Sep. 14—Tracy Ferrell, an associate teaching professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been a faculty member there for about 20 years. She said she's consistently seen wages fail keep up with the cost of living.
Ferrell said faculty members nearing end of their career should not be living paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford a mortgage or a new car.
"We're just struggling," Ferrell said. "We live paycheck to paycheck, even though we are moving toward the end of our career, and there's no possibility to get higher wages. We're just stuck where we are."
Ferrell was one of dozens of faculty, staff and students who gathered Thursday afternoon for a walkout outside the University Memorial Center to demand higher wages.
The United Campus Workers union organized the walkout and created a petition that's circulating online with four demands for CU Boulder administration.
Demands include: A 20% cost of living adjustment for all graduate workers and staff at CU Boulder; a minimum per class rate of $14,000 for non-tenure track faculty in all departments; a $10,000 raise for each promotion from assistant to associate to full teaching professor, and an annual 6% cost of living adjustment added into the contracts for all graduate student workers, staff and non-tenure track faculty.
CU Boulder spokesperson Steve Hurlbert said there are multiple shared governance groups that are elected representing faculty and staff on campus, including Boulder Faculty Assembly, Staff Council, the Graduate and Professional Student Government and the CU Student Government.
"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," Hurlbert said. "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."
CU Boulder is under no legal obligation to recognize the UCW union. The UCW is an unrecognized union, and state law does not grant higher education workers collective bargaining rights.
Adjunct lecturer and union member Rachel Wood said she feels "quite disenfranchised" and not compensated for her labor.
"I love what I do and I love teaching, and I'd like to do it for a long time, but it's hard when I'm not making enough money," Wood said.
Riley Bartlett, also an adjunct lecturer, said all the lecturers, contingent faculty and undergraduate and graduate student workers bring something important to their work and should be compensated fairly.