In that role, the graduate worked with faculty, learned about governance and collaborated with the administration. But he said his favorite part of the job was mingling with students.

“They’re the most fun,” Holston said during an interview this week.

Now, Holston’s purview over students, faculty and academia has grown significantly. The philanthropist, consultant and higher education strategist is the new executive director of the . He started this week, succeeding outgoing executive director Angie Paccione, who is leaving for the private sector.

Holston’s annual salary is $228,705, according to the department.

“JB’s decades of academic, business, civic and community leadership will ensure the department����ap success as we chart a new era for Coloradans seeking higher education,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement. “JB’s deep breath of experience and energy will drive forward our vision to better connect higher education with the needs of our workforce, ensuring that students who seek higher education leave with the skills needed for high-paying, in-demand careers.”

Holston previously served as a senior adviser to the , where he advised public sector entities, including Colorado’s state government, he said. Before that, Holston was the CEO and senior adviser at the .

He takes the helm of the department during a time of transition.

A and released in December outlined an overhaul of the Department of Higher Education that would merge the agency with seven other state departments to focus on workforce development.

The merger would require lawmaker approval. The outgoing governor wants a legislative bill to kickstart the process that he expects will be finished next year.

Holston said he’s not focused on the overhaul just yet. Right now, he’s interested in meeting with lawmakers and higher education leaders in the state to introduce himself and solicit their feedback.

During his tenure, Holston said he hopes to promote the good things that are going on within Colorado’s postsecondary institutions, whether they be the state’s major research universities, technical colleges, community colleges or some combination that provides students a pathway to a good job.

“I don’t think that we’re necessarily as well known for the real strengths of our postsecondary institutions as we should be,” Holston said. “People don’t necessarily talk about our institutions as leaders, but look at quantum.”

Holston praised Colorado’s quantum tech hub, an industry expected to galvanize the development of artificial intelligence.

Higher education institutions across the country have been under attack by the Trump administration, which has mandated funding cuts and launched federal investigations into universities that have diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“In spite of the budget cuts and all of this anti-woke national rhetoric, I think the state has continued to support the students that are most in need as well as any state has,” Holston said. “I haven’t heard from any institutions that are moving away from it.”

DU dismantled several of its resources for LGBTQ students and students of color out of fear of losing federal funding last year.

Paccione, the outgoing director, said some of her proudest accomplishments as leader of the department included helping underserved students thrive.

In an interview about her seven-year tenure, Paccione pointed to initiatives combatting food insecurity on campus and highlighting mental health resources along with programs that helped foster kids and the homeless obtain degrees as some of the work that made her most proud.

“My purpose is to activate potential,” Paccione said, divulging that a few hours earlier, as she grabbed her morning Starbucks, she chatted with the barista about different pathways to attain a degree.

“We need to do a better job of making sure students realize it is affordable and valuable,” she said.

The state is home to 14 , or public colleges and universities with a high percentage of specific demographic groups — Hispanic, Native American or Black students, for example — and a large concentration of students with financial need.

In Colorado, 13 of those schools are designated as , meaning they have 25% or higher Hispanic or Latino undergraduate enrollment. One school, Fort Lewis College, is a .

“We’re going to continue to do our best to meet the needs of our students, but it will be challenging, given we’ve been greatly supported by these resources for many years,” said Kristyn White Davis, vice president of enrollment management, marketing and extended studies at Colorado State University Pueblo, which is losing more than $3 million.

The federal money being cut often funded campuswide positions or initiatives such as career counseling centers, college recruitment efforts, internship coordinators and services for low-income and first-generation students, education officials said.

“These initiatives didn’t just serve Hispanic students — they benefit the entire student body with supports aimed at boosting student success across our colleges and universities,” said Angie Paccione, executive director of the , in a statement. “… Now, because of these cuts by the Trump administration, many institutions are being forced to dismantle these efforts, hurting students and Colorado’s economy.”

Democratic state legislators identified the following six institutions as being the most impacted by the funding cuts:

• in Alamosa
• in Durango
• in Fort Morgan

On Sept. 10, the announced an to grants for minority-serving institutions, calling the program discriminatory and unconstitutional.

“Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a news release. “To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the department will no longer award minority-serving institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas.”

The $350 million in discretionary funding that was going to support minority-serving institutions in 2025 will be diverted to “programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas and that advance administration priorities,” the Education Department said.

‘It will have a long-term effect’

The , which serves more than 124,000 students at 13 colleges across the state, is bracing for the loss of more than $5 million to its campuses.

One of those schools, Lamar Community College, is poised to lose nearly $3 million. The money would have funded five new positions, including a role working with middle- and high-schooler students in the rural, southeastern Colorado community to engage and recruit them for college, the college’s president, Rosana Reyes, said.

The grant was administered last October and recruitment work began in the spring, Reyes said. After concentrated engagement with local K-12 students, Reyes said Lamar Community College saw a 14% increase in first-time college students enrolling. The money, she said, helped students from all kinds of backgrounds continue their education.

“We can’t remember the last time we had such a huge increase in that population,” Reyes said. “It’s a great example of what this grant was going to do. The additional positions would have been a game-changer. The loss of this grant is not going to stop us from looking for more opportunities to serve our students. But it will have a long-term effect.”

For years, the state has the eradication of educational attainment gaps, noting that higher education increases the likelihood of community members having better health outcomes and

Colorado has the highest number of residents with a college credential in the nation, at 62.9% for adults between the ages of 25 to 64, . However, Black and Hispanic educational attainment rates were at 41.6% and 30.3%, respectively, during the same time period.

The , the and the sent a letter to the state’s congressional delegation and Gov. Jared Polis this week urging action on the federal funding cuts.

The letter said the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding for minority-serving institutions would primarily impact Colorado’s two-year colleges and rural institutions.

“Meaning that, once again, we are taking away opportunities for economic mobility from those already at the greatest disadvantage,” the state legislators wrote. “Our federal government has chosen to limit access to educational opportunity in pursuit of a harmful narrative that serves to only further divide Americans from one another.”

‘We are a scrappy institution’

CSU Pueblo had been awarded $3.6 million in federal grants that are now discontinued.

White Davis, one of the campus’s vice presidents, said that amount of money represents a “substantial” loss for a smaller, regional institution like CSU Pueblo, which serves around 4,000 students, nearly 34% of them Hispanic.

The grant money was focused on student support services, advising roles and internship coordinator positions, White Davis said.

“We intend to do the very best we can and are working as a campus leadership team, as well as our faculty resources, to think of creative ways to continue to provide critical student support services, but we have to acknowledge some of those support services students are accustomed to having may not be available in the future,” she said.

Adams State University in Alamosa will lose a nearly $2.5 million grant intended to help local high school students take advantage of concurrent enrollment credits to make the transition to college easier and more affordable, said Jacob Rissler, the school’s vice president of advancement.

“That would have been serving all students,” Rissler said. “But we are a scrappy institution. We do the best we can with what we have. We don’t have the funding we typically would have, but we’re still going to do our mission to serve all students.”

