Gov. Jared Polis said the Biden administration notified the state Friday that it was chosen as a tech hub under the   The act makes $500 million available initially with $10 billion authorized for 20 regional hubs.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration manages the program. Sources familiar with the decision said the list of 20 hubs specializing in different technologies will be officially announced Monday.

The Polis administration and a bipartisan group of legislators sent a letter earlier this month to Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo to show support for declaring Colorado as a quantum tech hub.

“The quantum sector is one of the key industries of tomorrow, and I’m thrilled the Biden administration is awarding Colorado a TechHub designation for quantum technology,” Polis said in a statement. “We will take full advantage of this decision to help create jobs, and support businesses and entrepreneurs because Colorado is the best place for tech and innovation.”

Polis and legislators said in the Oct. 6 letter to Raimondo that Colorado has allocated millions of dollars to strengthen the region’s capacities in quantum technology, including computing. In the past five years, the state has used $10 million in tax incentives and over $1 million in direct cash investments for local quantum companies, the letter said.

“This is the culmination of the hard work we started on my first day as (Denver) mayor: making Colorado the best place in the country to do business, to find a good-paying job, and to live a good life,” Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said in a statement. “This will future-proof our successes and ensure we remain an economic and technological powerhouse.”

Hickenlooper, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Space and Science  subcommittee, worked on developing and passing the CHIPS and Science Act. He also served on the Bipartisan Innovation and Competition Conference Committee, which negotiated a final version of the bill.

The Boulder-Denver area has been a center of research in quantum technology and a pipeline for companies for decades. Quantum computing is seen as taking computing to a new level by using the physics of quantum physics to solve more complex statistical problems faster and is considered t

The hub will focus on developing the use of quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking and quantum hardware technologies and moving those applications from lab to market, according to Hickenlooper’s office. The technology can help speed up discoveries of drugs and sources of critical minerals as well as enhance space-based navigation systems and observation satellites.

“Colorado has spent decades investing in research and development and supporting a vibrant startup ecosystem to strengthen American leadership in quantum technologies. Today’s announcement will ensure we continue to lead the country in this field,” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said in a statement.

A consortium of local governments, businesses, universities and organizations formed to promote making Colorado one of the tech and innovation hubs. Participants include the University Colorado at Boulder; the cities of Denver and Boulder; Front Range Community College; Fort Lewis College; Colorado State University; ColdQuanta; Atom Computing; Colorado School of Mines; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and the National Center for Women in IT.

Updates with details about tech hub and comments rom Sen. Michael Bennet.

In the mornings, the 16-year-old attended classes at John F. Kennedy High School. But come afternoon, she transformed into a working professional as a registered apprentice.

In addition to being taught the ins and outs of the insurance industry, Navarro mastered career skills like composing business emails, public speaking and phone etiquette — and she got paid while doing so, earning as she learned. Pinnacol even enrolls their young apprentices in program, meaning the teen was already saving for retirement.

At the end of Navarro’s three-year apprenticeship, Pinnacol hired her right out of high school to a full-time position as a bilingual business development representative. By 20, she said she’d saved enough money to buy a house with her sister and brother-in-law. Next, she’s saving up for a new car with aspirations to one day utilize her business knowledge to open her own Mexican restaurant.

“An apprenticeship will change your life,” said Navarro, now 21. “As a high schooler, I didn’t think insurance sounded that interesting, but look at all I’ve done. I’m learning so much, and now I know there is much more to the job than I thought.”

Colorado’s Pinnacol Assurance is looked at nationally — the recently visited — as a model of a successful youth apprenticeship program. While the program is among the largest and most robust apprenticeship programs in the state, it is just one of several hundred opportunities for Coloradans of all demographics to gain on-the-job workforce experience and get paid while learning.

As of Monday, Colorado recorded 5,826 active apprentices, 287 active apprenticeship programs and 473 employers participating in these programs, according to the . Some of these are youth-focused apprenticeships while others accept people of all ages.

