BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Most community college faculty are paid poverty-level wages and so can’t afford the laptops they need to teach, especially when they teach remotely. Even so, neither state lawmakers nor college administrators budget for them. Perhaps, I thought, a national initiative might provide them the technology they need to serve the nation’s most…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS It is not only Colorado’s thousands of higher education faculty who stand to benefit through collective bargaining, but also Colorado’s hundreds of thousands of college students, their parents, and our state’s 5.7 million taxpayers. Why? Because when employers and employees make decisions together through collective bargaining, those negotiations require disclosure of financial…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS For organizers, the benefit of watching Hogan’s Heroes reruns cannot be overstated. The 1960s sitcom details how inmates of a German World War II prisoner of war camp thwart enemy plans night and day, right under the noses of their Nazi warders. Twist that design just slightly, and you can reframe their…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Note: The Colorado Conference published this press release yesterday. It is another example of how activists can be their own journalists. Research your organization and the larger context for the decision-making destroying the profession. Crunch the numbers and provide memorable images of what those numbers mean. Set the record straight with facts…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS We in the Colorado Conference asked ourselves a few questions as the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine began to lift. Could we create a midsummer event requiring just a few hundred miles of driving that would bring together AAUP members from half a dozen cities? Could we link up, via satellite, to the AAUP…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Along with workers of all stripes mobilizing for better pay, better working conditions, and human dignity, the low-wage faculty majority of the wealthy Colorado Community College System has been organizing for change. So they have at their fingertips deeply hidden data they need for their advocacy, the American Association of University Professors…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS A hefty third wave of federal funds is headed to higher education, and millions of it to Colorado’s Community College System. Today Pres. Joe Biden signed into law the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The bill includes $40 billion for public higher education. These funds follow the 2020 CARES Act that…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS The sobering social and economic costs of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic cannot be overstated. The challenge for teachers to keep working via Zoom are not so much physical now, as they are mental and emotional, especially for those of us used to teaching face-to-face in classrooms. Being in Zoom rooms too often…
POSTED BY CAPRICE LAWLESS The statement was written by Don Eron, a retired Senior Instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder and former member of the AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. It was approved by the Executive Committee of the Colorado Conference on February 8, 2021. On January 22, 2021, the University…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Here is our press release, sent yesterday. It is good news for our 4,600+ adjunct colleagues, a salute to the years-long effort of AAUP Colorado Community College System (CCCS) chapter members and the Colorado Conference Executive Committee. Contact: AAUP Colo. Conf. Co-Presidents Caprice Lawless, coloradocaprice@gmail.com Steve Mumme, Stephen.mumme@colostate.edu Dec. 21, 2020 FOR…