Rissler said Adams State will seek out private donors and philanthropic foundations to make up for the lost funds.

More than 10,360 international students attended colleges and universities in the Centennial State during the 2023-2024 school year, according to the most recent data available from the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

International students contribute more than $400 million to the state’s economy and support more than 3,800 jobs, making education Colorado’s sixth-largest export, the agency said.

Policy decisions since President Donald Trump returned to office in January — including the sudden revocation of student visas, threats of detention and deportation, and travel bans — have created an adversarial environment that higher education leaders fear will deter international students from studying here, damaging the nation’s global competitiveness and research capabilities.

As a result, Colorado universities are budgeting for potentially sharp declines in their international student enrollment this fall, which could pose a significant financial hit to institutions and lead to across-the-board tuition increases, experts said.

The University of Colorado Boulder, home to the state’s largest share of foreign students, predicts a nearly 25% drop in international undergraduate enrollment this fall.

International students aren’t just a monetary boon for campuses. Higher education officials say they bring rich cultural diversity to Colorado campuses, along with fresh perspectives and specialized skills that are key to innovative research.

In addition to the drop in students, mean professors and researchers in Colorado and nationwide are being recruited by foreign countries promising to fund their research, said Angie Paccione, the Colorado Department of Higher Education’s executive director.

“I don’t believe the recovery is going to be a quick recovery,” Paccione said of Trump’s impact on higher education. “If these policies persist for the remainder of this administration, it����ap going to take us decades to recover. It’s alarming.”

Tightening restrictions on foreign students

In April, the Trump administration revoked dozens of Colorado international students’ visas along with , sowing chaos as foreign scholars questioned their status and in the U.S.

The visa revocations came as the administration cracked down on international students who expressed  Nationally, students linked to pro-Palestinian activism in multiple states were with little information released as to why they were being held.

Impacted students in Colorado and elsewhere filed lawsuits over their legal status to study in the U.S., and the federal government ultimately .

“When you see international students being , then the uncertainty of whether or not your particular visa is going to be OK for the duration of your time here — that uncertainty makes people choose not to come here,” Paccione said.

In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio , including those studying in “critical fields” and “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”

There are about 1,160 Chinese international students in Colorado, comprising about 11% of the state’s international student population — the second most popular country of origin for the state’s international scholars behind India, according to state data.

A few weeks ago, the State Department wanting to study in America. On Wednesday, the State Department , but said applicants will now be required to unlock their social media accounts for government review as federal officials look for posts and messages that could be considered hostile to the U.S., its government, culture, institutions or founding principles.

And earlier this month, the Trump administration , blocking or limiting their citizens from entering the United States, saying it was necessary to protect the nation from ”

“Even if these polices are rescinded, it creates this atmosphere where people feel like they don’t want to go to the U.S. now,” Paccione said.

‘The whole university really values their presence’

CU Boulder hosts the most international students in Colorado, having served about 2,200 students this past spring and around 750 non-students, including professors and researchers.

“They bring different perspectives and life experiences and cultures to domestic students,” said , director of CU Boulder’s International Student and Scholar Services. “They bring unique skill sets (that) the researchers here on campus really need. They move forward research that otherwise couldn’t move forward. The whole university really values their presence on campus.”

CU Boulder is projecting a 24.3% decline in undergraduate international student enrollment and a 14.7% decline in the number of international graduate students this fall in light of the political climate.

Non-resident tuition makes up 11.8% of CU Boulder’s 2025-2026 revenue sources, totaling about $789.4 million of the school’s $6.7 billion budget, according to university budget documents.

Tuition for international students at CU costs more than it does for in-state or out-of-state domestic students. Depending on the degree, an international student could for tuition, housing, meals and supplies this fall.

The university is still seeing an overall enrollment increase of 2.7%, but is budgeting for no increase in federal research money, despite seeing an 8.7% annual increase in such funding historically.

Ultimately, the sharp drop in international students could make college cost more for all students.

“International student tuition helps subsidize some of the tuition for in-state students,” Paccione said. “If they don’t have revenue coming in from international students… it puts more pressure on raising tuition in Colorado. This next budget cycle, institutions may have to ask for a higher tuition increase.”

CU’s Salazar said international students are reaching out to her office about the uncertainty of their futures. to inform international students about the rapidly changing federal policies and

“We reassure them of what we do know, what we don’t know, how much we really do value having them here,” Salazar said.

Colorado State University has the second-highest international student population in the state with more than 1,200 foreign-born students from more than 100 countries on the Fort Collins campus.

The university did not make a representative available for an interview, but CSU’s . CSU warns students that U.S. Customs and Border Protection may inspect their electronic devices and to be mindful of what they’re posting on their social media accounts.

International students deferring start dates

interim executive director of global engagement at the University of Northern Colorado, knows better than most about international student resiliency.

She came to UNC in 2010 as an international student from Russia, working on her master’s degree in linguistically diverse education and teaching English as a foreign language. The Greeley-based academic worked with teachers going into the field and was named the interim director of the entire Office of Global Engagement last year. She now oversees international student education.

“It wouldn’t have been possible in any other country, and when I say that, I mean it,” Borisova said. “This is what America is known for is offering opportunities that other countries are not. The community is so welcoming. Regardless of political changes, people are really nice and open and helpful. It pains me to see that the powers above us are somehow making this a lesser gift.”

It’s too early to know how many students will decide not to show up come fall, Borisova said, but UNC is already seeing international students defer to later terms or move to online education options. The Trump administration’s could hit UNC hard, she said, noting the school often welcomes international scholars from Ghana and Nigeria, two countries that may be targeted.

A selective Fulbright Program — one of the most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships in the world — hosted at UNC is facing difficulties with foreign participants unsure if they’ll be able to travel to Colorado amid the political uncertainty, Borisova said.

“It’s our strength as a country to be able to appeal to the most talented, most incredible students throughout the globe,” Borisova said. “It would be such a travesty to lose this.”

‘Brain drain’

Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, vice provost for internationalization at the University of Denver, has worked in international education for almost 25 years. He is concerned about the direction it’s headed in the U.S.

More than 1,000 international students call DU home each year. Raychaudhuri said it’s too early to anticipate how many won’t show up come fall, but he predicts a drop on the DU campus as well.

The administrative hurdles that prospective scholars are facing worry him, but what vexes him most is the disintegration of a globally heralded reputation of the U.S. as a place to learn, grow, discover and invent.

“The greatest strength international students bring is the diversity of ideas,” Raychaudhuri said. “That makes us more human, it makes us more progressive, it makes us advance. This has been the foundation. It’s why this land has continued to lead. We would not want to lose that. That’s what I feel is under distress right now. There are other countries waiting to seize on this opportunity.”

Paccione, the Colorado Department of Higher Education executive director, said she recently spoke with Colorado School of Mines president Paul Johnson, who also worried about the loss in global competitiveness.

The Trump administration in federal research grants across the country — from science and health initiatives to arts funding to humanities programming.

