Greetings AAUP-CSU Members and Supporters,
AAUP-CSU has been busy on campus and in our community promoting academic freedom, administrative transparency, and equity and security for academic workers. Keep reading to learn more about the CSU budget, our presence at campus and community events, and a new app you can download that promotes solidary and connection. We’ve moved our monthly general meeting to campus and are drawing a bigger group of folks. We’d love for you to come (whether you’re a member or not), share your concerns, and get involved. It’s a great way to make connections with folks across the university.
[Take Action] [Stay Informed] [Get Support] [Join AAUP-CSU]
Take Action
Monthly meeting | Monday, April 6, 4:00-5:00pm | Ramskeller
We gather monthly to plan actions, discuss concerns, and build solidarity. All are welcome (faculty, staff, students, and community members). This month we’ll be discussing how we can organize public opposition to how the administration is handling the budget. We’ll also discuss our plans for expanding membership so that we can work toward our ultimate goal of gaining collective bargaining rights.
Is Your Salary Keeping Up with Inflation?
AAUP-CSU has developed a tool to calculate whether your annual merit raises are keeping pace with inflation. On average, when adjusted for cost-of-living increases, many faculty are worse off than they were in 2020. Try out the calculator and see where you stand.
The University Budget
In his most recent email to campus concerning the budget, Chancellor Tony Frank noted that, despite “modest good news” from the state’s Joint Budget Committee, the CSU system will continue “reviewing expenses and having difficult conversations that prioritize expenses against our role and mission.” Frank concluded, “I think it’s safe to say that our System office and our campuses will still be contracting in FY27, along with the state, and working to align spending and revenue.”
What Chancellor Frank’s email fails to note is that the funds coming from the state are tiny relative to CSU’s overall budget. CSU’s budget is about $1.8 billion. Earlier this year, President Parsons warned campus about a $38m-$48m budget gap that might be created by the state’s higher education allocation, but that’s just 2.3-2.7% of our overall budget. The $2.2m “net positive impact” identified in the Chancellor’s message is essentially a rounding error. Here are some budget numbers not included in the Chancellor’s most recent email:
- Colleges receive just 44% of the tuition dollars they generate. The rest is reserved by the administration for spending decisions that often divert funds from instruction, student support, and faculty retention and compensation.
- CSU’s administration instructed all academic departments to propose up to 8.75% in budget cuts–for most academic departments, cuts that steep will require eliminating faculty, staff, and/or graduate students who directly instruct and support students. We’re still waiting to hear who and what they decide to cut.
- CSU’s Chancellor and Board of Governors have established a pattern of buying out contracts for coaches and high-level administrators (like our previous president and provost) who are capably performing their duties, resulting in expensive “golden parachute” packages and doubling up on costly salaries for years.
- According to the Chronicle of Higher Education‘s public university compensation tracker, President Parsons’s salary was $640,000 in 2024, when she also received a $100,000 bonus. Her current salary, according to the CSU compensation website, is $666,250. According to the Chronicle, in 2024, Chancellor Frank received a total compensation package of $867,336, a sum that included a $200,000 bonus. As faculty and staff positions are being eliminated, faculty salaries fail to keep pace with inflation, and major hiring decisions are made without input from faculty and staff, what are our President and Chancellor doing to earn these lavish bonuses?
- While compensation for administrators skyrockets, annual faculty raises have failed to keep pace with the cost of living. Last year, 25% of CSU faculty received no merit or cost-of-living increases because the administration decided that the top 25% of faculty earners should bear the brunt of the budget cuts. Yet the actual top earners on campus–coaches and top administrators–retained contractually-obligated salary increases and bonuses. We’re even paying several not to work!
- CSU has made questionable investments (e.g., the stadium, the SPUR campus, Todos Santos) that have failed to produce the promised returns. They’re doubling down on massive athletic spending by buying out the football coach’s contract mid-season and switching to the PAC-12 conference.
