Faculty says 'no' to Benson
Assembly rejects oil executive 40-4 as next president
By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published February 15, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.
Photo by Matt McClain / The Rocky
David Hill and other faculty vote on a nonbinding resolution on whether to accept Bruce Benson as the next CU president during a closed-door session at the Boulder campus.
Photo by Matt McClain / The Rocky
CU's Uriel Nauenberg, center, who chairs the Faculty Assembly, talks to faculty members Dave Kassoy, left, and Ahmed White about the possibility of Bruce Benson as CU's next president.
Photo by Bill Ross, AP
The University of Colorado Board of Regents will decide tonight whether to name Bruce Benson, a millionaire oilman and former head of the Colorado Republican Party, as CU's 22nd president.
Boulder faculty representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a resolution supporting Bruce Benson to be the next University of Colorado president. The vote was 40-4, with three abstentions.
Physics professor Uriel Nauenberg, who chairs the Faculty Assembly, said the group "would prefer a presidential finalist with substantial executive managerial experience at a peer academic institution and a distinguished record of accomplishment in that arena."
Benson, an oil company executive, has extensive managerial experience in the private sector. He has never headed a university but has chaired both the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and board of trustees of Metropolitan State College of Denver.
The assembly vote is advisory only. CU's Board of Regents is scheduled to decide whether to appoint Benson at a meeting Wednesday.
Nauenberg said he will explain the assembly's position to the regents at that meeting.
The assembly, elected by the faculties of various schools at CU, also passed a resolution asking the regents to reopen the search.
The university has faculty assemblies at each of its four campuses. Only the Boulder assembly has addressed the Benson appointment, said RL Widmann, an English professor who chairs the universitywide Faculty Council.
The regents on Jan. 30 named Benson as the sole finalist to succeed President Hank Brown, who is retiring.
Benson, 69, who holds a bachelor's degree from CU, has been active in fundraising for the school, contributing $8 million himself. The campus earth sciences building is named for him.
The faculty assembly vote was conducted in executive session.
Nauenberg said members were appreciative of Benson's contributions, but noted that he does not hold an advanced degree.
Some faculty members also have been suspicious of Benson because of his ties to the Republican Party. He is a former GOP state chairman. He also funded the Trailhead Group, which ran attack ads against Democrats in the 2006 election.
During his campus sessions, Benson distanced himself from the Trailhead Group. Appearing before CU's Staff Council on Wednesday, Benson said, "I had nothing to do with the ads that were run."
John Straayer, political science professor at Colorado State University, said although Brown and Benson are both Republicans, he believes many faculty view Brown's academic credentials as more impressive than Benson's to lead a university.
Brown has a bachelor's degree in accounting from CU, a doctorate from the University of Colorado Law School and a master of law degree from George Washington University.
Brown, a former U.S. senator and congressman, also was more detached from political activism in recent years than Benson has been. "Both of them have been involved in politics very clearly, but the impression of Benson is his political activity has been more recent and more focused in terms of partisan politics," Straayer said.
But Straayer said what Benson lacks in post-graduate education he makes up for in his ability to raise money, which CU could greatly benefit from.
"Look at the funding in higher education; it's scandalous and the public should be deeply concerned about it," Straayer said.
morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5209 Staff writer Hector Gutierrez contributed to this report.
What's next
* The University of Colorado Board of Regents has tentatively set a vote on presidential candidate Bruce Benson for 4 p.m. Wednesday in Denver at a site to be determined.
Benson gets Webb's support
University of Colorado presidential candidate Bruce Benson picked up the support of former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb on Thursday.
Webb has worked with Benson on educational issues.
The support is significant because some students and faculty members have questioned Benson's commitment to diversity at the Boulder campus. Webb, Denver's first black mayor, has long been an advocate of increasing minority participation on campus.
Webb joins several Democrats who are backing Benson, including current Mayor John Hickenlooper, Denver schools Superintendent Michael Bennet, Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher, and Elaine Gantz Berman, Denver's representative on the state Board of Education.
But other top Democrats are opposing him, including Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver; House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder; and Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, a former CU regent.
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February 15, 2008
6:23 a.m.
Suggest removal
tunaman65 writes:
I would be willing to give the faculty of CU some sayso in the hiring of a new president if they would allow alumni and other interested community members a role in which professors are hired to teach at the university.Otherwise who cares what they think.
February 15, 2008
7:23 a.m.
Suggest removal
Scott writes:
If these throwbacks to the 60s (faculty) say no, then hire the guy! It is obvious that these burned out geriatric hippies (faculty again) fear that Benson will change the place into a respectable institution.
Scott
February 15, 2008
8 a.m.
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kathyM writes:
Boulder faculty, you want diversity....Here it comes!
February 15, 2008
8:08 a.m.
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frankmm writes:
How about former CU Law professor Gene Nichol? He has an outstanding academic record, is exquisitely politically correct and is available as he just got canned from William & Mary.
February 15, 2008
8:19 a.m.
