It starts with pointed questions as he meets with families in the conference room at Rundus Funeral Home & Crematory in Broomfield, where Dudley is the general manager and funeral director. How is their loved one’s body going to be handled? Who will be caring for them? When, where and how will they be cremated or put in a casket?

Sometimes it comes out of the blue, like when a man called Dudley three years after Rundus cremated his loved one because he couldn’t stop thinking about whether or not he actually had the correct cremains.

“His mind just got wondering and he needed reassurance,” Dudley said. “Like, ‘How do I know this is in fact my person in the urn?'”

Whether it’s pointed questions from prospective clients or phone calls years after the fact, recent scandals in the state’s funeral industry have shaken Coloradans’ trust in the professionals who care for their deceased loved ones, funeral directors and industry experts told The Denver Post.

While Colorado lawmakers have made significant strides in adding state regulations to prevent future scandals, rehabilitating the funeral industry’s reputation is a more complicated task.

“The trust that’s been broken here, it’s going to take a long while for us to restore it,” said Matt Whaley, president of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association.

The effect of Colorado’s notoriously lax funeral home regulations burst into public view in 2018, when an FBI raid on Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose found that mother-daughter team Megan Hess and Shirley Koch stole and sold hundreds of bodies around the world to turn a profit.

Hess is now serving a 20-year prison sentence and Koch is serving a 15-year sentence.

Coloradans are still seeing the fallout of more recent scandals, like the active investigation into Davis Mortuary owner (and former Pueblo County coroner) Brian Cotter, who operated the mortuary where state inspectors found 24 decomposing bodies in a hidden room in August.

Dudley is often at a loss for words when he thinks about the scandals, like what happened at the Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose, where owners Jon and Carie Hallford allowed 191 bodies, stacked on top of each other, to decompose for over four years while giving families fake cremains.

The Hallfords both face decades-long prison sentences after pleading guilty in their state criminal cases.

“Even when we’re transferring (the deceased) from a cot to a dressing table, we’re making sure their head doesn’t bang. We’re treating them as if they’re still alive, with care and respect. That you could let those people languish for years… how could you do that?” Dudley said. “How could you sit in front of a family and hand them an urn knowing full well it’s Quikrete?”

So when the man called him out of the blue asking about his loved one’s cremains, Dudley explained that every person who is cremated gets a metal disk with a unique set of numbers that stays with them through the whole process and is zip-tied to the bag of cremains that are returned to families.

“I said, ‘Tell me that number. Don’t tell me the name of your person. I’ll go back to our cremation log and tell you the name associated with the number,'” Dudley said. “I came back, said I have that number associated with this person, and he just said, ‘Oh, thank God.'”

Scandals had statewide, local ripple effects

Cases of industry workers mishandling bodies in Montrose, Penrose, Denver and Pueblo have had a far-reaching effect on Colorado’s funeral home industry, said Kim Bridges, who owns the parent company that oversees three metro Denver funeral homes, including Rundus.

“When these things started happening, it was awful for the industry,” she said. “It makes everyone look at the industry with skepticism and that’s a shame because you need to be able to trust the people you entrust your loved one to.”

Bridges Funeral Services, which Bridges owns with her husband, also oversees funeral and mortuary facilities in New Mexico, Tennessee and Florida.

The uptick in funeral directors and staff encountering families who are anxious about cremating or burying their loved ones is not limited to Rundus, said Whaley, who has worked in the funeral home industry for 38 years and is now market director at Dignity Memorial.

More people are also asking to witness cremations to make sure they know exactly what is happening to their loved one, he said.

When Dudley encounters people with questions or doubts about the funeral and cremation process, he tries to be as transparent as possible, answering their questions with as much detail as they want and offering tours of the facility.

For most, the offer is enough to calm their fears, Dudley said. But about a third of those want to see everything, from the plain-but-clean room lined with cabinets and counters where the deceased are prepared for services, to the massive, gray crematory that looks similar to a metal shipping container.

Whaley, Dudley and Bridges all shared the same sentiment: Families asking more questions about the funeral process is a good thing and should be welcomed.

“If someone doesn’t want to give a consumer all the information they’re asking for, shame on them,” Bridges said. “The consumer should go somewhere else and ask for a tour of the place.”

That kind of simple and up-front communication is the right way to rebuild trust with the community after a crisis, said Andy Boian, founder and CEO of the Colorado- and California-based public relations firm Dovetail Solutions.

Boian and other public relations experts who spoke to The Denver Post commented on the scandals hypothetically, as neither have worked directly with funeral homes on this issue.

Good communication includes walking people through the process, making sure they understand what’s happening and circling back regularly, he said.

“At the end of the day, that would ratify and settle a lot of people’s concerns,” Boian said.

That transparency now extends into Colorado’s industry regulations after state legislators, motivated by recent scandals, passed new laws to prevent the same kind of situation from happening at funeral homes or mortuaries ever again.

Passed in 2024, the three new laws require funeral directors and other industry professionals to obtain licenses; for state regulators to perform routine inspections at facilities; and for businesses to obtain consent and share more information about body donation.

Colorado officials say the new regulations are already making a difference — for example, bodies discovered in a hidden room at Davis Mortuary in Pueblo were found by state inspectors during their first-ever visit to the facility — though that impact isn’t necessarily felt by the people doing the work every day.

Bridges jokes that her staff are more nervous about a drop-by visit from her than from state inspectors.

“We welcome all oversight because we conduct ourselves in such a way that it’s not an issue,” she said. “If you have to run around and get things right before someone comes in, you’re doing something wrong.”

That ethos, Boian said, also represents another avenue for funeral homes to redeem themselves in the eyes of the community.

“There’s also an opportunity here as well, and that is to be the best and most proficient at your craft,” he said.

Overcoming scandal, moving forward

Crisis management experts told The Denver Post that while the public is usually willing to forgive and forget scandals if those involved do a good job communicating, the fraught nature of dealing with death makes this more complicated.

“It’s really tricky when it’s something sensitive like this,” said Kara Schmiemann, senior director of crisis communications at Red Banyan, a national crisis PR firm with offices in Denver. “When it has to do with our loved ones, these are the most difficult industries when they face a crisis because there’s a lot of emotion packed in there.”

And while the scandals at a handful of Colorado funeral homes may have sown skepticism among the general public, they had the opposite effect on Arapahoe Community College student Luke Olson.

Olson, who studies in the mortuary science program, was pursuing a mechanical engineering degree before he switched career paths. He said he was drawn to the hospitality of the field and the family connection — his grandfather was a mortician for a tiny town of 90 people.

“Going into the practice is emboldening to me and a new generation of death care practitioners who want to uphold the law and repair the damage that’s been done to Colorado’s reputation in the past,” Olson said.

Contrary to the stereotype about funeral home owners trying to profit off of the bereaved, people who get into the profession are not doing it for the money, Olson said, describing the wages as “very middle class.” (Funeral directors earn $51,607 per year on average, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.)

