Auraria Campus is something of a bureaucracy of bureaucracies: three separate educational institutions and an independent campus administration sharing the same slab of concrete in a tangle of agendas and bylaws. 

Atop this bureaucracy (or, at least, atop one of its peaks) sits the Auraria Board of Directors (ABOD). ABOD is the primary cross-institutional body charged with the management of Auraria Campus, including authorizing construction projects, leasing campus space to third parties, maintenance of campus facilities and more. ABOD decisions can have a significant impact on student and faculty life; recent examples include a crop of noisy and obstructive construction projects over the last year and the leasing of the Tivoli Quad for the Denver Christkindlmarket, which clogged campus parking lots with visitors. 

Despite ABOD’s daily impact on both students and faculty, neither of these groups have full representation on the board. While state law designated two of the board’s eleven seats for student and faculty representatives, neither has voting power per a 1989 statute. However, a bill in the state legislature seeks to change that. 

SB26-034, officially the “Auraria Student and Faculty Board Voting Rights Act of 2026,” was originally drafted by Community College of Denver student Isaias Salazar. Salazar is a paralegal student, Vice President of CCD’s Student Government Association and a member of the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board (SACAB), which elects the student representative to ABOD. 

“I’ve been talking with ex officials and other people that were on SACAB several years ago,” said Salazar on the idea of giving voting power to all ABOD members. “And other people had that idea, but nobody ever took the time. We put that attention on drafting a bill to make it easy for [state] representatives.” 

With the sponsorship of state Senators Chris Kolker and Janice Marchman and Representatives Eliza Hamrick and Jennifer Bacon, Salazar’s bill was introduced to the state Senate Education Committee in the legislature’s 2026 session, where it currently awaits further discussion. 

The text of SB26-034 formally grants voting power to SACAB’s representative on ABOD and their faculty counterpart. It also changes requirements for sitting on the board—currently, student representatives must be full-time students who have lived in Colorado for at least three years. If passed, SB26-034 will allow part-time students to serve on ABOD and reduce the residency requirement to one year. 

“It’s gonna open the door for more people,” said Salazar. “If you’re a student, you’re willing to help, you’re willing to support and participate as a representative of your fellow students, you can do it.” 

While ABOD does not have the power to formally approve or reject SB26-034, proponents of the bill still sought the board’s approval. On Jan. 28, 2026, SACAB Chair and ABOD student representative Jared Bynum presented the legislation to the board as a way to strengthen partnerships between students, faculty and administration. 

“This [bill] will put more onus on this body to help build partnerships and to be more intentionally collaborative,” said Bynum in his presentation to the board. “Nonvoting student representatives before me have, at times, expressed feeling sidelined, excluded or even ignored. We think that voting seats at the table represent a real stake in decision making, as well as a real opportunity to improve the lived experience and unique perspectives of students on Auraria Campus.” 

ABOD faculty representative and CCD professor Adam Glick also expressed his support for the bill to the board. 

“Lived experience, the day to day in-the-classroom teaching experience really isn’t captured in votes that this board takes,” said Glick. “So a faculty vote on this board would fix that. It would provide valuable insight from the academic perspective that’s really at the heart of this campus.” 

While the other members of ABOD—who consist of three appointees from the governor, three appointees from each Auraria school’s governing bodies and the three executives of each Auraria school—declined to take a public position on SB26-034, none of them expressed outright opposition. After the meeting had concluded, Bynum was confident that the overall sentiment was supportive. 

“We’re still not getting firm confirmations from any members of [ABOD] if they’re going to take a vote in support of this or not, but we are starting to get more and more positive feedback,” said Bynum. “That, to me, feels like a huge victory. This is the first time this effort has been addressed by the full board, which is mind blowing. But I think we’re moving towards support.” 

Whether or not the rest of ABOD chooses to support SB26-034, the bill still has to pass through committee, then the full state Senate and House and finally Governor Jared Polis’ desk.