INVST needs a new home

Right here in Boulder, it has begun. CU’s School of Education suddenly, and without notice, discontinued INVST — a thirty-five-year-old beloved program that provides leadership training in social, economic and environmental justice — at the exact time that some campuses across the country are caving to Trump’s demands.

Five faculty and staff members were suddenly terminated — even though they had been promised a year longer to find a new department home for INVST.

While department leaders may say that they had economic considerations, INVST is one of the few programs on campus that generates more than half of its expenses via fundraising.

As a CU alum and as a donor to INVST (and, transparently, as a relative of a fired faculty member), I am appalled.

Graduates of this program have gone on to leadership positions in important related fields. So many students have been devoted to INVST. INVST appeals, especially, to students who may be members of minority groups and/or may want to dedicate their careers to helping others.

One of the key tenets of INVST is to achieve productive conflict resolution.

With the football coach receiving $54 million in salary (that I don’t begrudge at all — GO PRIME!), certainly the Regents and the Chancellor of CU can step in to save this cost-effective and valuable program that exemplifies all that a university should be.

How can CU be dissolving such a program, especially at this particular time when we are all called upon to be courageous? CU should lead the way.

Please contact the School of Education Dean, the Provost, the Regents, and the Chancellor to urge them to find a new home for INVST.

— Judy Nogg, Boulder

You ain’t seen nothing yet

We’ve recently seen phenomenal development throughout Boulder: commercial developments, office buildings, tech offices, ADUs, alley houses, apartment complexes, condos, townhouses, senior housing, blocks of Soviet-style housing, along with tiny proportions of affordable housing. Between 2005 and 2018, 6,925 housing units were built in Boulder, per City figures. Plus, vastly more are in process — ready to roll or being considered. The next five to ten years will give you whiplash in terms of the number of developments presently approved and being built or anticipated.

Tallying the in-process and near-term projected developments reveals approximately 22,103 units. Using City figures of 2.3 people per unit, this represents an increase in population of 50,837, or nearly 50% more current, year-round residents. With Boulder’s present total of 47,142 units, these 22,103 units represent a 47% increase in housing, almost half again as many units as we have at present.

These projects are approved and currently under construction or ready to break ground; the one as yet unapproved project is Area III, which Council is discussing, wants to develop, and has on the docket for development.

Our roadway capacity, traffic lights, diminishing water supply and other public infrastructure can’t even remotely handle this massive additional strain. Development of Area III would cost $1 billion or more to provide City services to this rural undeveloped area north of town.

And what proportion of all that development is affordable? Surely this is a priority since City Council so often flaunts its record on affordable housing despite the fact that most of what we see is just more luxury housing. There were only 27 affordable units built in 2023 and 125 added in 2024. It seems we’re lagging behind on our goal of 15% affordability in Boulder.

It’s unnerving to understand that the pro-development Boulder Progressives-endorsed members of City Council and Planning Board continue to demand unrestrained growth. Think twice in November before re-electing pro-development Boulder Progressives-sponsored Council candidates Nicole Speer, Lauren Folkerts and Matt Benjamin.

— Emily Reynolds, Boulder

Trump should focus on getting healthy himself

After recently watching President Trump teeing off on the golf course, I hope that someone in his circle will gracefully encourage him to focus on physical fitness and his diet. Maybe walk the golf course, no cart riding. Please “Make American Healthy.”

— Mike Sawyer, Denver