“You are going into it with the anticipation of serving your community and serving families,” he said.

Olson’s perspective is common among people studying mortuary science, said Faith Haug, mortuary science program chair at Arapahoe Community College.

“One of the things I appreciate with where the younger generation of funeral directors want to go is that it’s more family-centered, where things are not just spirited away to a back room and nobody knows what goes on,” Haug said.

And if there is a sliver of good to be found in the horrors carried out at a handful of Colorado funeral homes, it’s the chance that people will also want to be more involved in the death process for their loved ones as a result, Haug said.

“We have taken families out of the process in many ways, and all these things coming to light show that they deserve more transparency and more involvement if that’s what they want,” she said.

Through Sunday. This is the final weekend to see Phamaly Theater Company’s production of “Pippin” at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which will be a revelation to anyone familiar with the beloved musical and a refreshing lift to anyone who isn’t. Stephen Schwartz’s story, which “follows the journey of young Pippin as he seeks happiness and fulfillment amidst a troupe of actors who may or may not have his best interests at heart,” comes to timely life with music, choreography and “themes that resonate across generations,” organizers wrote.

Notably, Phamaly is a multiple award-winning and nationally groundbreaking nonprofit that employs singers, actors and other theater professionals with disabilities, proving that high-level performing arts are accessible to everyone. Their show runs through Sunday, Aug. 24, at Kilstrom Theatre at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, at the corner of Speer Boulevard and Arapahoe Street in Denver. The Saturday, Aug. 23, performance includes ASL interpretation and audio. Shows at 7:30 p.m., except 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $47.20. Visit or for more details.

Ghost Canyon Fest expands

Thursday-Sunday. Now that the Underground Music Showcase appears to be on ice, the Ghost Canyon Festival might just be the city’s most prominent DIY music fest moving forward. The third annual event, co-presented with Wax Trax Records, takes place Thursday, Aug. 21, to Sunday, Aug. 24, along South Broadway at the Hi-Dive, Skylark Lounge, and Mutiny Information Cafe, but also at Capitol Hill’s Wax Trax and What’s Left Records in Colorado Springs.

Expect diverse local and national sounds from Pink Lady Monster, The Milk Blossoms, Neptune (not to be confused with N3PTUNE), Denver Vintage Reggae Society, Church Fire, Nguyen, Prymeck and Shiroishi, and other notable touring acts such as Black Eyes and Still House Plants. The independent fest includes free shows, with individual paid events ranging from $10 to $25. Buy tickets and see the full schedule at .

Unicorn Festival heads to Aurora

Saturday-Sunday. Despite being held in Littleton since 2017, this year’s Unicorn Festival, the kid-friendly event that celebrates all things related to the mythical creature — is moving from its previous home in Littleton to Arapahoe County Fairgrounds in Aurora. That’ll allow it to expand to 50,000 square feet of indoor space for its live “unicorns,” mermaids, fairies and princesses, as well as food trucks, face painters, foam parties, live butterflies, “unicorn rescue derbies” and more, organizers said.

It takes place Saturday, Aug. 23, and Sunday, Aug. 24, at 25690 E. Quincy Ave. All attractions and entertainment are included with festival admission of $25 (good for both days). Kids age 2 and under are free. Parking is free and on-site. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. both days. Visit for more details.

An art-market bounty

Through Sunday. This weekend marks the 14th Affordable Arts Festival at Arapahoe Community College, which offers “artwork worth thousands of dollars … priced at $150.” That includes 165 local and national artists raising money for the Arapahoe Community College Foundation’s Scholarship Fund (it’s gathered more than $320,000 overall, organizers said), supported by the $12 tickets (kids 12 and under are free). Visit for more.

Also this weekend, it’s the 23rd Summer Arts Market from Art Students League of Denver, which provides another great opportunity to peruse affordable paintings and art from 175 artists across a variety of disciplines. The Friday, Aug. 24-Saturday, Aug. 24, family-friendly event takes place 9 a.m.-5 p.m. each day between East First Avenue, Sherman Street, East Fourth Avenue, and Logan Street in Denver. Tickets for the nonprofit market, which supports ASLD programming and education, are $7 in advance or $10 day-of (ages 12 and under free). Visit for more details.

But Sturm never lost his work ethic, his vision for the future, his desire to help the larger community in the present, and his sense of humor, family and colleagues said.

Sturm, a mover and shaker on Denver’s business scene in the 90s and 00s, died on Saturday at age 92, overcoming his setbacks and leaving his indelible mark on Colorado.

“He was in the office every day — even until right here at the end,” said Koger Propst, CEO at ANB Bank, which Sturm strung together from a group of troubled banks he acquired during the Savings and Loans crisis in the early 1990s.

Propst said Sturm was a thoughtful and strategic thinker who even into his late 80s and 90s never stopped planning.

Sturm’s second son, Stephen, described him as an amazing father, who was kind, attentive and thoughtful. He said his father worked until late last month and when he died this weekend, he was surrounded by family.

“He clearly lived a very busy life but he always made time for his family. You learned a lot through what he said, but you learned more through how he operated,” Stephen Sturm said.

Born Donald Lawrence Sturm to an immigrant family in Brooklyn on Jan. 10, 1932, Sturm attended City College of New York before being drafted into the U.S. Army. He moved to Denver to earn his law degree at the University of Denver, and then returned to New York, where he obtained a master’s degree in taxation law.

After working as an attorney for the Internal Revenue Service, Sturm joined the engineering and construction firm Peter Kiewit Sons Co. in Omaha, eventually becoming vice chairman. In 1984, he guided the company’s acquisition of Continental Group, a multi-national conglomerate.

In 1987, Sturm, previously married, met and married Susan Morgan, who survives him, along with his four children — Robert Sturm, Melanie Sturm, Stephen Sturm and Emily Sturm Ehrens.

The Sturms began acquiring failed banks and troubled properties in the early 1990s after Don left Kiewit and moved to Denver, which was especially hard hit by the , to be closer to their investments. The acquired banks, owned by Sturm Financial Group, came together as Denver-based ANB Bank, which now has 30 locations and $3 billion in assets.

Sturm emphasized building local management teams connected to the local community at each bank location, and understood the important role independent banks played, Propst said.

The family enterprise, named Alder, oversees the real estate holdings and has established master-planned communities over the years, the most recent being The Meadows at Castle Rock, where 20,000 residents live.

Sturm invested heavily in Cherry Creek North, redeveloping the old Tattered Cover building and creating Fillmore Plaza, and its investment arm has funded several startups.

Sturm also was part of a group that helped Continental Airlines emerge from bankruptcy in 1993 and he helped Kiewit spin off what would become Level 3 Communications.

That telecom investment, and a significant holding in WorldCom –once the country’s second-largest long-distance provider– helped Sturm reach an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion in 1999, per Forbes.

That year, he bid $461 million for Ascent Entertainment Group, owner of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and the soon-to-open Pepsi Center, beating a $400 million bid from Bill and Nancy Laurie, heirs of Walmart founder Sam Walton.