At the Colorado School of Mines — a public research university based in Golden offering degrees in engineering, science and math — Johnson told Paccione professors and graduate students are being recruited outside the country because they no longer have the research dollars to do their work here.

Johnson declined an interview on the matter.

“I don’t want to see the brain drain,” Paccione said. “Professors are passionate about their research, and if they’re unable to do their research, they will go to a place that’s going to fund it. We are losing talent in all different industries.”

According to the , immigrants have started more than half of America’s startup companies valued at $1 billion or more.

“I sincerely hope this is just a blip that we will course-correct,” said DU’s Raychaudhuri. “Make no mistake, there is going to be an impact in numbers this year, but if you course-correct now, maybe you can stop this for the future. If not, this could be a declining trend in the long term, and that will add up. It will start becoming fairly devastating.”

The Daily Camera contributed to this report.

She grew up in Greeley, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who worked labor-intensive jobs and did not have the opportunity to attain a higher education. Elementary school was a blur for Chavez, who didn’t understand English fluently until fifth grade. Despite the obstacles, she applied herself academically.

Supportive teachers along her educational journey bolstered Chavez’s confidence, promising that college wasn’t a far-fetched pipe dream — it was her ticket to a life unlike one lived by anyone she knew. And she could see it was possible.

“I wanted to pursue higher education to be the change in my community,” said Chavez, now 19. “I don’t want to just work bill by bill like everybody around me. I believed I could do something different.”

In 2023, Chavez was accepted to CU Boulder with a full-ride scholarship. She was thrilled, but the culture shock of academia was daunting for the collegiate trailblazer.

She’s now halfway through her sophomore year, and said she’s made it this far thanks to the support of CU programs dedicated to uplifting first-generation college students financially, academically and emotionally. The programs focus so intently on getting kids into the right postsecondary option that they even provide college-application guidance to students who don’t ultimately choose to attend CU.

“We just want to do what’s best for the student,” said Chris Pacheco, recently retired assistant vice chancellor of CU’s .

Scholarship money bought Chavez her first laptop, but figuring out how to use it was a different story. She didn’t know how to upload assignments with programs her peers had used for years. She struggled downloading materials from her professors’ websites.

For first-generation college students like Chavez — a term used to signify someone is the first in their family to attend college — that overwhelming feeling snowballs as inconveniences stack atop major hurdles like financial setbacks or lack of family support.

But the payoff is strong.

“A first-generation student����ap experience and completion in getting their college degree can shift the trajectory of their entire family,” said Barb Marshall, CU Boulder’s assistant vice chancellor of student financial services.

In 2021, about 37% of students enrolled in Colorado’s public higher-education institutions were first-generation, according to the most recent data released from the .

The state’s flagship institution, CU Boulder, enrolled 1,038 first-generation freshmen in 2024 — 14% of the first-year student population. That number fell slightly from 16% the year prior, which the university suspects is fallout from the chaos surrounding the bungled rollout of the updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

At the end of 2024, CU Boulder was designated a , joining the ranks of schools like and , which serve a majority of first-generation students. For example, 60% of MSU Denver students are the first in their family to pursue a college degree.

CU’s first-generation numbers are not as robust as those other Colorado colleges — and tuition on the Boulder campus is pricier — but leaders say perhaps students and families don’t realize the support available.

“Maybe we haven’t done a good job promoting the work that’s being done,” Pacheco said. “In some respects, it’s the best-kept secret the university has.”

“The impact is huge”

After 43 years at CU Boulder, Pacheco retired at the end of 2024.

For decades, the onetime first-generation college student helped make college more accessible for those who came after him.

Pacheco grew up in Eagle County’s Red Cliff, the son of a miner and hotel maid in a family of 10. He began his tenure at CU Boulder as an undergraduate student in 1981, first majoring in biology to pursue medical school.

But his involvement in — a federally funded program that still supports college students from disadvantaged backgrounds — altered his career path. Pacheco loved tutoring and mentoring students throughout their higher-education journey.

“One of the reasons I wanted to go to medical school is to help people,” Pacheco said. “I found that I was doing that here, just in a different way, so one year became 40 years.”

Pacheco touted CU Boulder’s history supporting first-generation students.

The university’s , which , works with first-generation students throughout Colorado, beginning in the seventh grade. The program provides academic support and counseling from middle school through high school, and brings students to CU’s campus for five weeks during the summer between their junior and senior years. Since its inception, the program has served more than 30,000 students.

Seventh grade is the magic number because colleges start looking at transcripts in students’ freshmen year of high school, Pacheco said. To get into the courses that colleges want, students need to start taking certain classes in middle school — algebra, chemistry, biology — to set them up for success in high school.

The program also works with students’ parents, educating them about why college is important, what different postsecondary options exist and how to get involved in their kids’ schooling now. It helps students with applications and financial aid questions, supporting them regardless of where they choose to go.

The program has a 98% to 100% success rate in placing students at a higher-education institution, Pacheco said.

“We have a waiting list for all of our programs,” he said. “The impact is huge, and there are way more students who need services than we can serve.”

Life-changing support

Chavez’s family’s budget wouldn’t have allowed her to attend college without significant financial help. When she learned she had earned a full ride to CU Boulder, Chavez burst into tears.

“I knew I could do it, but it was hard,” she said.

Still, the logistics of figuring out her tuition billing proved tricky. Conversations with the financial aid department grew increasingly confusing.

Luckily, Chavez wasn’t alone.

The teen is part of CU’s , which offers financial literacy education, career readiness training, mentoring services, grants and scholarships, and opportunities to meet other first-generation students and socialize.

Jerry Nguyen, program manager in the , was discussed with reverence by CU’s first-generation students.

Nguyen accompanied Chavez to her financial aid appointment, brokering understanding between the student and employee. She showed Chavez how to use her new laptop. She walked Chavez to her classes when the student found herself perpetually lost.

“A lot of it is me understanding a lot of my students come from very different experiences, and I can’t assume they know everything, like how to use a computer,” Nguyen said. “I wouldn’t be who I am today without being able to go to college and have a good experience, so I believe everybody deserves the same amount of access. It could change the entire trajectory of not just themselves but their whole family. That����ap a huge responsibility to bear, and they bear it so well.”

Helen Nguyen, a CU Boulder sophomore, referred to herself as Jerry Nguyen’s No. 1 fan.

“I would go to the moon and back for her,” Helen Nguyen said.

Helen Nguyen is also part of the program, which is housed in the . The sophomore met with Jerry Nguyen so often that she offered Helen Nguyen a job in the office.

“Now I’m graced with her presence every day,” Helen Nguyen said.

Helen Nguyen hopes her college journey inspires her younger siblings to pursue degrees, too.

For Helen Nguyen, family is the motivating factor that keeps her pushing through hard times. During the last round of finals, she called her dad from the library, exhausted from an all-night cram session. Her dad drove all the way from Castle Rock to bring her food to keep her brain fueled.

Support — whether from family, friends or staff and faculty — can make all the difference as to whether a student sticks it out.

