University of Denver

History

In March 1864, John Evans, former governor of the Colorado Territory, appointee of President Abraham Lincoln, founded the Colorado Seminary in the newly created (1858) city of Denver, which was then a mining camp. Evans, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs of the Colorado Territory, lost his government position as a result of the November 1864 Sand Creek massacre (which was carried out by Colonel John Chivington, later a member of the Colorado Seminary's Trustees).

At its founding the seminary was non-sectarian and operated by the Methodist Episcopal Church. It struggled in the early years of its existence. In 1880, it was renamed the University of Denver. The first buildings of the university were located in downtown Denver in the 1860s and 1870s, but concerns that Denver's rough-and-tumble frontier town atmosphere was not conducive to education prompted a relocation to the current campus, built on the donated land of potato farmer Rufus Clark, some six miles (11 km) south of the downtown core. The university grew and prospered alongside the city's growth, appealing primarily to a regional student body prior to World War II. After the war, the large surge in G.I. Bill students pushed DU's enrollment to over 13,000 students, the largest the university has ever been, and helped to spread the university's reputation to a national audience.

Campus

The heart of the campus has a number of historic buildings. The longest-standing building is University Hall, which has served DU since 1890, and was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Just a few blocks off campus sits the historic Chamberlin Observatory, opened in 1894. Still a fully operational observatory, it is open to the public twice a week as well as one Saturday a month.

The central campus area also includes Evans Memorial Chapel, an 1870s-vintage small church which was once located in downtown Denver, and was relocated to the DU campus in the early 1960s. Buchtel Tower (1913) is all that remains of the former Buchtel Chapel, which burned in 1983.

The administrative offices are located in the Mary Reed Building, a former library built in 1932 in the Collegiate Gothic style. Margery Reed Hall (named for the daughter of Mary Reed) was also built in the collegiate gothic style in 1929. Margery Reed Hall houses the Undergraduate Program for the Daniels College of Business; an $8 million overhaul and renovation was completed early 2014. The building was updated to include more classroom space, a larger hall to host guest speakers, as well as mechanical and technical improvements.

F.W. Olin Hall opened in 1997, housing Biological and Natural Sciences. The 40,000 square foot structure was the first building on campus constructed to meet a new set of design and aesthetic standards emphasizing load-bearing masonry, organic designs, and timeless architectural features. Olin Hall includes a two-story rotunda topped with an elliptical copper dome, a sentinel in the university skyline.

The Daniels College of Business was completed in September 1999 at the cost of $25 million. The business school has been nationally recognized by organizations such as Forbes magazine, Business Week, and the Wall Street Journal where it is ranked second in the nation for producing students with high ethical standards.

In 2002, the university opened the $70 million Robert and Judi Newman Center for Performing Arts, which houses the acclaimed Lamont School of Music. The center includes the June Swaner Gates Concert Hall, a four-level opera house seating just under 1,000, the Frederic C. Hamilton Family Recital Hall, a 222-seat recital hall with the largest (2,850 pipes) "tracker" organ in the region, and the Elizabeth Ericksen Byron Theatre, a flexible theatre space seating up to 350. The Newman Center serves as home to many professional performing arts groups from the Denver region as well as the university's Newman Center Presents multi-disciplinary performing arts series.

Academics

Rankings

The undergraduate business program, The Daniels College of Business, was ranked 87th best in 2016 by BusinessWeek.

Education journalist Jeff Selingo named the University of Denver a "dream school" in his 2025 book, Dream School: Finding a College That's Right for You (Scribner).

Academic programs

Schools and colleges:

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics

Daniels College of Business

Sturm College of Law

University College

Morgridge College of Education

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

Graduate School of Social Work

Josef Korbel School of International Studies

Lamont School of Music

Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science

Offering students a learning experience abroad, the Cherrington Global Scholars program offers every undergraduate the chance to study abroad at no cost above the normal university tuition, room and board.

As of 2017, the Daniels School of Business also offers an online MBA program.

Study abroad program

In the 2017–18 academic year, DU had a 77.5 percent of participation in study abroad, leading the school to be third in national rank. The top destinations of DU students are United Kingdom (particularly Scotland), Spain and Italy, however many students go to universities in Australia and New Zealand.