But city officials wanted guarantees that a new owner wouldn’t move either team for 25 years, which Sturm contested. That allowed Stan Kroenke, also associated with the Walton family, to slip in and acquire the two teams and arena in 2000.

Over the years, Sturm and his foundation have supported several area groups and institutions, including Judaism Your Way, which Sturm founded after rabbis refused to marry him and Sue; the Jewish Community Center of Denver; the Denver Museum of Nature and Science; the Summit Huts Association and Arapahoe Community College.

In 2019, the Sturm Family Foundation , the largest gift in the history of ��DZ��ǰ������’s community college system.

“Don Sturm was a visionary in imagining a fully inclusive, welcoming home to interfaith and mixed heritage families. He was steadfast and unwavering in his support of Judaism Your Way’s mission to welcome Jews and their loved ones with unconditional love. The wider Jewish world has changed and become more inclusive as a result of his dedication,” Rabbi Caryn Aviv wrote in an email.

His greatest financial generosity, however, was reserved for his alma mater, the University of Denver, where the Sturm College of Law, the classroom building Sturm Hall, and the Sturm Center, a psychology program that helps veterans and those in the military, carry his name.

“From the time he was a determined law student on our campus until the last day of his service as a trustee, Don Sturm, along with his wife, Susan, made so many contributions to the DU community,” Chancellor Jeremy Haefner in an email.

In 2016, the university awarded Don and Sue its first inaugural Founders Medal, the highest non-academic honor the university can bestow.

”You want to help people. You can’t take it with you,” Sturm said in a into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2022. “You want the place where you live to be a better place because you lived there.”

The Sturm family will hold a private funeral and memorial service. Donations in Sturm’s memory can be made to , 950 South Cherry St., Suite 310, Glendale, CO 80246-2699. Those impacted by Sturm’s life are asked to share memories and stories via a letter to “The Sturm Family” at 3033 E. First Ave., Suite 300, Denver, CO 80206.

The Douglas County seat is going through yet another growth spurt, one that has taken its population from 48,580 residents in 2010 to nearly 77,000 last year, according to the state demographer. But this spurt is different than past ones. Developers are adding new condos and apartments and office and commercial space to the once-neglected downtown and looking at industrial sites nearby.

It represents a more balanced approach than earlier construction waves focused on single-family homes and retail pads on undeveloped land.

Two large developments, one called Miller’s Landing by P3 Advisors and the other called The Brickyards by Confluence Cos. are planned on the west side of Interstate 25 across from downtown, extending the town’s core while reusing industrial land. And all the new building has an eye on creating the kinds of spaces that will allow residents to work and play close to where they live.

“One of the things we have worked on is whether we wanted to be a bedroom community or a self-sustaining community,” said Mayor Jason Gray, who ran on a self-sufficiency platform. For example, Castle Rock needed a college and a hospital, and it secured both of those.

The Douglas County School District, Arapahoe Community College and Colorado State University teamed up to create the Sturm Collaboration Campus, which counts more than 1,000 students. The campus provides traditional classroom offerings, along with applied learning and workforce training to help students prepare for in-demand jobs.

The Centura Castle Rock Adventist hospital, which started with 55 beds, is adding 36 more because of high demand. The hospital employs 600 people, and adjacent medical offices, which are also expanding, employ hundreds more.

One of the first of the new-generation projects to go downtown was called Encore, developed by Confluence Companies out of Golden. The town was initially looking for a developer to build a parking garage on three lots. It got a garage, but also a seven-story project with 124 for-sale condos and ground-floor retail and office space.

The thinking was that young professionals would be moving in, but instead, well-off retirees and empty nesters wanting to trade in their unincorporated single-family spreads for a maintenance-free lifestyle, the kind normally found in downtown Denver or Boulder, were the dominant buyers, said Frank Gray, president and CEO of Castle Rock Economic Development.

But adding housing alone isn’t enough, said Gray, who isn’t related to the mayor. The town and its economic development groups, which are privately run, have been selective in what it has allowed in terms of restaurants and retailers and in attracting the kind of amenities designed to appeal to those new residents.

“Five or six years ago, you didn’t see people walking around downtown except maybe on a weekend. Now you see people every day of the week,” Mayor Gray said.

When he first arrived in town from Alaska, after a brief stay in Denver, back in 2009, about 300 to 400 people attended the annual celebration of the lighting of the star on the rock that gives the town its name, Gray said. Last year, the holiday season kick-off, which is called Starlighting, drew 25,000 people to Wilcox Square.

Extending the center

Confluence also has added a 228-unit apartment building called Riverwalk across the street from Encore and in late September broke ground on its third downtown project, representing a $28 million investment, called Riverwalk Luxe, which will have 28 luxury apartment homes and more than 21,000 square feet of for-sale commercial space.

Once Riverwalk Luxe is complete, Confluence will have invested about $180 million in downtown Castle Rock, including adding eight restaurants. But the biggest investment is yet to come, a $380 million redevelopment called The Brickyards on 31 acres once occupied by the Acme brick factory, which for decades supplied much of the masonry used in Front Range homes and buildings until it closed in 2018.

Confluence had hoped it could salvage the buildings on the site and create a hip reuse of industrial space, think the Source in River North on Brighton Boulevard. Although Acme made bricks, its buildings were made mostly of steel and metal. They weren’t functional to convert or esthetically pleasing.

“We initially got excited about repurposing the hold brick facility but it wasn’t a viable option. We are now looking at clearing the site. It will be a complete scrape,” said Tony DeSimone, a principal with Confluence Companies.

That isn’t to say there won’t be a strong brick theme in whatever comes next. Confluence picked up 3 million leftover bricks when it acquired the Acme site for $7 million. Those bricks are slowly making their way to other new buildings in Castle Rock and DeSimone is open to hearing from anyone who might want to pick some of them up.

The Brickyards is still in the planning stages, but it will include higher-density residential, office, and commercial space. About 11 acres are being set aside for a new park and recreation facility that Castle Rock wants to build, DeSimone said.

“We are trying to create another great location. We want to be part of delivering high-quality projects,” he said.

Nearby, on a former landfill that is now cleared out, P3 Advisors, which specializes in brownfield redevelopment, has been working on an even larger project for the past eight years. Miller’s Landing, accessed through I-25 and West Plum Creek Parkway interchange, covers 65 acres that could eventually include mixed-use multi-family projects, a full-service hotel, as well as pads for office and retail and other uses.

The pandemic caused the project to hit the brakes and Sean Temple, a principal at P3 Advisors, said higher interest rates are again causing things to slow. As the master developer, P3 Advisors is working with other developers to bring projects to the table, and lenders remain skittish.

“We are in a market pause based on uncertainty in 2023, to be frank, until we get a stabilization in economic policy and interest rates,” Temple said. But he adds that next year will be a good time to put in infrastructure in preparation for the eventual rebound.