“As a first-gen student, one of the first impulses is to leave when something goes wrong,” Pacheco said. “It can confirm this incorrect idea that this place isn’t for you. Having someone here who can say, ‘Well, wait a minute. You don’t have to leave. This is not insurmountable. We’ll get this taken care of’ is key.”

In 2022, the retention and graduation rates for first-generation college students in the United States were generally lower compared to their peers, according to the most recent data from the

The retention rate for first-generation students — meaning the rate of students who returned to the same institution for their second year — was about 68.2% nationally.

In comparison, CU Boulder’s was 84%, compared to the non-first-gen retention rate of 90%.

Nationally, the six-year graduation rate for first-generation students was around 50%, meaning about half of first-generation students who started their bachelor’s degree in 2016 completed it by 2022, according to the most recent data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

In comparison, CU Boulder’s first-gen graduation rate for the same period was 65%, with a non-first-gen graduation rate of 77%.

“Over the past four years since the pandemic, we were seeing some nice increases in first-generation population that dropped a little bit last year, and we think it was just because it was so challenging to get through FAFSA last year, so we’re really focused on getting those numbers up again,” said Marshall, CU’s assistant vice chancellor of student financial services.

A GPS to a better life

Maria Genao-Homs is the inaugural director of CU’s Center for Inclusion and Social Change.

The term “first-generation college student” emerged in higher-education vocabulary around 2000, she said, when more people started talking about creating pathways for members of non-wealthy, lower-class families to get degrees.

The median income of first-generation students’ parents was $41,000 in both 2016 and 2020, according to data from national organization FirstGen Forward. Conversely, the median income of non-first-gen students’ parents increased from $90,000 in 2016 to $103,000 in 2020.

The cost to attend CU Boulder for an in-state undergraduate is about $35,000 a year — including tuition, room and board, and books — before any scholarships or financial aid are applied.

“These students are entering a pretty significant time in their life without a roadmap,” Genao-Homes said. “The emergence of offices like ours are there to set the students up and serve as a GPS because the home or family doesn’t always have the capability to guide them.”

That means it can sometimes be a lonely road, sophomore Chavez has found.

A common refrain among first-gen students is they feel like an outsider at college, but then going back home makes them realize they don’t quite fit there anymore, either.

“It’s like there are these two worlds, and I don’t fit into either,” Chavez said. “It can be like imposter syndrome. It’s been a great experience, but sometimes it can feel lonesome.”

But Chavez can’t give up, she said. Her mom is counting on her.

“She asks me if I want to work like a dog like she does,” she said.

Chavez has her sights set on a health profession like forensic toxicology. With the help of CU resources, she earned all A’s last semester.

“Some people give up so fast, but not me,” Chavez said. “It’s like a rollercoaster where there are ups and downs that happen, but I am riding it out because I am going to buy a house for me and my family someday. We’ve never lived in a house, and I’m going to change that.”

“I remember that number so vividly,” he said. His very next thought: “There is pizza or a sandwich or cookies somewhere on this campus that is fastly approaching the trash can.”

That college experience sparked the idea for a new app called . And in the last year, Akinboyewa, a 39-year-old Denver resident, and his three team members have brought his vision to life.

The free app follows a basic premise: A user in a small geographic area who wants to get rid of a food item can post it for another user to request and then pick up. Restaurants, food banks and other sizable providers can connect with individuals, and neighbors can link with neighbors.

Users can share either with the public or solely within their own “villages,” which are limited to specific groups like religious organizations or homeowners associations.

The app can be used to arrange very small-scale and extremely large-scale food distribution, Akinboyewa added. If an office staffer has 25 leftover sandwiches after an event, then that user can post the food items in their village and alert others to the surplus.

But to work effectively, the app needs a balance of both providers and users.

He’s developed the app to protect user privacy, keep track of food donations, avoid lines at food pickups and more. In its beta phase, the app granted access to 500 invite-only users across six cities in four countries — the U.S., Nigeria, Colombia and the United Kingdom — before expanding to nearly 1,000 users, Akinboyewa said.

Soon, his team plans to permit tens of thousands of users through several university, community and business partnerships, he said.

The app is available now on and , using an invite code: HUNGREE500.

For Akinboyewa, who was born in Nigeria and resided in London before immigrating to the U.S., the Hungree app is a way to fight hunger and curb food waste. In the places he’s lived, he’s seen the struggle of food insecurity.

Now, he’s watching his strategy work in real time. A local steakhouse manager listed leftover meals on the app — three servings of steak and vegetables — and another user picked them up to hand out to people experiencing homelessness, Akinboyewa said.

“I love solving problems,” said Akinboyewa, who has a background as a consultant in the oil and gas industry. “Sometimes, the simple solution is actually what works.”

To take his app to the next level, Akinboyewa hopes to garner institutional and organizational support. He’s discussed the idea with leaders at the University of Colorado Boulder who are in charge of off-campus housing, which could result in thousands of students accessing the app.

Akinboyewa wants to connect with local businesses and feature them on the app, too. He’s looking for financial backing that lets him roll it out on a larger scale.

Hungree’s nonprofit status was approved by the state on Monday. But the organization’s technology branch is for-profit, with plans to make money through investors and a business model that will eventually let users pay for enhanced features, Akinboyewa said.

“I’ll be sincere about something: Being Black in tech, you’re not connected to the right communities to help get the funding,” he said.

Still, he’s seeing progress globally. And in the next few weeks, a major update will bring multilingual support to the app, expanding beyond English to add Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and Turkish.

Akinboyewa’s hope: “In five to seven years, we want half a billion people on there,” he said. “There are big dreams to this.”

Still, a few Colorado schools expect reduced enrollment this fall due to the mess surrounding the Free Application for Financial Aid, known as FAFSA. Educators caution the nationwide problems with the new federal form represent a “crisis” for marginalized students whose barriers to college have become even more restrictive.

That fear is so notable that Adams State University President David Tandberg is personally calling students to nudge them to apply for the financial aid they’ll need to attend school.

“Having the botched FAFSA rollout — that hit at the core of who we are,” Tandberg said of the public university in Alamosa. “We’ve been doing everything we can to get students to complete their FAFSA and register for classes, and I think it’s paying off. But it����ap been a real challenge.”

About 11% fewer Colorado students have submitted their FAFSA as had at this time last year. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid uses the online form to determine how much financial aid students qualify for based on their family’s income.

According to the , about 36% of Colorado’s 2024 high school class as of late June had submitted a FAFSA. That’s below the national FAFSA submission rate of about 45%.

Still, the drop in applications by Coloradans has improved significantly from early April, when 27% fewer students had completed the FAFSA than by the same time in 2023.

The Department of Education introduced a new version of the FAFSA in late 2023 in a bid to make it easier to use and provide more money to needy college students.

But the rollout of the new online form was plagued with delays, errors and widespread confusion, leaving students and higher education experts worried about a lack of participation in a program that can make the cost of college feasible for marginalized students. Students and families who don’t know how much federal aid they qualify for or are met with one too many barriers trying to fill out the paperwork may decide to call it quits on pursuing a degree, educators feared.