AAUP-CSU is organizing a faculty response to this administration’s handling of the university budget. With a new chancellor onboarding this year (another one of the double salaries we’re paying for!) faculty need to respond loudly and strategically, urging our administrators to spend our students’ tuition dollars more wisely.
Promote AAUP-CSU to Your Colleagues!
As part of our ongoing membership campaign, we have designed postcards that you can distribute to colleagues and post on your office door. Let folks know that we are working for them! Reach out to Kari Anderson if you’d like a stack of postcards!
Stand with JBS Workers in Greeley
Workers at the JBS facility in Greeley are standing together to fight for fair wages, safe working conditions, and respect on the job. During a strike, many workers and their families face financial hardship as they sacrifice their paychecks to defend their rights and improve conditions for all workers
The JBS Greeley Workers Strike Support Fund has been established to provide community support for these workers and their families during this critical time. AAUP-CSU stands in solidarity with our fellow workers. If you can, support their strike fund. Any amount helps.
Stay Informed
AAUP-CSU at No Kings 3: Promoting Community Collaboration
AAUP-CSU helped organize No Kings 3 and were instrumental in ensuring that our community partners got time to promote their missions during the rally’s official program. Our table helped raise awareness about the challenges facing higher ed, and one of the rally’s emcees was an AAUP-CSU member.
In support of No Kings, AAUP-CSU recently released a fun and useful mobile phone app called NoKingsAAUP. Built entirely on artwork and coding contributions by AAUP student and faculty volunteers and incorporating logos and information from more than 20 local organizations, the NoKingsAAUP provides an essential tool to promote community building and solidarity. Even between events, the NoKingsAAUP app works on Androids, iPhones, and desktop browsers to provide a safe means to scan, save, and share QR codes, to view and share protest signs from the No Kings rally, and to keep connected with the progressive Fort Collins community. The NoKings AAUP app is free to download and install at: https://aaupcsu.github.io/NoKingsAAUP/.
AAUP-CSU at the Democracy Summit: “Forbidden Knowledge in Illiberal Times”
Our panel at CSU’s annual Democracy Summit was well attended! AAUP-CSU Vice President Gretchen Steidley moderated a teach-in highlighting the impact of funding cuts and legislative restrictions on academic freedom at CSU. The session focused on research and teaching areas under attack, from climate and environmental justice to equity and anti-racism. Panelists shared their experiences, discussed the consequences of censorship for democratic dialogue, and spotlighted the “forbidden knowledge” that is essential to evidence-based research. We are working to make academic freedom a key focus of major campus events.
AAUP-CSU-Backed Candidate is the Next Faculty Council Representative to the Board of Governors
Last month, we urged members to voice their support for Karrin Anderson’s candidacy to represent CSU faculty on the Board of Governors. We are pleased to report that she came in first out of three candidates. Anderson’s presence on Faculty Council Executive Committee and the Board of Governors means that the concerns of our members and other faculty constituents will be forcefully articulated when consequential decisions are being made. Would you like to represent AAUP-CSU and your colleagues on Faculty Council or Faculty Council standing committees? Reach out to AAUP-CSU so we can let you know how to become more involved in shared governance at CSU!
Get Support
AAUP works for you!
Read the AAUP’s recently published report on academic freedom and collective bargaining.
Check out AAUP’s collection of reports, articles, and books on a variety of topics in AAUP’s Issues in Higher Ed page. Use their research to advocate for faculty and students on our campus!
Membership has its benefits! Check out the resources available to national AAUP members, including webinars, toolkits, a subscription to Academe, and benefits from the American Federation of Teachers.
Join AAUP-CSU
Membership Drive
The AAUP@CSU is mobilizing to respond to threats aimed at higher education and changes faculty are experiencing on campus.
We want to grow our numbers and we need your help! Invite your colleagues and friends to connect with AAUP@CSU:
- Sign up for our newsletter.
- Become a member or supporter.
- Attend our monthly meeting the first Monday of each month, 4:00-5:00 p.m., at Ramskeller in the Lory Student Center.