As developers work out their plans, Castle Rock has spent millions of dollars to enhance what they are doing, including completing Festival Park downtown, adding the Phillip S. Miller Park which has ziplines and an amphitheater at Miller’s Landing and the addition of a recreation center for The Brickyard.

Catching growth

About 70% to 80% of Castle Rock’s working population commute elsewhere to make a living, which often means driving a congested I-25 up to the Denver Tech Center or down to Colorado Springs. Independent-minded residents opted out of paying taxes to the Regional Transportation District in 2005, probably realizing they wouldn’t receive much in the way of services anyway. But the move has left them with few options but to drive.

Gray, head of the economic development office, is himself a long-distance commuter, but in the other direction. He comes down from Adams County where he previously worked. But he is pushing hard to lay the groundwork so residents, both current and future, don’t have to make a long drive. And if he is successful, that should only shorten the time it takes for the town to reach its expected capacity of 140,000 residents.

Castle Rock added more residents than any other municipality in the state last year save Colorado Springs — 3,194 versus 4,450, according to the state demographer.

Castle Rock alone added more people than Boulder, Denver and Jefferson counties combined last year. But that isn’t a fair comparison, given that the three populous counties lost a combined 9,851 residents. This might be fairer — Castle Rock added more people than Adams and Arapahoe counties, two metro counties that grew by nearly 3,000 residents combined.

“You are either growing or you are dying,” Mayor Gray said. Castle Rock wants to be in the camp of those growing.

But to do so, the community has to make the best use of the land it still has available, and more importantly, the limited water it can still access. In short, it has to be smart about how it develops among a population that isn’t necessarily open to “central” planning and a heavy-handed approach by the government.

The town passed an ordinance that bars new developments from having front lawns and limits backyards to 500 square feet of grass. It is working to become a leader in water recycling, essentially creating a closed-loop system so water can be preserved and reused over and over.

Given that most residential water use goes to make lawns green and gardens grow, promoting denser development does two things — provide better use of the land left to develop and allow for more efficient use of water.

Castle Rock experienced a surge in single-family home permits to above 1,000 a year from 2018 to 2021, excluding a brief dip in 2019. Construction hasn’t been that strong since the housing boom between 2004 and 2006. But the more novel trend is in multifamily. From 2005 to 2015, there were only 209 multifamily permits issued over an 11-year period. But since 2016, the town has issued 1,958 permits for apartments and condos or nearly 10 times more.

That isn’t to say single-family neighborhoods are fading away. Westside Property Investment Co. this fall reached an agreement with the town to build 5,850 single-family homes and 3.2 million square feet of office, commercial, retail and industrial space on a 2,200-acre project called Dawson Trails, with nearly half the land dedicated to open space, parks and trails.

Castle Rock annexed the land back in 1984, and has waited patiently for its development. Dawson Trails will likely represent the southern boundary of development in Castle Rock and a hard southern boundary for metro Denver.

The three-school Auraria Campus — home to the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and Community College of Denver — that a “potential threat” was being investigated and asked people to “please remain calm and leave campus.”

At 2:21 p.m., the Auraria Campus Police Department “determined that campus is safe and there is no active threat,” school officials said on Twitter. The campus will remain closed Friday, it will reopen on Saturday.

Earlier in the afternoon, Denver police spokesman Sean Towle said the threat does not appear to be credible, but authorities were still investigating out of an abundance of caution.

Front Range Community College, which has campuses in Longmont, Westminster and Fort Collins, said that it is moving its campuses to remote operations on Friday and Saturday because of the threat and subsequent investigations. FRCC campuses closed at noon Friday.

“Upcoming events will have to be rescheduled for a later date. Sorry for any inconvenience!” FRCC said. “Please rest assured that the students and employees inside the building(s) are safe.”

At about 7:20 a.m. Friday, Westminster police were informed of the FRCC threat. Officers responded and shut down the Westminster campus.

Westminster’s investigation lead to a “person of interest related to the threats,” said Cheri Spottke, a police spokeswoman.

“Officers contacted the individual and it appears as if the threats are a form of doxing against this individual,” Spottke said. “At this time officers cannot validate any of the threats against the school.”

The Colorado Community College System on Friday morning that it had been “made aware of a threat against several metro-area CCCS colleges,” including Arapahoe Community College, Community College of Aurora, Community College of Denver, Front Range Community College and Red Rocks Community College.

“We are working closely with campus security teams and law enforcement agencies to monitor the situation,” Colorado Community College System officials wrote. “Some colleges are currently on lockout protocol; we encourage students, faculty, and staff to check their institution’s website for campus-specific information.”

CU Boulder also canceled all classes Friday and sent students home, though officials there was no direct threat to its campus.

AURARIA ALERT: Campus is closed as a potential threat is being investigated. Please remain calm and leave campus. More details to come.

— Auraria Campus (@AurariaCampus)

MSU Denver about the Auraria Campus being closed, telling students that classes are canceled for the day and all students should leave campus. “Employees should not remain on campus and should transition to remote work for the rest of the day,” university officials wrote.

After a parent tweeted about her high school student being at Auraria for a summer program, the campus wrote on Twitter that “your students are safe and waiting on parents to come pick them up.”

Your students are safe and waiting on parents to come pick them up.

— Auraria Campus (@AurariaCampus)

Summer’s not over and that means there’s still time for “cheap thrills” at one of Denver’s most popular attractions. Frugal families can scream and splash on a budget, thanks to the park’s Pepsi Summer Sale. Through Aug. 7 at midnight, Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park is offering a thrilling discount – 50% off tickets. Regular gate admission is $69.99. The sale is only available online. However, the tickets are valid for any operating day through October of this season. The water park is open through Labor Day.

Ride RTD for free in August

RTD is making August “fare for all,” whether you’re a regular passenger, an occasional rider, or new to public transit. During the month of August, RTD is offering zero fares across its entire system for all passengers, as part of the Zero Fare of Better Air initiative to help reduce ozone levels. The freebie is the perfect opportunity to hop on a bus or light rail train and explore the city without having to worry about gas or parking.

Colorado Lottery’s Winning Wednesdays

Mid-week isn’t so dreadful anymore, thanks to the Colorado Lottery. Place your bet on Wednesdays for an extra chance at winning big bucks. The Lottery is offering players a bonus ticket on the first Wednesday of the month. And every ticket is another chance to win cash for a dream vacation, a new car or just paying your bills. Mark your calendar for Aug. 3, Sept. 7, Oct. 5, Nov. 2 and Dec. 7. On those select Wednesdays, buy $12 or more of Colorado Lotto+ (with or without Plus) and receive a $2 Colorado Lotto+ ticket for free. The bonus offer is valid at participating lottery retailers, while supplies last.

Jackalope Indie Artisan Fair

Olde Town Arvada transforms into a weekend shopping destination with the Jackalope Indie Artisan Fair on Aug. 5 and 6. The two-day market allows attendees to peruse the works of more than 130 local, hand-selected artisans, crafters and DIY enthusiasts. Find trendsetting indie goods, original fashion, jewelry, ceramics, paper goods, home decor, art, photography, food and more. Admission is free. The fair will be held in the heart of Olde Town Arvada. Hours are Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Parking lots and street parking are both available. For a more leisurely weekend adventure, take public transport (free) with the G-line commuter rail or RTD.

