The head of the University of Colorado’s Faculty Assembly complained Thursday that professors were not involved in the selection of former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown as temporary president.
Some faculty believe a search committee is “window dressing” and that Brown will be selected as the permanent president, faculty chairman Rod Muth told the Board of Regents.
“The process that led to Sen. Brown’s appointment has concerned many faculty,” said Muth, adding that most faculty support Brown as president. “As far as faculty know, no one besides the board was involved in selecting Sen. Brown.”
Regent Steve Bosley, chairman of the search committee to find a new president, said faculty members are serving on the committee. He also said there wasn’t time to include faculty members in the Brown hiring.
Brown will take over at CU in August, and current president Betsy Hoffman will step down at the end of June.
The regents are finalizing Brown’s salary and benefits package with a letter expected to be delivered next week. Because the president must be tenured, administrators are deciding in what discipline to make him a professor.
The resolution to appoint Brown as interim president leaves open the possibility that he will be selected as CU’s permanent leader, but Brown has said the board likely will want someone younger than 65 to take over for Hoffman.
The regents Thursday also voted 7-1 to approve a resolution, proposed by Regent Mi chael Carrigan, to study moving the president’s and regents’ offices from Boulder to Denver.
Hoffman plans to report on the cost of such a move at a regents retreat June 2-4.
Carrigan, of Denver, said the move would help show that the president represents all CU campuses. But Regent Cindy Carlisle, from Boulder, opposed the resolution, saying it was an unnecessary expenditure.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
