An experienced and innovative educational administrator, James Baker is credited with building the University of Colorado into a full-fledged university. Strong and aggressive, he ran CU with a firm and righteous hand, but was able to share a good joke, even one on himself.

During the Baker administration, several schools and colleges were established- law, business, education, pharmacy, engineering, music, and the graduate school- and academic requirements were raised. He promoted the university around the state, insisting that CU was the head of the Colorado public school system.