A&W is giving away root beer floats

Good deals always float to the top, especially on National Root Beer Float Day. A&W Restaurants started with a root beer stand in 1919. And, to this day, the chain’s signature beverage is still made fresh on-site with real cane sugar and a proprietary blend of herbs, bark, spices and berries. To celebrate the sweet day, the restaurant is giving customers a free small root beer float – no purchase necessary. Sign-up for the A&W Mug Club online to get the required coupon. Then, stop by the restaurant anytime through Aug. 6 to enjoy the iconic treat with a spoon and straw.

Young Americans Bank’s 35th Birthday Bash

It’s important to show kids the benefits of budgeting and saving money. And the only bank in the world just for kids, Young Americans Bank, is celebrating 35 years of doing just that for so many families. The “youthful” financial institution is hosting its 35th Birthday Bash on Aug. 6 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at both of its Colorado branches – Belmar (401 S. Pierce St.) in Lakewood and Cherry Creek (3550 E. 1st Ave.) in Denver. The celebration will be packed with family-friendly activities including a cash cube/money booth and airbrush temporary tattoos at the bank’s Cherry Creek branch. At its Belmar branch, there will be a prize wheel, pop-its and snow cones. Both locations will also offer games, goodie bags, birthday cake, popcorn and other treats.

VegFest Colorado

If you love veggies and fruits, “veg out” at VegFest Colorado on Aug. 6 and 7 at Improper City (3201 Walnut St.) in Denver. The fruitful event includes speakers, demos, kids’ activities, food samples and more. In fact, there will be no animal products of any kind at the fest. Get tickets in advance online for savings — $11 per day or get a weekend pass for $18. Kids (12 and under) get in for free. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Attendees are encouraged to carpool, use public transit (free) or ride a bike to help lower the event����ap carbon footprint.

2022 Parade of Homes

Whether you’re in the market to buy or simply in need of design inspiration, the 2022 Parade of Homes is an enjoyable way to spend the day with friends and family. From Aug. 11 to 28, the self-guided tour features 49 newly-designed and custom homes from Firestone to Castle Rock, Arvada to Aurora and neighborhoods in between. Admission is free and open to the public. Discover unique homes and floor plans, the latest in interior design trends, advanced home technology, exterior finishes, outdoor living and landscaping. Best of all, how you experience the homes is all up to you – at your convenience from Thursday to Sunday between noon and 5 p.m. No reservations required for tours. If you’re a homebody, you can also take the tour virtually. Find a useful map and directions at .

Bubble Bash

Pop! Kids of all ages and adults will have bubbles of fun during Bubble Bash at The Orchard Town Center (14697 Delaware St.) in Westminster on Aug. 13. Admission is free. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., families will enjoy a variety of bubble stations where they’ll discover smoky bubbles, bubble art, giant bubbles and more. Participants can even step inside a gigantic bubble or jump into a giant foam pit for a special selfie. Plus, the fun continues with bubble-themed stage shows, games and contests, as well as roving “bubblers” for more interactive play.

Natural Grocery’s 67th Anniversary Celebration

Natural Grocers has been bagging healthy groceries for shoppers since 1955. To mark the Colorado-born store’s 67th anniversary, the company is celebrating from Aug. 18 to 20 at all of its 41 Colorado locations. Members of the store’s {N}power loyalty club get a free limited-edition reusable bag with any purchase. Plus, members can unwrap a free Natural Grocers Brand organic chocolate bar. Kids can also pick up free collectible stickers. On Aug. 18, from 1 to 6 p.m., all customers will receive a free frozen dessert. And what’s a store anniversary celebration without a big sale? Bargain hunters will find sale prices on more than 500 popular products in a variety of categories – up to 60% off.

Lafayette Peach Festival

Summer is just peachy, especially at the 23rd annual Lafayette Peach Festival. The sweet event turns South Public Road, the town’s main street, into a peach-filled carnival on Aug. 20 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. Find truckloads of more than 30,000 pounds of organic peaches from Palisade for sale at three locations — Public Road and Cleveland, Public Road and East Chester and Public Road and Kimbark. You’ll also find food vendors, crafters, antique dealers and artisans. Plus, kids can enjoy free face painting and balloon sculpting. Pie lovers will want to get their hands on more than 600 pans of fresh peach pies and peach cobbler. Act fast because the baked goods always sell out quickly.

Loveland Corn Roast Festival

There’s nothing corny about having a good time on a summer weekend. Loveland salutes one of the world’s favorite crops – corn! On Aug. 26 and 27, the town’s Old Fairgrounds Park (700 S. Railroad Ave.) is home to the 2022 Corn Roast Festival. The 126th annual event gets popping on Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. Then, on Saturday, the fun continues with a Corn Roast Parade at 9:30 a.m. and festivities at the park from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Live music, a corn shucking competition, beer garden, food vendors, kids’ activities and lots of roasted corn fill the two days. Plus, the Loveland Rotary Duck Race takes to the water at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Affordable Arts Festival

The annual Affordable Arts Festival is unlike any arts fest you have attended because all of the art is priced at $100 or less. The colorful event takes place outdoors on Aug. 28 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Arapahoe Community College (5900 S. Santa Fe Drive). This is the Black Friday of art sales with more than 160 artists from around the country selling their works in a variety of mediums at bargain prices. Art lovers and enthusiasts will find paintings, mixed media, jewelry, glass, photography, sculptures and more – some of which were originally priced at thousands of dollars. Gates open at 9 a.m., but enthusiastic shoppers who line up early will enjoy a coffee cart, pastries and live music. Admission is $12 online or at the gate, with proceeds benefiting the Arapahoe Community College scholarship program. Children 12 and under are admitted at no cost.

More freebies, discounts and deals at .

Every month, Laura Daily and Bryan K. Chavez at compile “Cheap Checklist” to help smart shoppers find freebies, discounts and deals. Send tips to info@milehighonthecheap.com 14 to 21 days in advance.

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The steep downturn followed several years of gradual declines at community colleges in the state and across the country, as a strong economy pushed more young people into the workforce. ��DZ��ǰ������’s colleges are now left with dwindling revenue and hoping for a post-pandemic restart.

“We not only have fewer students,” said Joe Garcia, chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, “but those students are also taking fewer credit hours.”

To combat the downswing, colleges in the state are handing taxpayer money to students who agree to stay in school — including $1,000 to some students in Westminster — along with free laptops and car repairs. That has put more money in students’ pockets but not reversed enrollment trends.

“Free textbooks, $500 cash for college prep, we’re giving away tons of free computers, more than $1 million in scholarships, a bunch of federal COVID relief money to help with tuition,” said Warren Epstein, spokesman for Pikes Peak Community College. “All of that and we’re still struggling.”

