In summer 2004, the University of Colorado Board of Regents voted to combine the Anschutz Medical Campus with its Denver campus. The impetus was the university's vision of creating a "21st Century" university that facilitated multidisciplinary learning and research. The Regents believed that a consolidated university that focused on excellence in urban research and in health sciences care and research would match well with its original research university in Boulder and its regional university in Colorado Springs. The consolidation also would realize significant efficiencies in administrative costs, according to two task forces that researched consolidation.
In 2009, after reviewing the progress of the consolidation, the Regents voted unanimously to affirm its decision to consolidate the two campuses under the name University of Colorado Denver.