University History
The Ellis presidency:
Increasing enrollment, tight funding
Alston Ellis entered that still-common environment of slim funding and increasing enrollment when he arrived as Colorado Agricultural College's third president in 1892.
Enrollment rose from 179 students in fall 1892 to 335 students by fall 1896. To accommodate the growth, the college relied on dollars from a state mill levy. Unfortunately, depressed property values in Colorado led to state revenue losses of $50 million between 1892 and 1898. The drop in property values primarily resulted from misled Eastern farmers who believed they could grow crops with east-of-the-Mississippi thirst on the dry plains of Colorado.
The college's Experiment Stations later helped turn around this farming disaster by promoting alfalfa and sugar beets; however, until then, President Ellis sought supplemental appropriations from the General Assembly and sympathy from the state's taxpayers.
In arguing for support, he noted: "When a citizen of Fort Collins pays $52 into the treasury of Larimer County, one-thirteenth of it, or $4, will find its way to the state treasury; and of the $4, only 20 cents will be placed to the credit of the State Agricultural College."
But the president's attempts to gain supplemental appropriations for CAC garnered only $16,500 in eight years. Ellis' efforts were thwarted perhaps by legislators' disdain for the $6,000 salary he demanded from the State Board of Agriculture as a condition of his acceptance of the presidency.
To reduce the college's expenses, Ellis made a controversial decision in 1895 to reduce the number of Experiment Stations because the state had added nearly zero dollars to federal appropriations for the stations. By 1902, CAC phased out all the sub-stations and kept only the Fort Collins station in operation.
Female students - whose numbers grew from 44 in 1892 to 112 in 1896 - were among the many new enrollees the college sought to accommodate in those early years. This growth trend and links to the women's suffrage movement led to greater discussion of women's issues and revision of CAC'S "Ladies Course."
Eliza Pickrell Routt, a dedicated suffrage worker, won an appointment to the State Board of Agriculture in spring 1895, two years after her husband's last year as Colorado governor. At her first board meeting, Routt became chairwoman of a new committee on domestic economy and the library and promptly sought new curricula for CAC's female students. The college's new domestic-economy program was in place the following fall, offering courses such as the chemistry of cooking, home hygiene, household economics and a Friday lecture series on "anything that will aid in the development of a perfect womanhood."
Theodosia Ammons, who gained close association with Routt during the women's suffrage campaign in Colorado, shared the board member's desire to offer young women the best possible educational opportunities. With Routt's recommendation, 34-year-old Ammons became CAC's first domestic-economy instructor, and by 1902 she was the college's dean of women's work.
Ammons lacked formal training in domestic economy, but she relied on domestic skills gleaned during her upbringing, corresponded with and visited other colleges, and enrolled in summer courses on scientific subjects. Her department also became a campus social center, hosting faculty dinners and the annual George Washington Day Breakfast, which featured coeds dressed like Martha Washington and menus printed on tiny hatchets.
Additional social activities initiated at CAC during the 1890s came in the form of several new student organizations including the Columbian Literary Society, which held several rowdy debates with the Philo-Aesthesian Society; the San Juan Boarding Club, a cooperative eating club; the YMCA and YWCA; the Rocky Mountain Collegian; Silver Spruce; and the Athletic Association, which organized an annual Field Day, baseball games and recreational tennis.
Football had a one-year stint at CAC in 1893 with the first competition taking place Jan. 7 in a 12-7 loss to Longmont Academy. President Ellis was not a supporter of extracurricular activities and especially was hostile toward football. The fact that CAC players had to be warned about excessive rough conduct and declining academic performance also contributed to the sport's abolition at CAC from fall 1894-1899.
The year 1899 also marked the end of the Ellis presidency. Ellis believed - like his predecessors Elijah Edwards and Charles Ingersoll - general education mattered as much as technical training. And like the earlier CAC presidents, the third one's beliefs, along with an egotistical personality, eventually led to unreconcilable differences with the State Board of Agriculture. When a vote in December 1898 to extend Ellis' contract resulted in a deadlock, the president broke the tie by casting a vote on his own behalf. Colorado Gov. Charles Thomas challenged the reappointment. When the board met again with two new members in April 1899, it rescinded the December vote and removed Ellis.
However, the demise of Ellis' presidency did not bring an end to the struggles of three presidents to create a balance between technical and general academics at CAC. The conflict would resume with the fourth president, Barton Aylesworth.
