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AAUP-CSU Supports the Fort Collins Starbucks Picket Line on Oct. 26.

Starbucks Workers United in Colorado ask community members to support unionized Starbucks workers as they fight for the first national fast food service union contract in the United States.

Here are some basic facts about the fight they are up against:

  • $68 Million – The amount of daily profit Starbucks makes
  • $25 billion – Starbucks’ annual profit last year.
  • 6,666 – How many times more CEO Brian Niccol makes a year than his barista
  • Less than $20,000 – The annual salary of a median Starbucks barista.
  • Less than 0.5% – The percentage of profits baristas are asking for in their economic proposals.

This fall and winter, the campaign is heating up across the country and starting with more than 70 practice pickets nationwide. Each picket will have off-the-clock workers from surrounding area union shops, all standing together as one. This action is just one step in an escalation that will build toward Workers United’s biggest strike in over 100 years. We need support now, more than ever, as we force Starbucks back to the bargaining table. But this fight isn’t just for baristas; it’s a rallying cry to labor members and allies everywhere to take a stand against injustice and oligarchy.

Workers United is calling on all our local allies to stand with this October 26 from 10 AM-12 PM on our Mega Practice Picket line outside the College and Stuart Starbucks (1708 S College Ave, Fort Collins, CO 80525-1009). “We would love to have members of other labor unions, along with allies, there to help us make Fort Collins practice picket the biggest and loudest, so Brian Niccol can hear us all the way from his new $100 million office in California!” Michael Wilkins (michael.wilkins@workers-united.org).

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AAUP-CSU Newsletter, October 2025

AAUP-CSU’s October 2025 Newsletter is now available (click here!). There is a lot going on, and AAUP-CSU is active in taking a stand for employee rights, academic freedom, free speech and student services. Please distribute to all your colleagues, friends, and family and join us at this Wednesday’s general meeting.

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Membership Drive

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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:

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AAUP Needs YOUR Help to Defend CSU

CSU needs your help now more than ever!

Like many universities across the country, CSU is facing unprecedented threats in the form of a disturbing, so-called “civil rights complaint” that has been brought against Colorado State University by a group known as America First Legal. This organization, which was founded by Stephen Miller and named after a KKK slogan, cares nothing about truth, education, or the Colorado State community. Their frivolous attack seeks only to intimidate us so that they may exert political control over our state and university.

AAUP-CSU needs your help to Stand up and Fight Back.

Write to CSU President Amy Parsons, Chancellor Tony Frank, and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and ask them to remain strong and to protect our students, faculty and staff.

The links below will open email drafts addressed to each of these officials*. Simply edit the email to explain why you stand with CSU. Then, sign it with your full name and Colorado city or county of residence, and hit send.

* Note — some browsers (e.g., Duck-Duck-Go) may cut off half of the message. If this occurs, you can copy and paste the full message from below.


Suggested Email Text (Please feel free to edit):

Dear CSU President Amy Parsons / CSU Chancellor Tony Frank / Attorney General Phil Weiser,

As a member of the northern Colorado community, I value the role that Colorado State University plays in our region: educating students, supporting community-based research, promoting economic growth, and serving as a hub for cultural, intellectual, and democratic engagement. I am writing about the disturbing federal complaint that America First Legal (AFL) has brought against Colorado State University.

America First Legal does not share Colorado values. In Colorado, we are proud that our community is diverse and welcoming. We believe that the university must  ensure that all students have equitable access to educational opportunities, and that programs should be in place to support students’ diverse needs. And we believe that college campuses should be places for open discussion, learning, and research, free of government censorship.

I am writing to ask you to stand firm and continue to ensure that CSU’s students, faculty, and staff can pursue the institution’s educational and research mission unimpeded. Please support AAUP-CSU’s proposed resolution to build a collaborative protection network among institutions in Colorado to defend these principles and empower our universities to: 

  • Keep our student centers open and resources available to all students–as they are now.
  • Do not agree to remove courses or requirements from the curriculum.
  • Do not allow infringements of free speech inside or outside of the classroom.
  • Fight every attempt to withdraw lawfully allocated research funding in court–don’t cave to political extortion.

Thank you for your leadership in this moment. Universities are being asked to make tough choices because they are a bulwark of democracy. Use the leverage that you have to ensure that CSU remains a vital community resource and an engine of healthy democracy. 

Sincerely,

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AAUP-CSU condemns attacks against CSU from the AFL.

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing about the disturbing, so-called “civil rights complaint” that has been brought against Colorado State University by a group known as America First Legal. This out-of-state organization, which was founded by Stephen Miller and named after a KKK slogan, cares nothing about truth, education, or the Colorado State community. Their frivolous attack seeks only to intimidate us so that they may exert political control over our university. 

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at CSU believes deeply in our land grant mission to provide an affordable and high quality education that supports all members of our community. We ask CSU President Parsons, Chancellor Tony Frank, and the entire CSU administration and Board of Governors to stand with AAUP-CSU and other campus organizations to collectively resist these threats.

