Susan Osborne plans to foster relationships with students
CU Architecture professor Susan Osborne announced recently that she will be running for a seat on the Boulder City Council in the Nov. 6 elections.
Osborne has been an adjunct professor with CU’s College of Environmental Design since 2000. She currently teaches American Housing Policy and Programs, Energy and Design and Studio Practicum.
Osborne said if elected, she hopes to foster good relationships with student leaders.
“Since the riots many years ago, there have been real opportunities for joined thinking about issues,” Osborne said. “I know good relationships are important to have.”
Osborne mentions having regular meetings between student and city leaders.
“I think it’s cool to get educators in government,” said Kathy Buehmann, an open-option sophomore.
Osborne said she thinks that the university is a key part of Boulder.
“The university is so integral to the city of Boulder,” she said. “I would wager that half of the population here was brought to Boulder because of CU.”
Osborne says that due to limited state funding, CU can almost be classified as being a private university.
“We have this tradition of not funding higher education,” she said. “The university is so close to almost becoming a private university. The state should fund universities better, we should not even consider making it private.”
Eugene Pearson, an opposing candidate, provides a slightly different perspective on the privatization of CU.
“The privatization of our world-class research university would be disastrous for our local economy and for students alike,” Pearson wrote in a New Era Colorado questionnaire.
Students feel that having a CU professor on City Council will give focus to issues affecting them.
“I personally would like to see the drinking age lowered, but I don’t know what she can do about that,” Buehmann said.
Buehmann also said that she thinks lowering the drinking age would help reduce college partying that often causes the university to be at odds with the city of Boulder.
Osborne hasn’t focused as much on attracting student voters in particular.
“I haven’t made a huge deal of attracting them in my campaign,” she said. “I don’t think of the student voter as that different from a citizen of Boulder who has opinions and ideas about issues.”
Although Buehmann said she wouldn’t vote for Osborne simply because she teaches at CU, she does say that she would be more inclined to learn about her position.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Katherine Spencer at Katherine.a.spencer@thecampuspress.com.
