As colleges and universities across the state adjourn for the winter break, thousands of students head home for a rest or possibly a short-term seasonal job. But for most of the instructors at Colorado’s community colleges, the holidays offer not a respite, but a time of great anxiety and financial strain, with no cash coming in and looming uncertainty over the number of courses they might be hired to teach in the months or years to come.
One group is trying to change that, urging adjunct faculty to apply for unemployment benefits during the break — a move that’s been hotly contested by college administrators in the past, but one that Caprice Lawless says is both legal and necessary for many instructors to avoid “financial catastrophe.”
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