Campus Designation – Comprehensive Tier from the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE), meaning campus is recognized as having developed a robust, student-centered and equity-driven support ecosystem addressing a wide range of needs.
The Colorado Department of Higher Education’s (CDHE) Basic Needs Campus Designation recognizes institutions that are committed to supporting students’ essential needs—such as food, housing and mental health—so they can succeed both inside and outside the classroom.
Military Friendly Campus
Institutions earning the Military Friendly® Schools Awards designation were evaluated using public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey. Gold Award winners have programs that scored within 20 percent of the 10th-ranked institution within a given category.
First-Generation Serving Designation
Established through House Bill 24-1082, this designation honors institutions whose first generation resident undergraduate enrollment meets or exceeds the statewide average of 37% over three consecutive years, as well as institutions participating in the FirstGen Forward Network, a national network of colleges and universities committed to advancing the success of first-generation college students through intentional, institution-wide strategies. The First Generation-Serving Campus designation reflects CDHE’s broader goal of closing educational equity gaps and ensuring first generation students have the same opportunities to persist and complete their credentials as their peers.