Colleges have found that their poorest students, hurt most by last year’s economic freefall, face hardships that can’t be solved with free iPads. They need child care and food, so colleges have created small social safety nets on their campuses. Administrators worry that if they don’t, those students won’t come back to class and gaps between the rich and poor will widen.

“It really comes down to a student����ap ability to survive versus thrive,” said Patty Erjavec, president of Pueblo Community College. “That����ap what we’re facing right now. Their families are more important.”

“We’ve got to do better”

Community college enrollment has been easy to predict for several decades, because it runs counter to the economy. Good economy, enrollment is down. Bad economy, enrollment is up. So, when shutdowns sent unemployment spiking last spring, Garcia and others expected an increase.

“When the pandemic first hit, I was getting calls from reporters across the country asking, ‘What are community colleges doing to prepare for an incredible onslaught of students?’” said Martha Parham, spokeswoman for the American Association of Community Colleges. “Clearly that did not pan out.”

The Colorado Community College System has 13 colleges with 39 locations. At the start of the 2019 fall semester, 70,844 people were enrolled in them. At the start of the 2021 fall semester, 59,517 were. That number will increase as the semester continues but remain well below pre-pandemic levels.

Urban colleges have been hit the hardest. Enrollment at the Community College of Denver dropped nearly 12% between 2019 and 2020 and was down another 14% to start the fall 2021 semester. The Community College of Aurora saw a 9% decrease between 2019 and 2020 and was down another 15% to start the fall 2021 semester. Schools in Colorado Springs and Pueblo also saw big drops.

“So many people who have moved away from the city center would be in the community college population,” said Marielena DeSanctis, president of the Community College of Denver. “As the city center has gone through gentrification and rising housing costs, the people who are moving to downtown Denver have bachelor’s degrees, have master’s degrees, have PhDs, are pretty settled in the industries they’re in.”

Suburban and rural colleges have fared better, particularly Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, which gained 450 students (about 7%) between the start of fall semesters in 2020 and 2021. Several small schools on the Eastern Plains also increased enrollment in that time.

Colorado’s urban poor have left community college at the highest rates. Students eligible for Pell grants have declined by 23% the past two years and students who are the first in their family to attend college declined by 21% across the system’s 13 colleges. Male enrollment dropped by 20%, compared to 14% among women. The number of white students and students of color declined at similar rates.

“Across the board, the most marginalized students are the ones who have not come to college,” said Andy Dorsey, president of Front Range Community College in the north metro, “which is very concerning because those are often the students for whom college is the best return on investment.”

Not all degree paths have seen reductions. Overall enrollment is down at Pueblo Community College but career and technical enrollment is up 7%, according to the college’s president. Fewer students are seeking an associate’s of arts or an associate’s of science and going on to universities. More students are studying to be welders or computer programmers or health care workers. Others have left college altogether to take advantage of the tight labor market.

“For a lot of students who come to school to improve their economic situation, they’re looking at their job prospects right now and saying, ‘Hey, this is great. I’ve never made $18 an hour before. I’m going to put off going to school,’” said Garcia, chancellor of the community college system.

“Some students still have unemployment benefits and some students have pretty good job opportunities right now,” Dorsey added. “Some of the job market is heating up. So, there are a bunch of factors that have come together to make this an unusual year.”

The enrollment declines bode poorly for the state’s goal of having 66% of adult Coloradans obtain a post-high school degree or certification by 2025. That number is at 61% with a few years to go, according to Angie Paccione, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, and community colleges need to graduate more students in order to achieve it.

Graduation rates among schools in ��DZ��ǰ������’s Community College System. Only 17% of students who enrolled at the Community College of Denver in the fall of 2017 graduated by 2020 but 58% of students at Trinidad State Junior College in southern Colorado did. Across the system, the graduation rate but 27% for students of color and just 17% for Black students.

“We could educate every white, middle-class kid in the state and we wouldn’t get to 66%,” Garcia said. “We’ve got to do better with the Black and brown kids, with the low-income kids.”

Paying students to stay

The Colorado Community College System has received $355 million in federal stimulus money since the start of the pandemic, Garcia says. About $100 million filled gaps from state funding cuts and $95 million was for COVID impacts, such as personal protective equipment and building upgrades. But much of the money, $115 million, was for student aid and it fell on colleges to funnel that to students.

Front Range Community College used $3 million to forgive student debt and handed out $8 million in grants. This school year it must deliver another $16 million to students and has decided the grant process is too slow, so every student will be paid between $250 and $1,000.

“We decided to give money to every student enrolled this semester because the vast majority of our students have financial needs and that was consistent with what the federal government suggested,” said Dorsey, the college president.

At the Community College of Aurora, at least 75 students will be paid this semester and next semester if they stay in school with a C average or better as part of the school’s . That program, funded by donations, will pay them between $500 and $1,000, depending on need, according to John Wolfkill, executive director of the Community College of Aurora Foundation.

At Pueblo Community College, a grant program from the U.S. Department of Education and student loan company ECMC provides emergency money of up to $500 to correct anything that prevents a student from learning, including car repairs. One student who commutes from Colorado Springs receives gas station gift cards, according to Monica Hardwick, director of financial aid at the college.

As the whole world was changing in the spring of 2020, the staff at Arapahoe Community College created a list of its students and their phone numbers, split the list up and called every student to ask what they needed.

They heard some were hungry. So, the school’s foundation bought grocery store gift cards and Lisa Matye Edwards, vice president of student affairs, sat with her daughter at their dining room table labeling the cards and sending them out.

They heard some students didn’t have the technology needed for online courses. So, Matye Edwards loaded carts of unused iPads at the college into her vehicle and gave her son, who was just learning to drive, hours of practice by driving her to meet students in parking lots and hand them free tablet computers.

“Parents are tired”

Steven Mattson, 31, is studying electrical engineering at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs. His wife is also in school and the two are raising two children, ages 12 and 3.

“With COVID and everything, money isn’t exactly coming in all the time,” he said.

Child care is hard to find in the area and is costly when it is available, but a grant covers the cost of his daughter’s care on campus. That keeps him in school.

“I have to go to Pikes just for the child care. That����ap simply the reason I’m going to Pikes,” he said.

Sixty-eight kids stay at the campus’ child development center, which is operating at 35% capacity due to public health restrictions and staffing shortages, director Jennifer Hopper says. Federal and state grants keep costs low for parents attending classes at the college. The center’s waitlist has 167 names.

“Parents are tired. Parents are worn out. Just this last week we had to send two children home because they had COVID-like symptoms,” Hopper said. “We sent them home and both parents I spoke with were in tears and saying, ‘If this is how my semester’s going to be — I can’t go to class, I can’t get my homework done — how am I going to make it through this semester?’ They’re overwhelmed.”

Brittany Lee, 34, says she wouldn’t have been able to graduate from Arapahoe Community College and go on to Metropolitan State University of Denver without ACC’s child care center and grants that made it affordable. Once a week, she takes the staff coffee to thank them for watching her son, who is 3.