The state is investing in apprenticeship programs, heralding them as the future of workforce development — so much so that in 2021, signed into law establishing the State Apprenticeship Agency, which is set to launch this July.

The agency is intended to:

• Be the primary point of contact with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship
• Accelerate new apprenticeship program growth
• Oversee apprenticeship programs, including registration, certification, quality assurance and compliance with federal laws

While trades like construction are still the bread and butter of apprenticeship programs, experts said these types of on-the-job learning opportunities are being built to attract and retain an evolving talent pipeline in a number of industries such as health care, education, information technology and business services.

“These aren’t your grandpa’s apprenticeships,” said Joe Barela, executive director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Noel Ginsburg, founder and CEO of Colorado-based nonprofit CareerWise, believes apprenticeship programs are more than a philanthropic endeavor or workforce bolster.

Ginsburg, who has spent his career advocating for and setting up apprenticeships, said paid training opportunities should play a key role in mending the division, anger and uncertainty festering in the country.

“If we don’t change the system meaningfully, which apprenticeship does, I am really concerned about the future not just of our state but our country,” Ginsburg said. “Inequity will hold a country back and create some of the discourse we see politically. If people don’t see hope, if they don’t see a way of opportunity, then we end up with where this country is. It����ap not that apprenticeship is a silver bullet, but a foundational piece.”

What’s an apprenticeship?

People often conflate apprenticeships with internships, but Katherine Keegan, director of the labor department’s , said that’s a misconception.

Registered apprenticeships, Keegan said, are much more regulated than internships and must meet certain requirements to qualify. All apprenticeships must be a mix of on-the-job training and classroom instruction, provide payment, offer successful apprentices nationally recognized credentials in their field, and supply mentorship.

“Crafted well, apprenticeships can be an equity strategy because they address the need for debt-free labor credentials,” said Brent Parton, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.

While an apprenticeship can be an alternative to college, it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation, said Chris Heuston, director of apprenticeships at .

Front Range is recognized by the federal Labor Department as an apprenticeship ambassador, meaning the community college system will support the administration’s goals in modernizing, diversifying and expanding apprenticeships in the state, Heuston said.

The system’s campuses offer apprenticeship opportunities in manufacturing, technology, tree care and health care positions such as pharmacy tech, medical assisting and surgical technology.

Front Range partners with local industries like hospitals and tree maintenance businesses for a combination of classroom learning and on-the-job training for people of all ages and backgrounds, Heuston said.

Many of the employers Front Range partners with help their apprentices pay for tuition. In the past three years, the community college’s industry partners have paid about half a million dollars toward apprentices’ tuition, Heuston said. Fewer than 7% of the nearly 400 apprentices that Front Range has trained since 2019 needed to take out student loans to support their training, Heuston said.

“With the rising cost of higher education, I think individuals are looking for alternatives for how they can be trained in an occupation,” said Renée Welch, director of collegiate apprenticeships at the .

Apprenticeships, Parton said, also address equity gaps when it comes to the often intangible but critical benefits of social capital — providing access to professional networking through mentorship.

“Unpaid internships have made it challenging to distribute workforce experience equitably,” Parton said.

Apprenticeship programs are typically years-long and, in addition to payment, apprentices are federally required to receive a wage increase at least once. The wages themselves vary depending on the company.

At Pinnacol Assurance, an apprentice’s starting wage is $18.24 an hour with annual performance-based raises. The youth apprentices also receive a benefits package that includes Pinnacol’s employee incentive program, PERA retirement and paid time off.

“It����ap not just philanthropy,” said Liz Johnson, director of public relations at Pinnacol. “It����ap not this thing we like to do because it feels nice. It����ap part of our recruitment pipeline.”

Diversifying the field

Pinnacol focuses on the youth apprenticeship model, recruiting teens in high school — in partnership with their school districts and postsecondary institutions — to begin their careers while balancing their academic lives.