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RJS07 writes:
If they don't want Benson, he must be the right guy!
February 15, 2008
8:28 a.m.
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HolierThanThou writes:
If I hired someone to pluck chickens and then said I had "nothing to do" with those chickens being plucked, people would have every right to question my honesty.
Benson funds the Trailhead Group and then says he had nothing to do with the attack ads. Very funny...
Hit the trail, Benson. Next candidate, please.
February 15, 2008
8:35 a.m.
Suggest removal
Michael writes:
Yes, to a CU professor it is all about DIVERSITY: Diversity of skin color and race (unless white), diversity of ethnic background (unless it is European), diversity of religious belief (unless it is Christian), diversity of political thought (unless it is conservative, leaning to the right, or at all associated with the GOP), diversity of gender (unless the male in question drops into any of the aforementioned ("unless" categories), diversity of sources of success (unless your success has come in business and/or is in any way tainted with the commercial or captialistic marketplace - especially ENERGY AND OIL), diversity of world view (unless you prescribe to the idea that America is a great country that has made some mistakes but on the whole we are a noble people and have solved more problems than we have ever created), and of course, diversity of opinions on anything related to man-made global warming, energy, economics, capitalism, taxes, the welfare state, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, socialism, communism, and healthcare (UNLESS your opinions eminate from right of center on the political spectrum which makes you a fool and not to be considered seriously for anything, let alone president of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
February 15, 2008
9:15 a.m.
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olsonmt writes:
Well said, Michael. Well said.
Virtually any Democrat that has worked with Benson supports him. These professors locked in their ivory towers can't believe that there are bright people in this world without doctorates. The truth is the only place their degrees matter is within their small, small world. It doesn't matter to the Feds - the source of most of the research funding. It doesn't matter to the donors. In fact, I would argue Benson would be a favorite among both by giving them the confidence that their dollars would be spent wisely.
The demands of the CU presidency require a different set of skills than academia fosters. If the facutly were as wise as they pretend to be they would trade an advanced degree for Benson's real-world success, his executive-level skills, his increadible generosity, and his history of advocacy for higher education. Frankly, they are just ignorant and scared of the evil right-of-center business man.
February 15, 2008
9:16 a.m.
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JYP3500 writes:
Since when do employees get to vote on who their boss should be? Have they never heard the old adage: "be nice to everyone, because you never know who your next boss will be"? Only in academia can things be so goofy. But then again, these are the same teachers who supported Ward Churchill and the "right" (in the name of free speech) to use their classroom podiums to spew anti-American, anti-military, and anti-Bush rhetoric versus teaching math, english and biology. Now, more than ever, CU needs a corporate business manager to come in and clean house and "get er done" (a concept foreign to educrats). Go for it Bruce, you have my vote!
February 15, 2008
9:16 a.m.
Suggest removal
rjnova writes:
College professors themselves can practice politics of the left but a Republican is guilty of political corruption. That is why tenure should be eliminated and continued service by merit evaluation only. These guys could not hold a job in the business world so they seek permanent employment without performance evaluation. That is why we get Paul Campos who has time to politic for Leftist/Liberals instead of teach for the big money he gets.
February 15, 2008
9:20 a.m.
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Dhakala writes:
The school needs a rainmaker, and Benson qualifies. The rest of the place will keep running the way it's always run. That's bureaucracy.
February 15, 2008
9:28 a.m.
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truth_teller writes:
There is nothing left to do but for the Republican Regents to shove Benson down everyones throat. You have the votes. Go ahead make my day.
February 15, 2008
10:57 a.m.
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Steve writes:
Anybody that would fund attack ads for any side doesn't get my respect. It's hard enough to have differing opinions and coexist. Attack ads just bring the discussion down to the level of many of the posters on these forums. That's not the kind of people we need leading our society.
February 15, 2008
11:39 a.m.
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JustSayin writes:
Aw, Steve, don't you like reading the comments that our fellow citizens offer so intelligently here every day? Damn, you must be some sort of liberal....... 8^)
February 15, 2008
1:44 p.m.
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raysmom writes:
Well, JustSayin, despite your obvious superiority, I must beg to differ. Like so many of your peers, you must belittle those who disagree with you. If this exchange of ideas is so repellent to you, why are you here? The bottom line here is intolerance, and while some others who do not share your ideaology may be guilty of it, so are you. The fact is that the academia who think they own CU can't stand the fact that someone who they feel SO MUCH SMARTER than doesn't bow to the views of professors at the taxpayer trough, and that the trough is filled for them by people like Benson who actually CREATE JOBS AND DONATE $$ in this country. The gall that rises in their throats and yours is nothing but elitism and jealousy, pure and simple. And don't drag out your standard response that I must be a right wing-nut- I am a Democrat, which does not always make me proud these days.
February 15, 2008
1:51 p.m.
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raysmom writes:
Steve, if you don't want leaderhip that donates money for political means, especially "attack ads", as you put it, then may I assume that you would NEVER vote for Jared Polis? How about you, JustSayin?