Two seek audit of diversity spending

John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Two GOP lawmakers called Wednesday for an audit at the University of Colorado in response to a report by the Independence Institute citing a lack of accountability in spending on diversity programs.

A CU spokesman, however, said the report distorted financial information that CU officials provided to the Golden-based think tank, which advocates limited government. But he added that CU officials would gladly cooperate with an audit if one is ordered.

Rep. Cory Gardner, of Yuma, and Rep. Bill Cadman, of Colorado Springs, sent a letter to state Auditor Sally Symanski asking for an investigation into how CU's Diversity Administration spent its budget of nearly $21.8 million last year.

The lawmakers say they were alarmed at the institute's claim that CU spent far more than that without adequate oversight, analysis of the results or fiscal transparency.

"So here we are with demands for increased spending on higher education and we have a program that not even the people running it have any idea what its costs, according to this report," Gardner said.

One of the central points contained in the 14-page report is that CU data on diversity spending is "highly unreliable," despite the work of a 40-member commission appointed by CU President Hank Brown to study the programs.

"One year after (the commission) first met, CU-Boulder's diversity administration still houses an unknown number of programs that receive an unclear amount of funding for an uncertain number of employees who serve an unspecified number of students," the report charges.

Specifically, the report questions the validity of the $21.8 million budget estimate, quoting Boulder Chancellor Bud Peterson as saying the figure is "not even close to what we're spending."

But CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said the report distorts what Peterson actually said. He said the root of the misunderstanding is a disagreement over what "diversity" means.

Hilliard said Peterson takes a broad view of diversity to include students with different ethnic, gender, intellectual, geographic and socio-economic backgrounds.

Independence Institute researchers, on the other hand, were interested only in separating out what CU spends on ethnic diversity, he said. When Peterson alluded to spending more than $21.8 million, Hilliard said, he was referring to spending on other kinds of diversity as well.

It's difficult to segregate out those costs when counseling and courses on ethnic studies are open to all kinds of students, he said.

"They're sort of suggesting that we parse out our services based upon ethnicity, and that simply is not the case," Hilliard said.

Symanski said she had not received the lawmakers' request, but would forward it to the Legislative Audit Committee, which decides if an audit is to be done.