Apprentice Brandi Valdez-Montoya, 20, sat in her Pinnacol cubicle last week stationed across from the futuristic pod where apprentices can cozy up in a heated reclining chair for a power nap. Valdez-Montoya works for the insurance company’s special investigations team, running background reports and collecting medical records, police records and more to investigate people’s claims.

“I’m interested in criminal justice, but outside of positions like a cop or a judge, I didn’t really know what else existed,” Valdez-Montoya said. “I had no idea this job existed, and I am trusted to deal with sensitive information, and I’ve learned so much.”

Pinnacol’s apprenticeship program was born out of a trip to Switzerland taken by Pinnacol leadership and CareerWise’s Ginsburg several years ago, during which Ginsburg showed Colorado business leaders how the Swiss model of youth apprenticeships helps sustain that nation’s workforce.

Ginsburg founded a custom plastics business during his senior year at the University of Denver in 1980 but had trouble finding manufacturing workers. The businessman approached Montbello High School, forming a lasting partnership with Denver Public Schools to integrate traditional schooling with industry training, and never looked back.

When Ginsburg traveled abroad to study Switzerland’s apprenticeship model, he was struck by its efficacy. Seventy percent of Swiss people start out with an apprenticeship that begins in the 11th grade, he said.

Although apprenticeship utilization rates in the U.S. fall well below European countries, the 3,143 new U.S. apprenticeships established in the fiscal year 2020 were a 73% increase over the number that existed in 2009, according to a

“The biggest challenge we face now that we have examples of this working is really businesses taking this on at scale,” Ginsburg said. “It����ap still a foreign language to most businesses. Thinking of taking a 15- or 16-year-old into your business when you have a 16-year-old at home who won’t listen to you… but the reality is young people do want to be treated as adults and respond well.”

CareerWise helps employers design apprenticeship programs for their needs, Ginsburg said. The state also offers to help pay for apprenticeship programs in Colorado, according to the labor department.

Since Pinnacol’s apprenticeship program began in 2017, the company has enrolled 63 apprentices trained by more than 50 coaches and supervisors — employees from different departments who signed up to be mentors — with the support of two dedicated apprentice program staffers.

Twelve apprentices have been hired at Pinnacol full-time and 83% of those hires have been from BIPOC backgrounds, the company said. More than two-thirds of the participants in Pinnacol’s program finish it and go into the workforce or opt for college or another opportunity after two years.

, 93% of apprentices nationwide who complete their programs retain employment, with an average annual salary of $77,000.

Nationally, apprenticeships remain heavily white and male, with more than 75% of U.S. apprentices identifying as white and just over 10% of apprentices identifying as women, the .

Diversifying the apprentice sphere — broadening it from the traditional trades and attracting and retaining a more diverse candidate pool —  is critical for the future of the programs nationwide, Parton said.

Diverse apprentices like Navarro are proof of how revolutionary paid training opportunities can be.

Navarro grew up in a big family in Denver, living paycheck to paycheck.

“I always saw my parents struggling, and I didn’t want that,” Navarro said. “I wanted to have my own things and provide for myself.”

While Navarro was an apprentice, she gave Community College of Denver a shot, but decided she was learning more in her apprenticeship than she was in her college courses — with the bonus that she was getting paid and receiving benefits.

“Apprenticeships are a big commitment,” Navarro said. “I’m living a very different life than my peers, but I’ve accomplished so much already and, with the skills I’ve acquired, can keep going further.”

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.

Updated 11:30 a.m. Feb. 2, 2023 Due to an editor’s error, this story incorrectly stated how many participants in Pinnacol Assurance’s apprenticeship program go into the workforce or a post-secondary institution. That figure is more than two-thirds.

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)

CCCS started its bachelor’s degree program in 2020 and initially began working with four-year colleges like Colorado State University and CU Denver, said Michael Schulman, CCCS director of student affairs. That same year, CU Colorado Springs signed on and guaranteed admission to any new, first-year students, including students who started at Front Range Community College. Front Range is a member of the CCCS system.