We renew our call to support the AAUP Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact for Colorado Institutions of Higher Education, which passed with overwhelming support by both the Associated Students of the Colorado State University (ASCSU) and the CSU Faculty Council, as well as the faculty organizations at many other institutions in the state. Only by collaborating, will Colorado’s colleges and universities be able to build the strength necessary to protect our academic freedom.

In order to strengthen our voice, we ask all those involved in teaching and research at CSU to please join the AAUP, the nation’s most powerful advocacy and collective bargaining unit for higher education. The AAUP has filed several active lawsuits to protect university members, including to block mass termination of science grants, to reverse unconstitutional executive DEI orders, and stop politically motivated deportations. Help us to defend ourselves against these unlawful attacks on higher education, and together we will ensure that all CSU students, staff, and faculty may continue to be treated with inclusion, integrity, respect, and social justice as they pursue excellence in academics and research.

I apologize for disturbing your much-deserved summer break, but we are facing a critical moment, and we must respond if we wish to maintain the core principles of our University community.

Mary Van Buren,
President, AAUP-CSU
On Behalf of the Executive Committee  

Add the July 10 AAUP meeting to your calendar: Google Calendar

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AAUP-CSU at the No Kings march

The CSU chapter of the AAUP attended the No Kings march on June 14. What an amazing turnout — 10,000 or more people marching, just in Fort Collins.

AAUP members and CSU professors Anders Fremstad (Department of Economics) and Brian Munsky (School of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering) both spoke at the event to protest against the unconstitutional intimidation against free speech for students, staff and faculty.

“Trump attacks universities for the same reason all would-be kings attack universities: they are independent civic institutions dedicated to the pursuit of truth,” explained Dr. Fremstad. “Trump has detained or deported hundreds of international students and scholars. In some cases, the administration has detained university members for denouncing the genocide in Gaza. In most cases, it has deported campus members without providing any reason whatsoever. This semester, two of my students had their visas revoked without any semblance of due process. One day they were in class, and the next they were on flights home. Even tenured faculty with green cards are at risk. These attacks undermine American universities and the United State’s place in the world.”

“It breaks my heart that they cannot openly criticize the indiscriminate bombing of starving children without risking torture and deportation by the US government,” Dr. Munsky followed. “These intimidation tactics need to stop. Our students desperately need our help. Their education, their careers, even their lives are at risk. If we don’t raise our voices to protect our students’ free speech today, there will be no one to speak up for us tomorrow.”

The reception was outstanding – thank you Fort Collins for your support for academic freedom, for free speech and for all students, faculty and staff at CSU.

We’d love to see and post some of your photos!

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Next AAUP-CSU General Meeting – July 10, 2025.

Our next AAUP general meeting will be on Thursday, July 10, 5-6pm at Avo’s. Please join us and bring your colleagues, friends and family. Children love the water features and tree-house on Avo’s patio.

It is summer, but political attacks on university education and research are not taking a break, so neither can we. This meeting will give us an opportunity to meet each other, to celebrate our work and accomplishments, and to plan our next actions in the short and long term.

We will be sending a more detailed agenda the week before the meeting, but we know that it will be along the themes of Recruitment, Collaboration, Finances, Upcoming Events, and AAUP-CSU Officers.

            Bring your friends and colleagues!

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            AAUP-CSU joins the ACLU, Amnesty International, and CSU Students to support Firewall for Freedom petition

            AAUP-CSU is joining with the ACLU, Amnesty International, and a passionate team of CSU Students to support the Firewall for Freedom, a petition demanding that CSU take an active stance to support free speech on campus, to protect our immigrant, trans, and queer community members, and to reject politically-based censorship of academic activities.

            The AAUP and our partners ask all who are safe, able, comfortable, and willing to share this petition through their classes, research labs, email lists and social media accounts.

            To sign the petition, scan the QR code below or visit the link by clicking the image.

            Please share this on your favorite social media platform!

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            Protestors Line the Streets for Democracy – May 1, 2025

            AAUP-CSU members will be joining IndivisibleNoCo to line the streets in Old Town Fort Collins on Thursday, May 1 from 4pm to 6pm as part of the May Day National Day of Action. Come join the crowds on College Ave from Mulberry to Horsetooth. LEARN MORE HERE.  

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            ASCSU Unanimously Passes a Resolution for a Mutual Defense Compact for Colorado Institutions of Higher Education

            On Wednesday, April 30, 2025, the Associated Students of Colorado State University (ASCSU) discussed and passed their Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact for Colorado Institutions of Higher Education.

            The full text of the ASCSU Resolution can be read here.

            Ellie Lutz, who made the motion to ASCSU, described the resolution “Without the help and support provided by the AAUP, this resolution would not have existed. This resolution shows that students and faculty are lockstep in protecting our campus, our research, our community, and many other aspects of our lives in higher education. This resolution also signals the start of a new era within CSU, an era of collaboration and mutual support that has never been seen before. I look forward to working with the AAUP in the future on thank them again for their crucial support. We stand stronger together.”

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