Additionally, some universities in Colorado — especially those serving primarily lower-income students — still anticipate enrollment declines this fall due to the FAFSA mess, though other schools are gearing up for a record year of admissions.

“It’s been the most strenuous, worrisome, horrible service being provided by the government that I’ve seen in my over 40 years of doing this work,” said Marty Somero, the University of Northern Colorado’s director of financial aid. “This was by far the biggest fiasco for a social program of the federal government in my lifetime. I think everyone is holding their breath.”

“Scary as hell”

This time last year, 982 students were registered to attend Adams State University. Now, the Alamosa campus has 904 enrolled students for the fall semester.

“We’re a small institution,” Tandberg said. “For us, being down close to 80 students is a lot.”

Tandberg is hopeful that, by fall, enrollment will have caught up. They’ve been adding more students each week, he said. A few months ago at the height of the FAFSA conundrum, the university was down by about 300 students, a “pretty dramatic” consequence of the new error-prone financial aid application.

“It’s been scary as hell,” Tandberg said.

Adams State enrolls the largest share of students who receive Pell Grants of any university in the state, Tandberg said. Pell Grants are federal grants that don’t need to be paid back and are awarded based on financial need, meaning they help make college possible for low-income students.

Similarly, Fort Lewis College budgeted for a 3.5% enrollment decline this fall in light of the FAFSA debacle, officials at the Durango school said.

The fallout has impacted low-income, Black and Latino communities most and threatens to widen college gaps in this marginalized demographic, according to a

Communities with higher numbers of people living in poverty, non-college adults or Black or Latino residents showed year-over-year FAFSA completion declines 20% greater than those in areas with low numbers of these groups, the report found.

Consequentially, the researchers said institutions can expect enrollment declines linked to race, educational attainment and income.

Kiara Calderon, a University of Colorado Denver student who wrapped up her second year this spring, had to fill out her FAFSA three times before she was able to submit it.

“It was definitely frustrating,” Calderon said after the Denver Scholarship Foundation helped her sort out the glitches one April afternoon at the height of the FAFSA snafu. “I was wanting to cry at certain times.”

The Denver Scholarship Foundation provides financial assistance, helps students apply to college and supports them once they’re enrolled. The foundation has been holding to help students complete their FAFSA since the new form frequently required intervention from a trained professional, said Natasha Garfield, the foundation’s director of scholarships.

During a one-on-one appointment, a foundation staffer helped Calderon and her Spanish-speaking mother overcome issues preventing the form from being submitted. The staffer broke down the problems in Spanish, and the relief on Calderon’s face was palpable once finished.

Calderon is the first person in her family to go to college. Without financial aid, she said she wouldn’t be able to afford to study criminal justice and, hopefully, pursue a career as a victim advocate.

“It’s the only way I can go to college and create my future,” Calderon said. “With this, I can pave the way for me and my family to have a better future.”

Garfield said while many of the issues that tripped up students a few months ago have been resolved, problems with the FAFSA persist for students whose parents are undocumented.

“Basically, if they don’t have one-on-one support from somebody who knows exactly how to troubleshoot it, it����ap pretty much impossible for them to get through it,” Garfield said. “The level of persistence needed to make it through this is really astounding.”

“We’re still here”

Other institutions across the state feel like they can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

A few months ago, Metropolitan State University of Denver’s chief enrollment officer Long Hunyh would have predicted a disastrous fall enrollment. But the tide has turned in the past several weeks.

The Auraria Campus institution is projecting a 2.8% enrollment increase from last year, despite the FAFSA challenges. The forecasted undergraduate headcount in 2023 was 10,452 students. Now the university is sitting at 10,753 students, according to MSU Denver data.

However, students are still catching up on FAFSA completion. Around 28,242 FAFSA records had been submitted to MSU Denver as of mid-June, the most recent available data. In 2023, that number was 10% higher at 31,671.

“I think we are in a better place today, and I’m optimistic that our enrollment is not going to be as bad as we anticipated,” Hunyh said. “What we don’t want families to do is leave money on the table by thinking they may not qualify, their family makes too much or they heard the application is too complicated. We are encouraging students, regardless, to submit the application.”

At the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, longtime financial aid director Marty Somero said despite the FAFSA challenges, UNC is well-positioned to meet enrollment goals for the fall.

About 66% of continuing students have filled out a FAFSA for the fall term compared to about 68% during the previous year, Somero said. As for new students, there is about an 8% decline in FAFSA filers, Somero said, but did not provide the actual number.

Meanwhile, the University of Colorado Boulder touted in the spring a record-breaking 68,000 applications for the fall of 2024 — about a 20% increase from the previous year, newspaper.

Financial aid experts urged aspiring college students to reach out for help with FAFSA by contacting a university’s financial aid department rather than giving up on a troublesome form.

“For students still on the fence, don’t let the negativity drive you from trying or at least talking to a financial aid office or school,” Somero said. “We’re still here and wanting and waiting to help families.”

Defeating structural barriers

Some of the enrollment uptick in the past several weeks at Adams State is likely the natural rhythm of allowing FAFSA kinks to work themselves out, Tandberg said. But the university has also been hard at work enticing students to complete the form and enroll.

The San Luis Valley institution holds weekly in-person and virtual office hours for anyone, no matter which school they’re applying to, to receive FAFSA help. Staff have made repeated local high school visits to walk students, parents and counselors through the process.

“We’ve even gamified it,” Tandberg said. “If you complete this many steps of the FAFSA, you’re registered to win a Nintendo Switch. We’re doing everything we can do.”

While crucial now, this is work Tandberg said Adams State should have been doing all along considering the large share of low-income, first-generation students on campus.

“So many of them have structural barriers their entire life and a lot of their interactions with state agencies hasn’t been positive,” Tandberg said. “A big part of Adams State’s role is helping our students overcome the structural barriers that have been put in front of them their entire lives.”

An enrollment decline means fewer students seeking higher education, but it also spells trouble for the universities that rely on tuition dollars to keep operations afloat.

Tandberg admitted Adams State has been financially struggling for years and finally turned the corner with an increase in enrollment the past school year.

“So then to be hit with this FAFSA crisis when we were getting our head above water — that hurt,” Tandberg said. “We need money to deliver the education we provide our students. We need professors. We need services. All of that.”

Updated 11 a.m. July 9, 2024: This story has been updated to correct the number of FAFSA records submitted to MSU Denver by mid-June. That figure is 28,242,

The 23-year-old would at least like to receive the occasional rejection notice.

Most of the time, he never hears anything from employers after uploading his credentials into an online abyss where algorithms — not humans — often get the first crack at whittling down hundreds of job candidates.

Fazzari, a Denver resident, wants to break into media or communications to write, podcast and inform people about education policy and news relevant to teachers. But the narrative of landing a job after graduation that he’d been sold his whole life hasn’t panned out.

“I did all the things I was supposed to do,” Fazzari said. “I went to college. I got an internship. I worked hard and did independent studies. I graduated. But the job system of the past no longer exists.”

