University of Colorado president speaks out

Rocky Mountain News

Published December 6, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.

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Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

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A question-and-answer session with CU President Hank Brown, who has said he will retire Feb. 1. Brown approved Tuesday's settlement, after consulting with the Board of Regents. This has been edited for space and clarity.

Was this on the list of things you wanted to have done before you left CU?

It's always been high on the list of things you'd like to complete. But the completion is a function of both parties being willing to sit down and work through it. And that sometimes just takes time. In a way, the Court of Appeals' opinion was an inducement to both parties to settle.

There will be criticism from people who say you caved, others who say it took too long. How do you respond?

Obviously, these are challenging decisions. One, we've already spent $3 million just on outside attorneys for ourselves. There was every reason to expect that if you tried the case, and then of course dealt with the appeals that came out of it, that you were looking at another $1.5 million to $3 million.

Secondly, I think what's important for the university is to focus on providing education for students, not living our lives for a lawsuit. So, focusing on our real job was, I think, of some help. In these kind of decisions, I don't think there's any easy answer.

My guess is the other side had the same attorney's fees or more that we had, and had very substantial costs.

I don't know that anybody leaves this lawsuit financially ahead.

Lastly, in the long run, I think there is real value for the university in learning a lesson. We clearly are paying a lot more attention to these areas than we were before, and obviously for good reason.

What do you think the lesson is that the university learned?

We'll go back and do an analysis on that. But I think one is, that it's one thing to have policies, but that we have to be very diligent about making sure that people understand them and are tested on them. So I think one of them is to be much more aggressive in educating staff at the university on the policies, and that obviously includes the athletics department. Secondly, I think it's a reminder of the high sensitivity of these issues. There is no question that at times the university came off as insensitive, and we clearly need to be aware of that and do a better job. Thirdly, I think it's helpful for us to be much more aggressive in dealing with these issues promptly (before they become a lawsuit).

Do you really think you'll leave in February?

February 1 seems unlikely, and I don't want them to have to appoint an interim. So the latest guess I get from folks is sometime in March, April, May.

What do you have left to do before you leave?

We still have some work to do in working through all of the audit recommendations. Almost all (are now) policy, but we have a challenge ahead in making sure that those policies get implemented. And we're in the middle of a conversion of our student information systems.

What are you going to do when you're done?

I hope I'm going to get a chance to teach (at CU). I suspect that the workweek will drop from about 100 (hours) down to something much less.

Do you feel good about where the university will be when you walk out the door?

I do. But to be frank, this has always been a great university. It was great long before I came, and it's going to be great long after I leave. But it's been wonderful fun to do it.

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