“It allowed me that leverage to put a bunch of classes on my plate, get them done and feel comfortable that my child was well taken care of,” she said.

Paccione, who runs the Department of Higher Education, said she would like every campus to have a child care center where students studying education can gain experience and parents can leave their children. She called it “a moonshot goal.”

“Basic daily needs — transportation, child care, food insecurity, mental health issues — all of those things are taking precedence over educational opportunities that might be available to students,” Erjavec, the Pueblo president, said.

Every urban community college in the state has a food pantry, which was “unheard of 20 years ago,” according to Garcia. Pueblo’s typically helps 25 students but last spring that number was 99, according to director Toni Skilling.

The last 18 months have been unpredictable and ��DZ��ǰ������’s community colleges hesitate to guess what comes next. Epstein at Pikes Peak Community College compares it to “a snow globe that we shook and we’re still all waiting to see where the flakes are going to fall.” Garcia said much depends on whether retention rates improve post-pandemic — whenever that is.

“If we bring students back then we’ll be able to continue to operate based on that increased revenue from increased enrollment,” the chancellor said. “But if they don’t come back, we’re still going to be struggling.”

As a thank you to U.S. military members, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is offering active-duty  military, veterans and the National Guard free admission to all state parks for the month of August. Military members and veterans (resident and nonresident) can pick up a free August Military Pass at any Colorado State Park or CPW office by showing proof of service.  All other park fees remain in effect, including camping reservations, boat and off-highway vehicle registrations, and hunting and fishing licenses. Also, entry is free for everyone at all Colorado State Parks on Aug. 2, in celebration of Colorado Day.  

RELATED: 10 Colorado state parks great for hikers, bikers, climbers and birders

Chill out

Froyo fans and bargain hunters alike will have a sweet reason to celebrate TCBY’s 40th anniversary. The popular frozen yogurt shop is celebrating 40 years of swirling treats. Top off the shop’s anniversary celebration with a sweet deal on Aug. 3: buy-one-get-one for 40 cents. The deal is only available from 3 to 7 p.m. for in-store purchases. The promo excludes quarts, pints, cakes, pies, catering and delivery orders. There is only one TCBY shop in the Denver metro area,  in Thornton at 9645 Washington St. There are two other Colorado locations in Fort Collins and Greeley.

Bargain burger

Smashburger is celebrating its 14th birthday by offering customers a juicy deal on one of its most popular burgers. On Aug. 6, customers who purchase a Double Classic Burger can enjoy a second one for only 14 cents. There is no limit; one discounted burger per regular-priced burger purchased. However, the special is available only for in-person orders. (The burger regularly sells for $7.89, so the savings are quite beefy.)

Glendale’s got talent

With so many reality competition shows on TV, here’s your chance to experience a talent show live. ��DZ��ǰ������’s third annual Throwdown Showdown features an eclectic array of local talent, with a winner’s purse of $10,000. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 7, with the first acts starting shortly after at the Infinity Park Event Center. The audience will enjoy 10 preliminary performers, followed by acts from the three chosen finalists. Fans will vote via an online platform. The family-friendly event includes food trucks, a bar and entertainment provided by DJ Trent. Attendees are encouraged to bring a picnic, but no outside alcohol or glass containers are allowed. Admission is free.

Water supply

On Aug. 7, Firehouse Subs is collecting bottled water as part of its annual H2O For Heroes campaign. Customers who bring in a case of unopened bottled water (24-pack) for donation will receive a free medium sub. All of the donated water will go to local first responders and community groups to be distributed to those in need. Most shops will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. If you’re feeling generous, you can also pick up one of the chain’s red pickle buckets for $3. The buckets are perfect for storage or household chores and all of the proceeds go to Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.

Rock on

Let the music play, thanks to this family-friendly event sponsored by Arapahoe Libraries. Everyone is invited for an evening of live music featuring the Kory Brunson Band on Aug. 11 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds (25690 E. Quincy Ave.) in Aurora. Admission is free and there are 500 spots available. Enjoy the music while munching on snacks from the on-site food trucks, including Kona Ice, Taco Block, Mountain Melt and Snowy Churro. Bring lawn chairs and blankets, but no pets, please. To reserve your seats, visit or call 303-LIBRARY.

Anniversary special

Since 1955, Colorado-born Natural Grocers has been leading the way down healthy grocery aisles for many shoppers. To mark its 66th anniversary, the company is celebrating Aug. 12-14 at all of its 41 Colorado locations. Loyalty club members get a free limited-edition reusable bag with any purchase. Plus, members can unwrap a free Natural Grocers Brand organic chocolate bar. Kids can also pick up free collectible stickers. And on Aug. 12 from 1 to 6 p.m., all customers will receive a complimentary frozen treat. In addition, every hour on Aug. 12, employees at each store will randomly gift a Natural Grocers-branded Hydro Flask (20-ounce) to a customer at checkout. There also will be special prices on products and prize giveaways.

Art supplies

The annual Affordable Arts Festival is unlike any arts fest you have attended — all of the art is priced at $100 or less. The colorful event takes place outdoors on Aug. 29 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Arapahoe Community College (5900 S. Santa Fe Dr.) This is the Black Friday of art sales with more than 160 artists from 20 states selling their works in a variety of mediums at bargain prices. Attendees will find paintings, mixed media, jewelry, glass, photography, sculptures and more. Don’t let the price fool you. This is fine art at great prices. Gates open at 9 a.m. Live music starts at 7 a.m., with a coffee cart, pastries and other surprises for early birds. Admission is $12 online or at the gate, with proceeds benefitting the Arapahoe Community College scholarship program. Children 12 and under are admitted at no cost.

Bread winner

If you’re looking to save some dough on the Panera Bread gift cards, now’s the time to stock up. With no minimum purchase required, save 20 percent on Panera Bread gift cards purchased online – through Aug. 31. The offer applies to both plastic and digital gift cards. However, if you choose plastic, expect to pay a nominal shipping fee. (If you already have a Panera Bread gift card, the offer also applies to reloads made online.) Bargain hunters can use the discounted gift card on top of the chain’s current promo code discount (also valid through Aug. 31) for maximum savings. Use promo code for $5 off a food and beverage purchase of $20 or more – both online and in-restaurant.

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The state’s public higher-education institutions recorded a 5.2% enrollment drop from fall 2019 to fall 2020 and revenue fell 2.8% overall, according to data from the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The institutions that served the most underrepresented Coloradans were impacted the most negatively, according to state data.

And some Colorado schools that saw enrollment hits last fall when students first returned to campus amid the pandemic are seeing even further drops this semester.

Enrollment across the 13-campus Colorado Community College System fell 6.3% from fall 2020 to spring 2021. All told, enrollment at the community college system this semester declined 9.8% compared to the same time last year, dipping from 78,975 students pre-pandemic to 71,190 students.

