Students say candidate was not specific enough in responses
CU presidential candidate Bruce Benson is brushing off the continuing controversy over his candidacy after an open-forum with students Tuesday night.
“I learned a long time ago in this business, not everybody’s going to vote for you,” Benson said. “All you can do . is tell people what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. When there’s controversy out there, you go out and address it straight on.”
In his opening remarks, Benson spoke about some of the issues facing CU and how he would address them, especially the lack of funding for higher education in Colorado. Benson said that higher education funding in Colorado is at crisis levels, and that he could help CU get the support it needs.
“I have the skills CU needs right now,” Benson said. “We’ve got to change the image of what higher education is in the state of Colorado. There are a lot of states that hold higher education in high esteem. This state does not.”
Check out our 11-part Benson series
Following his introductory statement, Benson took questions from UCSU members and students. One recurring question was how Benson would promote diversity on campus. While Benson did not go into detail about how he would address diversity at CU, he did say that diversity was important to him, and that he would be working with the Regents and Chancellors of the different campuses in order to promote it.
“We’re not going to take any steps backwards, we’re going to move forward,” he said.
Another point of concern students had was Benson’s political history. Benson chaired the Colorado Republican Party from 1987 to 1991 and has been accused of being a divisive political figure by students. Benson said that he has bipartisan support and would cross party lines in his capacity as president.
“I know there have been a couple of legislators that have been against me … now they know the truth about what I did or did not do,” he said.
There was also the question of how Benson’s ties to the oil business would impact CU. Benson is currently the owner and president of Mineral Group, a Denver-based oil and gas company. Benson said that he would not give up his interests in the oil industry, but that he still supported CU’s work on climate change.
“I’m not going to give up what I’ve done for almost 50 years,” Benson said.
Students also repeatedly asked Benson about his stance on academic freedom for tenured professors. While Benson was Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Metro State College in Denver, the Board made a ruling stating that professors could be fired regardless of whether they were tenured or not if it was financially necessary. The case resulted in a lawsuit that is still pending before the Colorado Supreme Court. Benson said that he had learned a lot about the value of tenure and that he supported academic freedom for professors.
“I’ve learned a lot about tenure from the people at Metro . I’ve said clearly tonight that I’m for academic freedom and I’m for tenure,” he said.
Lastly, Benson addressed criticism of his past treatment of women.
According to a 1994 article in The New York Times, Benson allegedly threatened to kill his wife and admitted to having an affair for two years before asking his wife for a divorce. Benson took offense to the idea that he mistreated women and said that students needed to look at all the facts before they judged him.
“Don’t try and tell me I’m opposed to women . I don’t think you’ve done your homework,” he said.
Throughout the forum, Benson was accused of not answering questions directly enough or of simply deferring his answers to other people.
“There was . a lack of answering of the questions students had,” said UCSU Tri-executive Charles Gilford, a junior business management major.
Gilford also said that Benson deferred to the chancellors and regents too much and that he needed to take more of a stand on the issues students asked him about.
“Leadership comes from the top down,” Gilford said.
Chris Rowland, a senior sociology and psychology major, said that Benson dodged all of the questions and didn’t answer anything.
“I think he deflected just about every question, even when he was asked not to,” Rowland said. “I don’t think he answered anything at all.”
Matt Steninger, a junior history major, said that Benson was too defensive and didn’t really communicate with the students.
“He defended his positions instead of talking students through their concerns,” Steninger said.
Dustin Farivar, a junior political science major and vice-president of the UCSU Legislative Council, said that part of the reason students were as concerned about Benson as was because of how he was selected.
Benson was chosen as the sole candidate for the job of university president by a committee appointed by the Board of Regents. That committee consisted of faculty, staff and regents from all campuses in the CU system, but had only one student on it. The committee announced on Jan. 30 that Benson was the sole finalist and said he would visit the CU campus the following Monday, Feb. 4. Farivar and others on UCSU feel that the selection process was too rushed and that there should have been more student participation.
“The (selection) process has produced the situation we have now,” Farivar said.
Nevertheless, Gilford and Farivar said that they were optimistic about the high turnout at the forum and encouraged students to make their concerns known to the regents.
“There were hundreds of students here in the midst of midterms, papers, homework, whatever,” Gilford said.
Gilford added that students could easily let the Regents know exactly what their feelings are by going to the Regent Web site.
“All they need to do is e-mail them,” he said.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Rob Ryan at rryan@colorado.edu
