American Association of University Professors @ Colorado State University

Happy fall semester to everyone whose work powers Colorado State University. As usual, CSU’s administration is celebrating our shared achievements, especially our progress on a series of construction projects and our first season competing in the Pac-12 athletic conference. These achievements are real, but they also fall short of what we could do with the resources we have. Our chapter of the AAUP is committed to improving the lives of faculty, instructors, researchers, and academic professionals at CSU. We are convinced that democratizing CSU and improving pay and benefits, would advance not just our interests, but the interests of our students and the people of Colorado.

Working at CSU is frustrating because important decisions are made with little or no input from workers. CSU’s administration gives lip service to “shared governance,” but it runs this University from the top down. Last year, CSU’s administration announced it would eliminate 178 full-time equivalent positions just two days before laying off scores of longtime colleagues. This year, we have been told to expect more cuts, without any indication of whose jobs are on the line. Although we are supposedly in our second “parallel year” of CSU’s new budget model, the administration has still not shared its formulas for determining College budgets. Increasing transparency and accountability at CSU will benefit faculty, staff, and students.

Living in Fort Collins is also increasingly unaffordable for CSU workers, because many do not earn a living wage and our raises do not keep pace with the cost of living. The average “merit” raise for faculty and administrative professionals this year is 3.0%, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that inflation will come in at 3.6%. That means that most of us are a bit poorer than we were last year. Moreover the AAUP’s online calculator shows that these raises leave us about 13% worse off than we were a decade ago. Paltry raises make it difficult for CSU to retain faculty and staff. Guaranteeing all workers decent wages and annual cost of living adjustments would allow us to put down roots in Fort Collins and invest in our jobs at CSU.

Our chapter of the AAUP has two main strategies for making CSU more democratic and equitable. First, we leverage Faculty Council’s existing powers to hold CSU’s leadership to account. This year we are working to get AAUP members on every Faculty Council committee to set an agenda that advances our interests. Our member Prof. Kari Anderson is now representing faculty on CSU’s Board of Governors, and we will also be campaigning to make that Board a more transparent and accountable institution. Second, we organize to unionize CSU faculty, instructors, researchers, and academic professionals. Colorado labor law still excludes most public sector workers from unionization, but the time is ripe to change that. This year we will be working with our allies in UCW, COWINS, and other public sector unions to pass legislation that grants us the right to bargain collectively with CSU over our wages and working conditions. Our power comes from our union.

We need you to achieve our goals. Please join our general meetings, which are open to all CSU workers. All of our meetings are posted on our website and you can add them to your calendar by clicking this link. And please join the AAUP to fight for higher education at CSU and beyond. Together, we can make CSU a better university.

Anders Fremstad, President, AAUP-CSU

AAUP-CSU Executive Committee

Please join AAUP-CSU and partner organizations for the annual May Day Picnic on Sunday, May 3 from 12pm – 2pm. this family-friendly celebration of unions and labor will include food, games and activities, pro-labor speakers and more. Please come join us to celebrate spring and the end of the semester, while working to support workers in the Northern Colorado Community.

Register at: https://www.mobilize.us/coloradoea/event/941671/

Get the NoKingsAAUP to join the QR-based scavenger hunt.

In January, President Parsons asked all units at Colorado State University to submit budget cut proposals of at least 8.75% of expenses. On Monday, CFO Brendan Hanlon announced his committee’s recommendation to cut 178 full-time equivalent positions at CSU. Yesterday, many of our colleagues were given notice that their positions will be terminated.

Even as our friends and coworkers are being laid off, CSU’s administration is not providing any information about what jobs will be eliminated until after the Board of Governors finalizes its proposal. Many of us are frustrated and confused by the opaqueness of the entire process.

The American Association of University Professors CSU Chapter believes that transparency is necessary for accountability. The campus community requires information about these cuts as soon as possible. 

Towards that end, we are surveying faculty for information you may have about budget cuts in your unit. We would appreciate any information you can share via this short confidential survey. We also want to hear from you about your thoughts and concerns about the process by which these cuts are being decided.

Please join AAUP-CSU at 1:00-1:50pm on Wednesday, March 11 in 386 LSC to learn about our colleagues’ “Forbidden Knowledge.” 

Many of our colleagues here at CSU are facing bans and funding cuts due to their research topics. This Teach-In sponsored by the American Association of University Professors as part of The Democracy Summit at CSU will shine a spotlight on these topics. 

Read about faculty concerns about the Colorado State System Chancellor search in the Rocky Mountain Collegian.

“(This) suggests that Dr. Frank is, in fact, naming a successor rather than conducting an objective search for a new chancellor to lead the CSU system,” the AAUP’s letter reads. “It is part of a broader pattern of administrative behavior that includes the presidential ‘searches’ for CSU-Fort Collins and CSU-Pueblo, both of which resulted in the appointment of people close to the current chancellor with little to no input from stakeholders in the broader university communities. The latter, it should be noted, ultimately resulted in major embarrassment to the system. The current situation cannot be attributed to ignorance of national precedents or the best practices outlined by AAUP; Dr. Frank and the BOG have been informed in the past about the problematic nature of this course of action by local AAUP chapters and, in the case of Pueblo, also by the national AAUP Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance.”

“This is the second time in half a year that I’ve been compelled to attend the Board of Governors meeting to voice my concerns about blatant disregard for the principles of shared governance and egregious disrespect shown to the faculty staff and students of CSU,” Munsky said in public comment. “Last September, it was about illegal and draconian changes in the free speech policy, and today it is about an embarrassing and shamefully inappropriate search for the next chancellor of the CSU System. There needs to be a full external search. The Colorado State System is a public institution that serves almost 50,000 students and employs over 7,500 faculty and staff. We deserve a chancellor who has undergone a rigorous selection process that is based on nationally recognized best practices.”