CU regents explain their views on the presidential candidate
The Board of Regents and their candidate for the CU presidency, Bruce Benson, are under fire from critics after Benson’s nomination on Jan. 30.
Claiming the election was too secretive and wanting more candidates to choose from, members of Progress Now, Colorado’s largest online progressive advocacy organization, have created www.boycottbenson.com.
The Web site enables viewers to sign a petition to oppose the nomination of Bruce Benson as CU’s 22nd president. Members of the Board of Regents said the process was public.
“Regent law decides the kind of presidential search that will take place,” Regent Steve Bosley said. “We had more nominations to serve on the search committee then there has ever been in the history of CU. So we expanded the search committee, which was a very diverse group, and these people were voted on by the entire Board of Regents. So if anything was handpicked, then it was handpicked by the search committee and the Board of Regents. This is public record. This isn’t a statement- this is fact.”
But Progress Now executive director Michael Huttner said the decision was based on more than protocol.
“Regent Steve Bosley is the most far right on the CU regent board, and he is also now chairman of the search committee. Benson wanted him to be chairman and helped him out, so the regents’ nomination of Benson as president is payback,” Huttner said.
Check out our 11-part Benson series
The “Boycott Benson” Web site gives viewers the phone numbers of a few “key CU regents” and offers them talking points on why the regents should oppose Benson’s candidacy.
“The chair of the search committee, Steve Bosley, hand-picked Benson and rigged the process to result in his sole nomination,” the “Boycott Benson” the Web site said.
Regent Stephen Ludwig said the search committee was balanced.
“There were 63 nominees for the search committee, and the Board of Regents voted for all those people,” Ludwig said. “There was no stacking of the search committee.”
Bosley said his relationship with Benson is purely professional.
“I’ve known who he was for years, but I don’t know him personally, and I have never done business with him,” Bosley said. “I have never been at his home, I have never had dinner with him, I see him at social functions sometimes, but that is about it.”
Bosley said Benson is the right man at the right time.
“Now CU’s number one problem is funding, and we have a person with great leadership and a person who is able to cross party lines,” Bosley said. “For example, when he was working on referendums C and D, he worked with Democrats. He had many Republicans mad at him, but he still did it.”
Ludwig, one of the two regents who voted against Benson’s candidacy, said he disagrees with Bosley’s opinion.
“I didn’t vote for him because he is a controversial figure, and I’m not sure that a controversial figure is what we need,” Ludwig said. “My concern is that state lawmakers who CU is dependent upon for funding are upset about Benson’s involvement in political groups, such as the Trailhead group.”
The Trailhead group is a 527 group, named for the U.S. tax code that govern organizations whose primary objective is to influence election campaigns.
“They have been particularly rough in campaigns, and I think they left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths who CU relies on for funding,” Ludwig said.
Huttner said an incident involving Benson hit too close to home for members of Progress Now- he was suspected of threatening to form a 527 group against CU Regent Paul Schauer.
“Benson threatened Schauer by telling him that if he ran for a spot on the Board of Regents, he would form a 527,” Huttner said. “If someone told you that they are going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to take you out, that’s a pretty serious thing.”
The “Boycott Benson” Web site posts this incident as a talking point to viewers who choose to call up the regents and persuade them to oppose the candidacy of Benson.
Schauer said the incident with Benson occurred in November 2007 at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver.
“The net of the conversation was that he didn’t feel that I was conservative enough, or that I didn’t fit the philosophical litmus test of those who asked him to talk to me,” Schauer said.
However, Bosley has a different account of the conversation between Schauer and Benson.
“He did not say ‘I will form a 527’,” Bosley said. “He said ‘There’s one out there that’s prepared to work against you.’ There’s a big difference.”
Since Benson has become the sole candidate for CU presidency, he and Schauer have yet to have a specific conversation regarding whether the statement still stands.
Though Schauer said that Benson told him that he would form a 527 against him if he were to run for a spot on the Board of Regents in 2008, Schauer still voted in favor of Benson’s candidacy.
Now that some time has passed since the initial vote, Schauer said his position has not changed.
“I want to hear more about his campus visits,” Schauer said. “I have not received any documents indicating responses of those who attended his campus visits or how he reacted to the students.”
Regent Cindy Carlisle was the only Democrat on the board to vote in favor of Benson’s candidacy.
“I attended a forum of his on tuition and financing, and there the students who have a new motto: show me the money.” Carlisle said. “I am very concerned about tuition and I think that Bruce could be the one to break the back of TABOR [Taxpayers Bill of Rights].”
She said that since she voted in favor of the candidacy of Mr. Benson, she has learned a lot through his vetting process.
“I didn’t vote to support him for president of CU,” Carlisle said. “The letter of support I wrote said he should be considered as one of the top candidates. I thought there was going to be more than one, and I voted to support the vetting process, which he is going through now, and I have been learning a lot. I am appreciative of that.”
Benson’s involvement in Republican politics has also sparked controversy.
“The Democrats had a strong political past also,” Carlisle said. “They have their own 527’s, and I’ve been flagellated by some of the Democratic candidates. Politics equals politics. Politics is partisan by definition.”
She also said Gov. Bill Ritter influenced her opinion of Benson.
“I’ve talked to Gov. Ritter, who was one of the men targeted by Benson’s Trailhead group,” Carlisle said. “He said, ‘That was then and this is now. I can work with this guy.'”
Gov. Ritter also named Bruce Benson to his P-20 council-a council that focuses on education from preschool to post-graduate work.
“Boycott Benson” also asks why there is only one nomination, “in direct contrast with the charge of the search committee to select three.”
Ludwig said that it is common among universities to have only one candidate for presidency.
“In order to keep the candidate pool viable state law requires us not to reveal candidates. Since the nominees are usually of high profile, they don’t necessary want their employers to know that they are a candidate. For instance, if a candidate is from a different university and is running for president of this school, their employers could then become upset that they are running and they could lose their job and lose face,” Ludwig said.
Regent Carlisle thought differently about the idea that if there was more than one candidate announced, the candidate’s reputation could be put in jeopardy.
“That’s not true, its become a convenient excuse for a sole finalist, because once a finalist is named their name is, by law, made public,” Carlisle said. “If a person is serious candidate, that means that they must be pretty good, and if an institution doesn’t want them, that means that they are not spending enough on them. For example, we lost Nobel laureate Carl Weiman to Canada because we couldn’t come up with the $10 million he wanted so now we share him with Canada.”
Regent Carlisle said she thinks there should be more than one candidate.
“The process is broken,” Carlisle said. “When Bud Peterson was running for the chancellor position at CU, there were two people running, and both of their names were known. It wasn’t a problem, and it’s the same with deans.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Jon Tattum at jon.tattum@thecampuspress.com