“One of the main impetuses behind the program is (that) the students who transfer from community colleges to universities aren’t always using their degrees,” Schulman said. “In most cases, they leave the university, and they now have debt. We want them to have the associates degree to fall back on, but we also build in a lot of scaffolding to ensure they are successful with their transfer to the university.”

Each year, about 20% of CCCS students — or 9,000 — transfer to a four-year college or university, saving at least $8,000 in tuition by starting at a CCCS college, according to a news release from the community college system. A student planning to transfer to CU Boulder could save about $17,868 by completing the associates degree program, Schulman said. So far, more than 5,000 CCCS students have enrolled in the program since it started and 223 have graduated.

CU Boulder finally joined the program this spring and will soon reap the rewards as more than 100 CCCS students, who have enrolled in the Bridge to Bachelor’s program, have indicated they intend to transfer to CU Boulder after completing their associates degree, said Lindsay Sandoval, spokesperson for CCCS.

Clark Brigger, executive director of CU Boulder admissions, could not say for certain why CU Boulder did not join the program when CU’s other campuses did. He said he expects the campus will begin to see students transfer from the program in 2024.

“I’m absolutely positive (the program) should enhance our diversity at CU Boulder, which is one of our primary tenets that we strive for every day, so that is super positive,” he said.

When students at community colleges like Front Community College, enroll in the Bridge to Bachelor’s Degree Program, they work with advisors who assist them with course enrollment to guarantee that their classes will transfer to the four-year college or university that they plan to attend, Schulman said.

“Some of the data we looked at when we launched this program was that 80% of our students are indicating they want to transfer but only 20% are actually transferring,” he said.

“When we follow up with students, a lot of times they say they don’t know where to transfer. Part of this bachelor’s degree program is building a significant amount of scaffolding. The universities work regularly with our advisors to help them with course maps and transfer guides.”

About 900 students each year transfer to CU Boulder from Front Range Community College, said Hannah Brown, admissions and outreach director with FRCC.

Now that CU Boulder has joined the Bridge to Bachelor’s Degree Program, CU Boulder can contact the students who have said they plan to transfer to the campus to get to know them years before they actually enroll at CU Boulder, Brown said.

“I think sometimes students want to attend CU but it is not feasible right away or some students are intimidated by the large class sizes or the cost, so I think this opens up the access,” she said. “Our students get to know how things are here at Front Range and transferring to a large institution is very different, so helping them navigate that I think is really important.”

Brigger added that the program helps CU Boulder with its goal of honoring all transfer credits which helps students save money while obtaining their bachelor’s degree.

“We want to serve every student in the state as best we can because we believe that the future state of Colorado really relies upon the residents of Colorado,” he said. “The more accessible that we can become in this space, the better off we’re going to be in the future as a state.”

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.”

CU Boulder, Front Range and Naropa all cited the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant for the decision to require masks.

The delta variant spreads faster and causes more infections than earlier forms of COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can also infect people who have been vaccinated, though the vaccine lessens the likelihood of severe illness, hospitalization and death.

The campus announcements came one day after the Boulder County Board of Health unanimously approved the decision for all students and staff members in all K-12 schools or at child care facilities, regardless of vaccination status. The order went into effect Tuesday.

CU Boulder’s mask requirement goes into effect on Friday. Front Range and Naropa began requiring masks immediately.

In a virtual campus Q&A, CU Boulder Chief Operating Officer Patrick O’Rourke said the decision to require masks was done to make sure the campus could maintain its plans for a more normal fall semester, without shifts to remote learning or capacity restrictions. The mask mandate is hopefully temporary, O’Rourke said.

CU Boulder and Naropa are requiring students, faculty and staff to receive the coronavirus vaccine or request an exemption before the start of the semester.

Front Range Community College is not requiring students, faculty or staff to be vaccinated.