Starting a career after college is a much different ballgame than it once was, experts told The Denver Post during the height of Colorado’s graduation season. The job hunt, like most things, has moved online. Whereas a firm handshake used to be the pinnacle of impressing a prospective employer, the new trick of the trade is learning how to stand out among heaps of digital applications that zip through automated screenings before ever encountering human eyes.

And the current labor market isn’t making the hunt any easier.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers recently projected from last year. That coupled with Colorado’s low unemployment rate is expected to hit new and recent graduates hard as they attempt to enter the labor market, said Edward Quinones, communications specialist for the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

How do you break through the noise and snag a job that makes your postsecondary education worth it? Career services experts in Colorado shared their expertise with The Post on what it takes, while recent graduates such as Fazzari divulged “mind-numbing” lived experiences in their quest to start a career.

“It����ap not an easy job market right now,” said Tara Skredynski, a Denver-based career coach. “A lot of people are staying in their roles and not really leaving. There are fewer opportunities and more candidates. So much about the job searching process has changed.”

What’s the labor market like?

Makayla Salter worked as a marketing student assistant for the University of Kansas’s athletic department and completed two business and marketing internships during her time at the KU School of Business.

Salter, 22, graduated a few weeks ago. Her family’s Thornton home has transformed into her career headquarters, where she updates an Excel spreadsheet tracking the status of the more than 200 jobs she’s applied for since the beginning of the year.

Inspired by her internships, Salter is searching for a role in a collegiate athletic department or sports organization where she can flex her business acumen.

“I know everything is going to work out, but in the moment, it’s stressful,” she said.

Out of the 238 applications she’s submitted so far, Salter has heard back from 31 prospective employers. Some asked her to produce intensive work samples, which the recent graduate spent hours crafting, even having them reviewed by her mentors, only to be ghosted by the employers.

When she was able to land an interview, Salter felt confident and prepared in the moment — less so after only hearing back from anyone post-interview about half the time, even after reaching out later to thank interviewers for their time.

“It����ap so hard to understand it because you hear so much about companies needing employees, but it����ap hard to find the gap,” Salter said.  “I get that not everyone is going to get the job, but I really don’t see anyone getting any jobs.”

Only about half of bachelor’s degree holders in the United States lock down a college-level job within a year of graduation, according to a , which researches the future of work. The other half end up underemployed, meaning they work in jobs that don’t require a degree or make use of their collegiate-level skills.

Seventy-three percent of graduates who enter the workforce underemployed remain so a decade after completing college, the report found. A recent graduate with a college-level job usually earns about 88% more in wages than someone who only has a high school diploma, the report said. But an underemployed graduate typically earns just 25% more than someone with no education beyond high school.

Colorado had the fifth-highest labor participation rate in the United States and outranked 31 other states in its labor force growth rate, according to a

Colorado’s unemployment rate for the first few months of the year is at 3.7%, below the national average of 3.9%, according to a 

Headed into the pandemic, Colorado had the fifth-lowest unemployment rate in the country at 2.5%. By the end of 2020, Colorado saw 269,200 people without jobs and actively looking for one, a higher total for the state than any month during the Great Recession, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state had the nation’s fourth-highest unemployment rate after Hawaii, California and Nevada at the time.

Now, Colorado’s employment increased an estimated 2.2% in 2023, adding 64,500 jobs, and stood at a record 2.9 million in October 2023. CU projects an increase of 41,900 jobs in 2024, or a 1.4% increase in the number of employed workers in the state.

There were 1.7 job openings per unemployed person in Colorado in the first three months of this year, the fourth-highest rate in the country. The national average was 1.4.

Education and health services added 4,600 jobs in Colorado between March and April, more than any other sector. The biggest decline during that period, 3,100 jobs, stemmed from professional and business services, followed by construction, which lost 1,700 jobs.

On paper, Colorado looks to be a good place to find a job.

“Right now, it’s very much a job-seeker market,” said Katherine Keegan, director of the Colorado Department of Labor’s Office of the Future of Work.

In practice, job seekers told The Post that it felt more complicated than what the statistics revealed.

Labor market changes have long been brewing that are now coming to a head, Keegan said. Younger generations who are more diverse than ever before are entering academic and employment systems that have disproportionately not served them well, she said. Meanwhile, older generations are working longer.

Plus, rapidly changing technologies constantly disrupt industries, prompting the need to innovate and adapt.

The power of apprenticeships

Keegan envisions a different future of work — one where apprenticeships reign.

“In Colorado, we are trying to live out this idea of the big blur between education and work,” she said.

In previous generations, Keegan said, kids graduated high school and finished postsecondary training before entering the workforce.

“We know that����ap not creating the talent pipeline that businesses need,” she said. “We’re trying to create more work-based learning opportunities in high school and postsecondary education. Apprenticeship is a big part of that and helps people learn skills while they earn money. It helps employers shape the talent they need.”

This is where a school like Emily Griffith Technical College excels. The Denver college offers workforce training and industry-aligned postsecondary certificate programs in creative arts and design, health sciences and administration and trades, industry and professional studies.

Areas of study include cosmetology, culinary arts, nurse assisting, automotive services and welding, among other pursuits. The programs are driven by industry demand, said Tiffany Jaramillo, who manages Emily Griffith’s career services.

“Many students are gaining employment before completing because there’s such a demand for them in the industry,” Jaramillo said.

Career coaches go into Emily Griffith’s classrooms within the first week of courses to introduce themselves and the services they offer. They go back mid-way through the program to create skill-based resumes with the students. A few weeks before graduation, they come back once more to see who has a job and who could use a resume refresher, interview preparations and application help.

“Our instructors are from industry, and that is incredibly valuable because they have the insight into the industry as well as the connections,” Jaramillo said. “They are often able to help our students bridge a connection with an employer, and that is super helpful.”

How to stand out

Fazzari intended to use his college years to explore career options and forge connections. The Denverite made the most of his time at DU, but he can’t help but wonder how many opportunities were squandered by the pandemic.

“If we’re thinking about careers as a race, it almost feels like the starting block got ripped out from under my feet before I could even start running,” said Fazzari, who is working as a substitute teacher in the Cherry Creek School District while his job hunt persists.

He’s had numerous professional contacts tell him they would love to hire him but have not recovered from the budget fallout of 2020 and don’t have jobs to offer, he said.

If an applicant is only relying on uploading their resume and sitting back awaiting a response, career coach Skredynski said it’s going to be a tough job market for them. Applicants should be researching the hiring manager, the recruiter, peers in the organization and trying to connect with them via the networking site LinkedIn, she said.

“Take that extra step,” she said. “If a company is getting hundreds of resumes, that����ap how you can stand out.”

Instead of reaching out with a “Hi, I just applied for this job” message, Skredynski said it’s important to craft a concise, clear outreach message about why you’re interested in working for the company and what relevant skills you bring. Then request a quick phone call to connect.

The career coach said she often hears from fresh graduates with no idea what they want to do. In these instances, she said it’s important to evaluate strengths, skills and values, and to become comfortable articulating them.