“My biggest concern is that we are going to take a huge step back this year in terms of pursuing our No. 1 goal, which is closing attainment gaps that reflect racial demographics,” said Joe Garcia, chancellor of the Colorado Community College System. “For years, we’ve known in Colorado that our white population has been much more successful at earning secondary credentials than our communities of color. We’ve been trying as a state to increase credential attainment for those students of color who are often low-income. Now, I think we’re going backwards.”

Within Colorado Community College’s enrollment drop, the biggest gaps include:

• First-generation college students, down 15.5% from 39,259 students to 33,193
• Black students, down 11% from 4,335 to 3,844
• Pell eligible (low-income students), down 16.6% from 22,090 to 18,429

“Those are the students who we serve primarily at the community colleges,” Garcia said. “These are students limited by financial resources, academic preparation, transportation. They’re place-bound, they’re parents or working full time or part time. We’re really the only higher education option for them, and if they don’t come to us, then they just don’t go.”

Although the enrollment drop takes a dent out of college budgets in lost tuition dollars, a greater threat looms in the eyes of higher education leaders: losing out on educating the students whose life trajectories would most benefit from a postsecondary degree.

“That impacts our ability to meet all the workforce needs that our state is facing,” Garcia said. “These are the students that need us most.”

While among the most impacted, Colorado’s community colleges were not the only institutions that faced an enrollment drop during the pandemic.

Colorado State University’s spring undergraduate enrollment is down 3.6% from last spring, from 22,566 students to 21,776. The University of Colorado Boulder’s spring enrollment is down 0.9% from the same semester last year, from 33,073 to 32,777.

Metropolitan State University of Denver is down 6.2% from fall 2019 to fall 2020, dipping from 18,917 students to 17,743. MSU Denver’s enrollment dropped even more — 9.6% — from fall 2020 to spring 2021.

The drop in tuition dollars that comes with lower enrollment is especially distressing in a state like Colorado, where higher education is funded 48th in the nation and relies heavily on students and their families footing the bill. The enrollment downturn has cost Colorado’s Community College System $37.5 million in tuition, fees and auxiliary revenues in the past year.

“We rely more on tuition revenue than we do on the state general fund,” Garcia said. “If we’re not generating that tuition revenue, we have to lay off people, consider shutting down facilities, we’re not able to invest in the technology we need to deliver courses remotely. The availability of programs is at risk. Our ability to meet the workforce needs of our communities is at risk. These efforts are already happening. We’re going to have to re-evaluate if enrollment doesn’t rebound for the fall. We’re going to have to make more cuts. The institutions, themselves, are at risk.”

Even so, the thought that most upset Garcia was considering the at-risk students whose pandemic stressors forced their hand and put a hold on their college education.

“Our concerns are around enrollment, but more so our concerns are around the students that aren’t enrolled,” said Leslie Taylor, Colorado State University’s vice president of enrollment. “Worrying about students who opted out is a big concern. When are they going to come back?”

“It wasn’t going to work out”

Lindsay Pryor, a 39-year-old mother of two living in Falcon, was sure 2020 would be the year higher education would finally fall into place for her. Pryor’s first and second attempts at college didn’t quite stick, but when she went back to Pikes Peak Community College in 2018, the puzzle pieces of her postsecondary life began aligning.

Pryor was getting straight A’s. Her dream of becoming a registered dietician had never been closer.

Then came the pandemic.

Pryor found it nearly impossible to focus on her own studies with two kids at home who needed help with remote schooling. Her grades began to slip, causing panic about losing her full scholarship from her Native American tribe, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

“In the summer, we thought maybe it would be normal by fall, but it wasn’t and we realized it wasn’t going to work out,” Pryor said. “My kids were still e-learning, and they needed me. I didn’t enroll for the fall semester, and I was disappointed because this was my third attempt at college, and this time it was really going well. I know I’m going to do it. I’m going to finish. It’s just going to take me a long time.”

To combat students dropping out, Garcia said the Colorado Community College System is personally calling students who were previously enrolled who didn’t sign back up for fall or spring semester.

“We don’t have millions to spend on TV and radio advertising that for-profit colleges have, so it’s tough to get our message out, but we want to remind students that while they may be out of work now, their best opportunity to get a job in the future is if they use this period to pursue their education and learn a new skill,” Garcia said.

A campus like Metropolitan State University of Denver — with nearly half of its undergraduate student population comprised of students of color and 57% first-generation college students — is hoping to learn from this enrollment downturn to figure out how to better serve their community.

“We’re thinking this is temporary,” said Mary Sauceda, MSU Denver’s associate vice president of enrollment management. “We’re thinking enrollment is going to rebound. There are a lot of students taking time off. Students may be thinking they’ll wait until they get the vaccine and then go back. We know with the economy it����ap not going to bounce back immediately and folks will want to go back to school.”

As part of its strategy, MSU Denver has a new director of diverse recruitment, Cameron Simmons, who plans to canvas places like churches and community centers — virtually for now, but in-person when safe — to find students who might not know higher education is an option for them.

MSU Denver also is offering a that allows students to pay tuition in monthly installments. The Auraria campus institution is working to make its transfer programs a more seamless experience, Sauceda said.

“Light at the end of the tunnel”

Lucia Delgado, CSU’s director of college access, and her team have been working to stay connected to underrepresented prospective and current students. staff transitioned their wraparound services for first-generation, low-income, ethnically and racially diverse, and non-traditionally aged students online because of the pandemic and committed to engaging the young adults they serve during a tumultuous time.

“We’re talking about students who have multilingual talents who serve as lead translators for their families, students who are working to help provide for their families as well,” Delgado said. “Our students are incredibly resilient and strong and they work really hard to continue their academics but also to support their families.”

The Access Center shipped hundreds of supplies to underrepresented students across the state who are a part of their pre-collegiate and collegiate programs, mailing essentials such as textbooks and laptops but also items like snacks and painting supplies so students could log into virtual support meetings and participate in activities to keep them coming back.

Taylor, CSU’s vice president of enrollment, said programs targeting vulnerable student populations were crucial to their efforts to keep students on track and in college.

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “There still is value in earning a college credential, whether that’s a certificate in welding or a two-year associate degree or beyond. We’re not going anywhere.”

Twice a week, Diana Doyle and her staff at Arapahoe Community College meet over video conferences to discuss the outlook of the coronavirus pandemic and map out contingency plans for their campuses.

Doyle, the college’s president, said the idea is to be ready not just for Plan A but also have Plans B, C and more at the ready.

“What we do is we put together a checklist of all of the different components that we need to be talking about,” Doyle said. “For instance, one of them would be cleanliness, you know, regular cleaning of our facilities: What happens if a student or an employee is tested positive, what����ap our response?”

Other Colorado universities and colleges are sketching out various scenarios of what might occur during an unpredictable pandemic. For now, schools throughout Colorado plan to hold limited in-person classes this fall and are closely following state and federal health guidelines for safety.

But schools are ready to shift gears with the swerving trajectory of the virus.

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