Magazine

The University of Denver Magazine is published quarterly.

The Denver Quarterly was founded in 1966 by novelist John Edward Williams.

Fraternities and sororities

The University of Denver has hosted fraternities and sororities for over 130 years.

Athletics

DU's athletic teams are known as the Denver Pioneers. The school has been fielding athletic teams since 1867, winning 36 NCAA Division One titles since 1949—among the top 15 of all schools. Denver is best known as a major power in winter sports, in particular, skiing and ice hockey. DU has won 24 NCAA national team skiing championships (more than any other school). Ice hockey is DU's flagship spectator sport, with 11 NCAA titles (first among all schools), most recently in 2026 and including back-to-back crowns in 2004 and 2005. The program has produced 80 NHL players and regularly sells out the 6,000 seat Magness Arena on campus, the showpiece of the Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness.

The Pioneers' major conference affiliations changed in July 2013. Denver moved its primary affiliation from the Western Athletic Conference to The Summit League, hockey moved from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and men's lacrosse moved from the ECAC Lacrosse League to the Big East Conference. The women's lacrosse team also moved from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) to the Big East Conference in 2017 and in 2019 they reached the Elite 8 (quarterfinals) of the NCAA tournament. In addition, the women's gymnastics team joined the newly formed Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference in 2013 and later moved to the Big 12 Conference in July 2015.

In July 2026, DU left the Summit League to join the West Coast Conference.

Pioneers moniker controversy

The school has used the Pioneers nickname since 1925 after previously being known at the Fighting Parsons or Fighting Ministers (1919-1925). Under the Pioneers moniker, DU athletic teams have had the following mascots: Pioneer Pete (1925 to 1968), Denver Boone (1968 to 1998), Ruckus the red-tailed hawk (1999 to 2007), and since 2008, the school has been without an official mascot. Denver Boone first fell into controversy in 1984 when university administrators began to phase out the Daniel Boone-inspired mascot due to "male gender stereotyping and its specifically western symbolism". By 1999, the transition away from Boone was complete with the unveiling of Ruckus by Chancellor Daniel Ritchie. Ruckus was eventually phased out in 2008 after failing to gain traction with students, student-athletes, and alumni. In 2013, a task force was formed to generate three new mascot options - a jackrabbit, an elk, or a mountaineer - under the Pioneers moniker. Although a survey found 70% of respondents would be receptive or neutral on a new mascot, respondents did not coalesce around any option to merit selection.

Despite the removal of Denver Boone as the official mascot, the university maintains Pioneers as the moniker for its athletics and general university representation. The use of the Pioneers moniker has generated controversy among faculty, staff, and students. The university founder territorial governor John Evans was found culpable by a university committee in the Sand Creek massacre. In November 1864, US Cavalry attacked the Cheyenne and Arapahoe people at a site near Eads, in Southeastern Colorado, killing mostly women, children, and elders. DU has deep ties to the Sand Creek Massacre. Not only was John Evans the founder of the university, Colonel John Chivington who led the attack was also one of the early donors and Board of Trustees members. In 2014, the DU John Evans Study Committee Report was produced and found Evans culpable for the massacre, given his "aggressively anti-Native rhetoric and actions leading up to the massacre".

The scholars on the DU Evans Committee recommended removing the Pioneers moniker, as it glorified the violent legacy of settler colonialism that was specifically perpetrated against Native peoples in the area. Since the university is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, the report argues that removing this horrific reminder is necessary: "Instead of asking Native community members whose ancestors were sacrificed before the march of American settler pioneers to sacrifice yet again for the sake of our 'brand,' the University of Denver should finally lay the Pioneer moniker to rest."

Notable alumni and faculty

Faculty

Lynn Schofield Clark, Professor and Director in Media, Film, and Journalism

Robert Davine, Professor of Accordion and Music Theory

Charles E. H. Kauvar, Professor of Rabbinic Literature

Maciej Kumosa, Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Thomas Nail, Professor of philosophy

Galena K. Rhoades, Research professor