President Andy Dorsey said the decision to not require vaccines is based on the fact that the college does not having students who live on campus and also the history of community colleges as open-access institutions. Approximately 74% of the student body is currently vaccinated, Dorsey said. The college does not have vaccination rates for employees, but Dorsey said he estimates that more than 85% have been inoculated. ]]> /2021/08/10/cu-boulder-front-range-to-require-masks-indoors/feed/ 0 4705270 2021-08-10T14:36:52+00:00 2021-08-10T18:01:57+00:00 /2019/03/07/colorado-white-supremacist-propaganda/ /2019/03/07/colorado-white-supremacist-propaganda/#respond Thu, 07 Mar 2019 13:00:09 +0000 /?p=3378005 In January 2018, students from the Community College of Denver found flyers from a white supremacist group on campus.

Nine days later, similar literature from that same group — Identity Evropa — popped up on the University of Northern Colorado’s campus in Greeley.

These schools were not outliers.

Over the course of the year, white supremacist groups targeted 13 colleges and universities across Colorado, part of a dramatic increase in hate propaganda seen across the country, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League.

Colorado ranked third in the U.S. for the highest number of white supremacist propaganda distributions, the report found, behind only California and Texas. In 2018, the state had at least 72 propaganda distributions.

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Overall, the ADL found that propaganda efforts have skyrocketed nationwide. White supremacist efforts in this regard increased by 182 percent nationally in 2018, with 1,187 distributions, up from 421 total incidents in 2017, according to ADL data.

Experts say the propaganda is part of an effort by extremist groups to target young and impressionable populations, while appealing more to mainstream conservatives. It’s a way to re-brand and promote their ideology, without suffering physical or professional consequences, experts said.

Colorado, the data show, is on the front lines of this wave.

“Colorado has had some of the most active white supremacist groups over the past 150 years,” said Catlyn Keenan, a professor at Front Range Community College who focuses on such racist hate groups. “We spent a long time being a very red state, and we’re not anymore. That makes it a target of external groups, who see themselves as losing this state.”

Colleges as “breeding grounds”

White supremacist groups — primarily Identity Evropa — targeted at least 13 colleges and universities across Colorado last year, the ADL report states, mostly along the Front Range.

The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies Identity Evropa as a hate group, one of 22 in Colorado. The group believes ethnic diversity damages the country, advocating for only white people to immigrate to the U.S. The group helped organize the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Students at Community College of Denver on the Auraria Campus found flyers in January reading “Our Generation. Our Future. Our Last Chance.” At the University of Colorado Boulder in February, flyers reading “Our Future Belongs to Us” were put on campus. Steadily, campuses from Greeley to Colorado Springs to Denver and Boulder were all targeted.

The decision by white supremacist groups to plaster college campuses didn’t come out of nowhere. In fact, Identity Evropa telegraphed its plan on its website in early 2016, said Carla Hill, senior investigative researcher in the ADL’s Center on Extremism.

The campaign didn’t gain traction until fall 2016, she said. But since then, the number of propaganda efforts have spiked on campuses.

“College campuses are like breeding grounds for young white males who feel disgruntled,” said Mary Ann Grim, a professor at Front Range Community College who specializes in anti-Semitism. “They feel like they’re being victimized in the #MeToo era, feeling a little left behind and attacked.”

Another reason these groups target college campuses is that, in their view, schools are the “bastion of liberal thinking and controlled thought,” Hill said. “White supremacist groups want to have their opinions heard on campus and voiced on campus.”

It’s also fueled by a desire for legitimacy, Keenan said.

“They want to be seen as intellectuals,” she said. “They also want to be able to say, ‘X percentage of our membership have college degrees.’ It gives them a legitimate and intellectual foundation.”

Changing tactics

“Under intensified public scrutiny, white supremacists are facing a Catch-22,” the ADL report states. “As individuals, they want to remain anonymous and invisible, but they need to promote their organizations and ideology.”

The solution for these groups, the report continues: “Increased propaganda efforts which allow them to maximize media and online attention, while limiting the risk of individual exposure, negative media coverage, arrests and public backlash.”

According to the report, there were very few pre-announced white supremacist events in 2018, and those that did occur “suffered from low attendance and faced heavy opposition.”