“It����ap not just networking on LinkedIn,” Skredynski said. “It����ap using your alumni, family, friends, people in your community. It’s going to conferences, webinars, any professional networking groups you can. It����ap getting out there and talking to people and letting them know this is who I am and what I’m looking for.”

Most companies, she said, are using applicant tracking systems to sort through thousands of resumes. When an applicant submits their resume, the document gets scanned for key words that usually align with the job posting. Tools like can help job hunters align their resumes with words from job descriptions, Skredynski said. If the resume and job description aren’t in sync, it’s likely the document will never see the light of day.

“You have to go beyond the automation,” Skredynski said.

For free career coaching advice, a job applicant’s university is often a good place to start.

At the University of Colorado Denver, alumni can come back and visit the school’s career center for life, said Sarah Trzeciak, the school’s assistant vice chancellor of career development and immersive learning.

Trzeciak has been with CU Denver’s career services for 11 years, with a front-row seat to the evolution of the job hunt.

“Really, what it has become is, how do you in this world of electronic applications get your documents to stand out in front of a recruiter who has thousands of applications they’re looking through?” Trzeciak said.

The CU Denver employee has some tricks of the trade. It’s imperative to tailor cover letters to the job, she said, and not just send out cookie-cutter responses.

Trzeciak estimates that for every 10 jobs applied to, an applicant will hear back from one employer. By tailoring the cover letter, she bumps the odds up to three or four.

“I’d rather spend time applying for 10 positions and tailoring their application materials for each and every one, or they can take that same amount of time and apply for 100 jobs and still maybe hear back from nine to 10,” Trzeciak said. “Getting six rejections feels a lot better than 90.”

The key to a good cover letter, she said, is a four-paragraph method. First, note what position you’re applying for. Second, explain your skills and connect them to the job. Third, show why you want to work for the company and make it clear you’ve researched the organization’s mission and values. Fourth, state that you look forward to connecting.

Trzeciak also knows her way around a resume.

Because recruiters skim documents from left to right and top to bottom, she said it’s crucial to include a qualification summary box in the upper-left corner to immediately demonstrate that you meet the employers’ needs. The box might feature skills mentioned in the job description or certificates or education required.

“Yes, we’re hearing the market’s hard,” Trzeciak said. “We still have employers wanting to recruit our students. We don’t have an empty table at our internship and job fairs. The difficulty they are experiencing is more of that shift to online and not really knowing how to stand out.”

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Supporters of the legislation — , passed on the final day of the session — tout it as an important step to improve access to postsecondary education in Colorado. House Speaker Julie McCluskie previously called the bill “the sleeper of the session.”

“We know the cost of college has been an obstacle for students for many, many years,” said Angie Paccione, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. “If it����ap not an actual barrier, it����ap a perceived barrier. This is a way to eliminate that perception and to really make it affordable.”

But since many of the state’s higher education institutions already have programs that cover tuition for low-income families — typically those making below $60,000 to $70,000 a year — supporters of the bipartisan measure say it should particularly help middle-income families earning closer to that $90,000-a-year cutoff.

“I hope that people understand our state used to be a place where we were able to invest more to hold tuition costs down,” said Rep. Shannon Bird, a Westminster Democrat who was one of the bill’s sponsors. “With competing pressures on budget and TABOR, that has taken away our ability to fund higher education the way we used to.

However, the bill differs from the typical tuition promise programs that many Colorado colleges already offer to low-income students. The new legislation will reimburse families through a refundable state income tax credit, meaning eligible students must pay tuition and fees on their own and then receive refunds after the next tax season.

Some local education experts warned the retroactive payment would still hinder struggling families in affording college if they have to come up with the money upfront.

Legislative sponsors and state higher education leaders said the bill is a boon for middle-income families who may make too much to qualify for significant financial aid but are still burdened by the cost of degree or certificate attainment.

“This is a way to lift up more of our families,” Bird said.

Polis is expected to sign the bill, according to a statement from the governor’s office on Friday. “I’m so excited that community college will now be free for all families under $90,000, this is a big step forward for saving people money on tuition,” Polis said.

To qualify for the tax credit, students must:

• Have a household adjusted gross income of $90,000 or less
• Enroll in an in-state public college, university or technical college within two years of graduating from a Colorado high school
• Seek a degree or credential
• Submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid or a Colorado Application for State Financial Aid
• Complete at least six credits for the applicable semesters
• Maintain a 2.5 GPA for the applicable semesters

Students can claim up to 65 credit hours across all years the tax credit is used. The credit is expected to average $2,700 for students at four-year colleges, $2,000 for students at area technical colleges and $1,000 for students at two-year colleges, .

Eligible students can begin claiming the credit on their 2025 taxes — meaning students starting school as soon as this fall can benefit.

About 28,000 students in Colorado would have met the requirements for the tax credit during the 2023-24 school year, according to data from the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

The tax credit is expected to cost $36.7 million in 2025-26, Bird said. In years the state collects tax dollars exceeding the cap set by the Taxpayers Bills of Rights, the credit would be paid out of that tax revenue. In years where the state comes in beneath the TABOR cap, the money would come from the general fund, Bird said.

If students receive scholarships or grants, the tax credit would only apply toward any gap left between those and full payment of tuition fees.

“The Colorado paradox”

The rate of Colorado high schoolers going to college was 49.9% in 2021, more than 10% lower than the national average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Twenty-nine percent of Colorado high school graduates enrolled in a college or university outside of the state,  — a 4% increase and the highest rate ever.

This is what experts refer to as “the Colorado paradox”: Colorado has the highest educational attainment levels of any state in the country with 62.9% of the population aged 25 to 64 having some form of a postsecondary credential, according to the state.

However, Colorado is far below the national average in getting its own residents to enroll in in-state postsecondary education, graduate and stay here.

“We want to grow our own and make sure our Colorado kids are prepared,” Paccione said.

Higher education has proven to provide graduates with not only better career and economic outcomes, but better health and quality of life, as well.

College graduates in the United States earn about $1 million more on average throughout their working years than people without postsecondary degrees, according to . The average bachelor’s degree graduate will earn double what the average person without a degree earns in their lifetime, .

College graduates report better health outcomes than those who only graduated high school, the Gallup research found, with 60% of people with bachelor’s degree describing their health as either “excellent” or “very good,” compared to 43% of respondents without a higher education.

“We want to make sure students see the value of going to college,” Paccione said. “This helps get them there.”

“A potential win” for students

Larry Pakowski is vice president for student engagement, inclusion and success at Aims Community College, which has multiple locations in northern Colorado. Pakowski said Aims anticipates the tax credit will impact middle-income families most since low-income students at Aims tend to have their costs covered by financial aid.

“For a ton of our students, the good news is their costs are already covered, but for those middle-income that don’t qualify for a , that����ap a potential win for them in terms of the affordability piece,” Pakowski said.

Nathan Cadena, chief impact officer at the nonprofit Denver Scholarship Foundation, which guides Denver students toward postsecondary degrees or certificates and supports them during their higher education journey, said any state investment in higher education is a positive step.

