As students rushed out of classes near the University of Colorado Boulder’s University Memorial Center, dozens of faculty members and staff chanted, demanding better treatment from the university.
Parts of the crowd, which included non-tenure track faculty, contracted staff and student workers, held signs with slogans such as “We need a raise!” or “$14K per class.” Members of United Campus Workers Colorado, a currently unrecognized union that represents workers across the University of Colorado system, spoke to the crowd, demanding better working conditions for non-tenure track faculty and staff.
“Who do you think is doing the lion's share of the undergraduate teaching work on this campus? It's graduate students, it's adjuncts, and it's those of us who are non-tenure track professors,” said Sigman Byrd, an associate teaching professor.
Members at the rally said CU has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in order to advance the university’s image and mission, including spending big on buildings, research projects and athletics. Meanwhile, members of UCW said money spent on faculty and staff haven’t kept pace with CU’s growth.
“As a graduate student, I am one of the main workers collecting and analyzing data, communicating with instructors and writing papers. Yet my take-home pay leaves me worried about paying for housing, health care and my student loans,” said Kristin Oliver, a graduate worker in the physics department. “Despite choosing to live outside of Boulder in Louisville, I am still going to be spending 44 percent of my stipend on housing before utilities.”
As of 2021, about 66 percent of faculty at CU were non-tenure-track, meaning they lack a clear path to lifetime employment, a perk of tenure-track positions. Non-tenure track faculty usually make less than their tenured counterparts, despite having similar credentials. Since the 2008 recession, universities have traditionally relied on a higher rate of non-tenure track faculty to teach more classes as budgets were slashed and cost-cutting measures had to be put in place.
UCW members called for several demands during the walkout:
- A 20 percent cost of living adjustment for all graduate workers and university staff at CU Boulder.
- A minimum per class rate of $14,000 for non-tenure track faculty.
- A raise of $10,000 whenever faculty members are promoted.
- Annual 6 percent cost of living adjustments added into existing contracts for all graduate workers, university staff and non-tenure track faculty.
CU said its efforts to offer a competitive wage to recruit and retain faculty are mainly worked on with shared governance groups on-campus, and that UCW is not part of those conversations.
“UCW is not a bargaining unit on campus or university governance group, and we will continue to address employee concerns through our established shared governance groups,” the university said in a statement. “CU Boulder continues to take meaningful action to recruit and retain quality faculty and staff through a number of salary and wage increases and benefit enhancements undertaken in recent years.”
When named finalist for the role of CU president in 2021, Todd Saliman told Colorado Matters he’s aware of the financial struggles faculty and staff face in Boulder. While he said he would explore options, he ultimately pushed the blame to the Colorado legislature for not providing more to universities.
“We're still 47th [in higher education funding] in the country, which means that our faculty and our staff get paid less than many of our peer institutions,” Saliman told Colorado Matters. “One of the impacts of that is it makes it harder to pay rent or to pay the mortgage and to find housing that you can afford.”
Jade Kelly, a worker at CU and president of CWA 7799, a collection of unions that includes UCW, said efforts to have an open dialogue with Saliman and other university leaders, have gone unanswered.
“We've seen the football program, ESPN, Fox, these corporations, private investors be prioritized while students and workers and faculty are ignored on repeat,” Kelly said. During the walkout, parts of the campus were being set up for the upcoming football game between CU and Colorado State University, a matchup receiving national attention.
Preliminary statistics at the university show an uptick in enrollment this year — about 1.8 percent, or 658 students. The bump has allowed CU to exceed the number of students it enrolled pre-pandemic, which is good news for the system's bottom line.