In Colorado, there were three events in 2018, including gatherings of Identity Evropa members in November at Eldorado Canyon State Park in Boulder County and in Denver’s Civic Center Park, when members of the same group stood behind a banner stating, “Defend the Rockies/End Immigration.”

In addition to spreading paper on campuses, these so-called “flash mobs” — unannounced gatherings that avoid advance publicity and scrutiny — have become a less risky way to advance  white supremacist agendas, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

“It’s the type of engagement where you can still get notoriety, but the risks to yourself physically and professionally are eliminated,” he said.

Thus far in 2019, the ADL has counted seven instances of propaganda in Colorado, including three on college campuses.

“Colorado has a pretty tainted history with racism,” Grim said. “Unfortunately, this isn’t surprising.”

“I also did not have time for a regular job, and minimum wage was not much better than the work-study money,” she writes in which was published June 29 by Changemakers Books. “I needed a job that paid a lot and had flexible hours.”

That job was stripping.

“I once made $1,000 in 10 minutes,” she told The Denver Post in advance of her Oct. 11 reading and signing at Boulder Book Store. “That was great on a purely monetary level, but the whole experience was kind of fun.”

Ladd, a Ph.D. professor of philosophy, religion, and women and gender studies at Front Range Community College, not only had fun, she also gained valuable and culturally unique insights about sexual power dynamics working as a dancer in gentleman’s clubs. She also met her husband of 19 years there.

“He was a client,” Ladd, 42, said. “He came in with a group of friends who were doing that whole young-dude thing, where they go to a strip club for the first time out of boredom on a Friday night. … It creates an interesting situation when people say, ‘How did ya’ll meet?’ “

Ladd, who cops to having “no problem with modesty,” only quit dancing after she graduated with her master’s degree. But the experience has provided years of material for teaching and writing, and contributed to the understanding of a field that����ap rarely afforded any kind of nuanced attention in either academia or popular culture.

We caught up with Ladd in advance of her Boulder Book Store event.

Q: Can you walk us through how this started, and a bit of background on you?

��:��I was born in Phoenix, got my undergraduate degree in Arkansas, and then my master’s from the University of Colorado in Boulder. I first came to Colorado in 1997 and was stripping in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

Q: In the book you write: “A friend had been working at a local club and I knew she made a lot of money while keeping up with her classes.” Did you find that����ap how a lot of dancers got into it?

A:  Looking at the stereotype of the stripper just from media representation –TV, movies, even books — what you typically see is the economically disenfranchised, lower-class women who have not gone to college, don’t have a lot of opportunity and are often moms. So, yes, I experienced a significant number of women who would fall into that category. The clubs where I worked were half that demographic, and the other half were women like me who were putting themselves through college.

Q: How did other stereotypes hold up in the reality of that environment?

A: Another one is drug abuse, and that����ap absolutely out there. But most of what I experienced firsthand was recreational drug use, and the clubs where I worked called themselves clean clubs, so if someone got too wrecked that was a fireable offense. People kept that pretty tightly under wraps. There was very little prostitution. I did see a little bit of it, but at these clean clubs if a woman was turning tricks she could be fired. It was very behind-the-scenes. Even if you have 50 employees, everybody knows everybody’s business. After awhile, the person engaging in that behavior would be railroaded out of the club. Strippers are not above passing judgment: “That����ap a dirty girl and she’s not like us.”

Q: What came easy to you about stripping, and what felt like work?

A: I loved the physicality of it. The mechanics. I loved the athleticism. I’m a little bit of an exhibitionist, and I think good teachers are, actually. There were times when the club was packed and everybody’s making money and having a good time, and you’re on stage and the masses of people are surrounding you — all of whom are happy and excited to see you. It gives you this amazing charge.

Q: I can honestly say I’ve never heard teaching compared to stripping before.

A: I would argue that neither is afforded the same vocabulary as performers are. I get that same charge when everything clicks in the classroom and the students are getting it and passionate about the material, and I’m facilitating their learning and understanding. That����ap pretty much equally awesome.