But he’s not sure how impactful this tax credit will be for the lower-income, first-generation college students that the scholarship fund often assists.

First, Cadena said explaining the mechanics of a retroactive tax credit to a family can be tricky messaging, not to mention that struggling families would still need to pay the tuition and fees upfront before getting their refund as part of the next year’s tax filing.

Then, he said, it’s important to recognize that taking care of tuition and fees obviously lightens the load of collegiate financial barriers, but costs like room and board, as well as books and supplies, are still big barriers to access.

“As a lifetime Coloradan, I’m thrilled anytime legislation passes in this direction, but it����ap definitely complicated,” Cadena said. “At the heart of this is an explanation of a retroactive calculation of how only a portion of your cost was met. That����ap the challenge. I don’t want to be too critical of it, but I do think we probably want to temper our expectations of what sort of impact this will have. It would be much different if it were upfront.”

The legislation has been in the works for about five years, Paccione said. In a University of Colorado news release, the flagship institution said the bill was CU-initiated.

“With this legislation, the state is making a significant investment to save many Coloradans money on college,” said Todd Saliman, CU president, in the release. “CU is committed to educating all Coloradans. That happens by working with policymakers to make a four-year degree accessible and affordable to all who want one, which in turn keeps our state and nation competitive.”

Leslie Taylor, vice president of marketing and enrollment for Western Colorado University in Gunnison, said there are entire segments of the population who don’t believe in the value of higher education, whether it’s a trade program, two-year college or four-year institution.

“A program like this just helps them see that higher education could be something for them,” Taylor said.

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More than a dozen protesters marched from the 19-day-old Gaza solidarity encampment on the Tivoli Quad to the University of Colorado Denver Student Commons on Monday and entered the Bursar’s Office on the fifth floor, according to an Auraria news release.

Officials told protesters to leave and the campus was put on lockdown around 4:45 p.m. due to police activity in the commons, .

Some of the demonstrators left peacefully and continued their protest outside, but 10 stayed in the building and were issued summonses by Auraria Campus police, officials said.

The protesters were released immediately and the lockdown was lifted at 5:48 p.m., according to the news release.

Another group of protesters entered the Tivoli Student Union at 4 p.m. Tuesday, set up tents inside the building and led chants,

Twelve people were cited for trespassing and interference after refusing to leave the area. The campus was under a lock down until 6:20 p.m. and the student union remained closed Tuesday night.

Tuesday marks the third time protesters have been cited by police inside an Auraria Campus building. On May 7, approximately 14 protesters were issued summonses for trespassing and failing to obey lawful orders after sitting in a circle and leading pro-Palestine chants inside the Advanced Manufacturing Sciences Institute.

Earlier that day, protesters entered the Tivoli Student Union as Angie Paccione, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, met with a group of demonstrators. Another group entered executive offices at the student union and left after agreeing to meet with campus leaders at a different time.

More than 40 protesters were arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest and encampment tents were removed on April 26. Protesters, who have been camping at the Tivoli Quad since April 25, rebuilt the encampment later that day.

The Auraria Campus is home to CU Denver, the Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Denver.

The anti-war demonstrators are demanding the CU system and MSU Denver divest from any funds or companies related to or doing business with Israel.

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Runaway growth in property values caused by a lack of housing supply, growing demand from population increases, and 20-years’ worth of cheap money policy from the Federal Reserve have caused a perfect storm of escalating home values. As home assessed values grow so do taxes triggering property tax increases in all corners of our state.

Just how significant is this year’s property tax increase? An economist at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business warned that new property tax costs to homeowners could impact consumer spending and cause an economic slowdown.

For the fourth time in as many years, the Colorado legislature has enacted a complicated new law intended to address this problem.

That����ap the good news. The bad news is that these Golden Dome political compromises have continued to miss the mark.

Last year, the legislature’s grand agreement on property tax was Proposition HH, a slick-sounding plan that repackaged refunds already owed to taxpayers and called them property tax relief. At the same time, the plan grabbed an even larger sum of taxpayer refunds to spend on public education. While clever, the plan didn’t stand up to scrutiny — there was no real tax relief in it — and the voters defeated HH in a landslide.

This year, the legislature is back with a different inside-the-Capitol deal. While it is better than Proposition HH, and we credit those who fought to get some property tax relief on the business side, the package is still a woefully inadequate response for homeowners being crushed by soaring property taxes.

Rather than materially reducing taxes that homeowners pay, actually increases the total effective property tax rate from 6.3% this year to 6.8%. For the property taxes paid to our schools, the legislature’s agreement would increase the property tax rate even more — to 7.1%.

As with Proposition HH last year, this year’s agreement is a blatant attempt to dress up an education tax increase in the clothes of property tax relief. It����ap insincere. If the legislature wants to increase taxes for our schools, all it must do is ask the voters. To come back with a different variation of the same ploy that voters rejected less than one year ago is equal parts disappointing and disingenuous.

This is only the beginning of the problems with the property tax agreement.

The agreement purports to put a cap on property tax collections at 5.5%. The problem is that the limit wouldn’t apply to local government borrowing or debt, it wouldn’t apply to many (and maybe even most) districts who have already raised their property tax limits, and it would do little to slow the surging increases caused by growing home values.

Here again, it looks like the legislature is trying to snooker the public into believing they implemented a 5.5% cap when what they really enacted was a property tax cap riddled with loopholes and exceptions.

Other concerns with the legislative deal are many — notably, the deal takes us down the road of taxing homes worth more than $700,000 as if they were mansions owned by millionaires.  In many parts of the state, a $700,000 home is below the median cost.

One good aspect of the agreement is that it would reduce the state’s commercial property taxes, a badly needed step after the Gallagher Amendment punished businesses with higher property taxes for decades. But even this raises a question: Why would the legislature address the impacts of soaring property taxes for businesses but ignore those same impacts on everyday homeowners?

For all these reasons, we are enthusiastic supporters of ballot measures that would legitimately reduce property taxes and in a way that balances the legitimate needs of state and local governments. The business community has stuck to its guns in demanding sensible property tax relief, and the voters will get the chance to deliver that this November.

Some interest groups claim that the modest property tax cuts in the ballot measures would cause budget calamity. This is not true. Reducing the rate of growth in state and local budgets is not a cut, a fact that savvy Colorado voters will recognize immediately.

What����ap more, these ballot measures actually prevent state government from cutting public education, and the initiatives would require the state of Colorado to fund local services like firefighters, water, and local social safety net programs funded by property taxes.

The truth is, we can implement meaningful property tax relief and fund the government services the public needs.

Tim Foster, an attorney at Coleman & Quigley, is the former President of Colorado Mesa University  and Director of Colorado Department of Higher Education. He also served as the Majority Leader of the Colorado House of Representatives. Jan Kulmann, a Professional Engineer, is in her second term as the Mayor of Thornton. She also serves as vice chair of the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council and is a member of the North I-25 Coalition.

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