Papers of Mary Ontiveros

Mary Ontiveros attended CSU from 1969 to 1973. Beginning In 1974, she served in a variety of leadership positions at the university, including as executive director of admissions, associate vice president in the Division of Enrollment and Access, and as a faculty member in the School of Education. In 2010, Ontiveros named CSU’s first vice president for diversity and built the office from the ground up during her 10 years in the role until she retired in 2020.

Mary Ontiveros was champion for diversity from the time she was a student to her retirement. As a Latina student, Ontiveros participated in marches and vigils calling attention to the inequality experienced by people of color on campus. During her career, she helped start scholarship programs for first-generation and minority students, initiated the employee climate survey, founded the Multicultural Staff and Faculty Network, and chaired the University President’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion. Ontiveros also co-founded the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the National Association of Diversity officers in Higher Education and served on the steering committee of the Colorado Coalition for the Educational Advancement of Latinxes. She was a member of the Community Equity Initiative in Fort Collins. In honor of Ontiveros’ distinguished work, CSU established the Ontiveros Latinx Fellowship Program fund. Mary Ontiveros died on February 19, 2022 at the age of 70.

The Papers of Mary Ontiveros consists of reports on diversity issues, administrative files, preparation for speeches she gave, certificates of achievement, travel itineraries and guides, and papers related to the Colorado Diversity Officers for Colorado. Also present are photographs, CSU publications featuring Ontiveros, newspaper clippings, and correspondence, including the many thank-you cards she received during her tenure at CSU. Due to the presence of Social Security numbers and other sensitive documents, some of the collection is restricted and requires a review of the papers by the archivist before access is granted.

An interview with Ontiveros for the CSU sesquicentennial celebration and documentary, The Great Experiment: CSU at 150, is available in CSU’s digital repository, Mountain Scholar. An earlier oral history from 1999 is also available.