Q: Have you ever taken one of your classes to a strip club?

A: It has honestly, and perhaps oddly, never crossed my mind. But I was just talking to one of my colleagues who teaches women’s studies who took a sexuality class to a strip club. It was their field trip!

Q: From a learning perspective, the book’s subtitle (“The Making of a Feminist”) hints at how you’re trying to move the conversation forward from the basic poles (no pun intended) of this being either exploitative or empowering.

��:��I really want to contribute to tearing down the single narrative around strippers and start opening up the conversation by recognizing that women’s experiences are nuanced. I tackle that by addressing this sort of feminist binary usually used with sex work — that it����ap either completely oppressive or liberating — and attack it from various angles, because it depends on skin color, who you are, what kind of clubs you work in.

Q: It����ap reasonable to think all strippers have experienced moments where their jobs are both liberating and oppressive.

A: Right, and a less explicit goal with the book is to help people recognize that women can be fully, intellectually engaged in vocations that sexualize them. They know exactly what they’re doing, and it can be a turn-on. I mean, it����ap not the ultimate goal of the book, but stripping can also help them heal from various types of abuse. I talk a little bit about how working in this field for five years allowed me to heal from pretty intense bullying and targeted abuse I experienced as a girl. It helped me reform my body image and become more confident about who I am.

Q: What surprised you?

A: The revelations that clientele would share with me. It was very clear that in some circumstances I was serving as the anonymous stranger you can tell all your secrets to. You’re on the receiving end of a lot of fantasies they’re ashamed to tell their partner about. But I also saw a lot of vulnerability from men who were very clearly holding themselves to masculine ideals in ordinary life, and needed to reveal their emotions and fears to somebody.

Q: What do you hope people get from this book?

A: I hope what people get from this book is that women’s experience — no matter what it is they’re doing — are complex and multifaceted and worth paying attention to. And don’t judge strippers, unless you really know what you’re talking about.

If you go

“Strip: The Making of a Feminist.” Book reading and signing with author Catlyn Ladd. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, at Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St. Free. 303-447-2074 or

Former Colorado Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia will take over as president of the College System, the state’s largest system of higher education.

The State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education made the announcement Wednesday. Garcia will take over for the retiring Nancy McCallin in overseeing 13 colleges and 39 campuses across Colorado that serve over 137,000 students.

Garcia is currently president of The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, an interstate compact created to provide access to, and improve the quality of, higher education opportunities for residents of the western United States.

From 2011-16, Garcia served as lieutenant governor and as executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. Garcia also served as president of Pikes Peak Community College and Colorado State University-Pueblo.

Previously, he was a member of the cabinet for Gov. Roy Romer and was a White House appointee under President Bill Clinton.

“Joe Garcia has demonstrated throughout his distinguished career the type of strong, effective and transformational leadership that will ensure CCCS has a worthy successor to Nancy McCallin,” Meyer said.

Garcia said he hopes to use his position to help students with limited resources reach their academic goals. “With dedicated faculty and staff, we can help them reach their goals, support their families, and give back to their communities,” Garcia said. “I am excited to play a role in that process.”

Garcia is scheduled to start his new job in July.

continues with plans from a Loveland-based real estate firm to build a new multi-family housing community on a 8-acre plot adjacent to the Front Range Community College’s Boulder County campus.

The proposed 208-unit project, to be developed by McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc., will be called Creekside Silo and is expected to include a mix of apartments and townhomes, according to .

The aim of the project is “create an attractive apartment community that is representative of modern architecture and amenities but is in-keeping with the natural and built environments surrounding it,” McWhinney’s multifamily development director Kirsty Greer wrote in a letter to Longmont city planning staff.

Preliminary plans submitted by the developer to the city show a range of apartment sizes from 560-square-foot studios to 1,250-square-foot 3 bedroom apartments, along with ten 1,400 square foot townhomes.

The apartment units will be spread across 10 buildings along Pike Road and the townhomes will be just north of Left Hand Creek, site maps show.

Read the full story at .