Colorado’s largest community college system is putting several dozen online instructors on notice that they must live in Colorado or soon lose their jobs.
Officials at the Colorado Community College System say it has become increasingly expensive and complicated to employ so many instructors who live out of state.
Rather than continuing to juggle various education and labor laws that apply to those instructors, the system this year is “phasing out” those with addresses outside of Colorado.
For new hires, the system will make it clear that employees need to live in the state, even if they don’t have to report physically to work.
“As our online course delivery has grown, so has the number of out-of-state employees,” said Christina Cecil, executive director of human resources for the Colorado Community College System. “Laws vary widely from state to state, and there are federal regulations. We have to make sure we’re registered in that state. Without adding any additional resources, it was not something we could continue.”
Some of the requirements are small — such as sending employees in New York an information sheet on wage theft protection every year — while others are more complex — like adjusting workers’ compensation or time off to comply with laws of the employee’s home state.
An exact count of employees affected at the 13-college organization is not available. But when discussions about the change were happening in August, officials estimated about 250 out-of-state employees systemwide.
The system has about 10,000 employees total, not including student workers, and enrolls more than 151,000 students.
“The thing that really bothers me is the students are not really being served,” said Michael Bleacher, an adjunct instructor for online courses in Colorado who recently moved to Florida and will be among those phased out. “They advertise online education as the best in the world, but it’s pretty arrogant to think the best teachers in the world are only in your state.”
Most of the out-of-state instructors work directly for the state system, but each community college also employs a smaller number of online instructors.
Community College of Denver has two employees who live out of state and likely will be impacted soon. The Community College of Aurora has not had any out-of-state employees recently but will prioritize local candidates moving forward.
Universities such as the University of Colorado and Colorado State University were unable to provide an exact count of employees who live outside Colorado, but both said the number is low.
Those universities typically have faculty members who teach in-person classes and teach online courses.
At the University of Northern Colorado, reaching out to out-of-state employees is something of a last resort, but the school did have the largest number of out-of-state instructors this fall, with about 12 teaching nursing or sign language.
Officials say it is a challenge but sometimes necessary.
“It’s really a niche market for some classes, and those faculty are hard to find. We want to be able to offer quality programs with quality faculty,” said Jeanie York, executive director of UNC’s Extended Campus. “Our adjunct percentage is low, but it does allow us to search out those highly credentialed faculty.”
UNC officials are in the process of joining a national organization, the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, that will help decrease the paperwork for out-of-state employees.
But it’s not the main goal of the group. The group started as a way to help states navigate complex rules for enrolling students from other states.
Cecil said for the community college system, it wasn’t enough of a solution, although many of the colleges do partner with the national organization.
“It is simplifying the process for becoming authorized by the state’s educational agency to do business in the state. However, at this time, SARA does not cover all states,” Cecil said. “We are still responsible for ensuring that we are appropriately applying and adhering to the employment laws of states where employees are physically working.”
For instructors such as Bleacher, it’s putting bureaucracy ahead of education.
“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” he says.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or @yeseniarobles
