The Office for Inclusive Excellence at Colorado State University is renaming the Inclusive Excellence House in honor of the late Mary Ontiveros, CSU’s first vice president for diversity and first Latina vice president.

The ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, May 3, from 4-5 p.m. at the Office for Inclusive Excellence at 645 S. Shields St. Register to attend at col.st/yJEwA. Parking will be available at Moby Arena, with a shuttle beginning service at 3:15 p.m. Organizers suggest arriving early because large attendance is anticipated for this event.

The naming marks the first time a building at CSU has been named after a Latinx individual, according to the Office for Inclusive Excellence.

Ontiveros, who passed away on Feb. 19, 2022, was an alumna who spent more than 50 years on campus as a student and employee. She left a lasting legacy championing diversity, equity and inclusion.

When Ontiveros arrived in the fall of 1969 from Pueblo, Colorado, the first-generation college student was engaged and committed to social justice. When she transitioned from student to employee, her impact grew, and so did her vision. She was part of the Project Go team — an organization that brought the cultural and resource centers to CSU.

“My mother worked tirelessly to create a campus that was inclusive as well as to address the issues that the institution faced in its efforts to strive for excellence in the areas of inclusivity and diversity,” her son, Matthew Ontiveros Burt, said. “She will forever be remembered in the hearts of many as a pioneer and the embodiment of a true leader.”

Much of what defines CSU regarding diversity and access can be traced back to Ontiveros, according to the Office for Inclusive Excellence. She was instrumental in many university-wide initiatives, including the Principles of Community, policies for pronoun inclusion, the Institutional Diversity Plan and the creation of the Faith, Belief, and Religious Inclusion calendar, to name a few.

Mary Ontiveros House

The soon-to-be-named Mary Ontiveros House has a rich history dating back to 1939, when Denver architect Edwin Francis created the original drawings of the home. These historical blueprints of the colonial revival-styled home are kept at the Denver Public Library in the Western History Department.

Colorado A&M (now CSU) took possession of the property on May 1, 1946, and it served as home to four presidents and office space for various divisions and departments before being converted to the Office of the Vice President’s Office for Diversity in August 2014.

“Naming the house after my mother will forever be a testimony to the lifetime of work and dedication she contributed to Colorado State University’s faculty, staff and student body,” her son said. “She always kept a quote by H. Emerson Fosdick on her desk that read, in part, ‘…To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition. To know even one life has breathed easier because you had lived. This is to have succeeded.’ And this is the metric that I personally believe she used to measure her own success.”

Vice President for the Office for Inclusive Excellence Kauline Cipriani said: “For decades, Mary Ontiveros painstakingly created the scaffolding necessary to support the vibrant inclusive excellence work that currently exists here, and for which CSU is known nationally. Naming this house after her means neither she, nor her life’s work, will ever be forgotten.  It is an undeniable testament to our commitment to what was so important to her – access, success, inclusion and excellence. I am incredibly proud to work at an institution that values the life’s work of tireless social justice champions like Mary Ontiveros in this way.”

Associate Vice President for Inclusive Excellence Shannon Archibeque-Engle, who worked alongside Mary for several years, added: “Mary knew the importance of representation. As an emerging Hispanic Serving Institution, it is so important that students, faculty and staff see themselves represented. It is truly fitting that we have a building named after someone who gave so much to the university. Mary O. defined what it means to work for access and inclusion at CSU.”