University of Colorado president Betsy Hoffman is contemplating a return to teaching economics, possibly at the Boulder campus, as one of her options when she leaves office next month.
Hoffman spokeswoman Michele McKinney confirmed that it was one of the possibilities discussed but that the president has not made a final decision.
“She’s been talking to people,” McKinney said Wednesday. “She’s looking at all her options.”
Hoffman announced her resignation effective June 30, and speculation has swirled about her future.
As president, she has a tenured position in economics, and that leaves the door open for her to teach.
The offer letter she received when she took the president’s job calculates her salary as the average of the top one-third of CU economics professors plus 10 percent if she joins the economics faculty.
An exact figure was not available, and McKinney said that a salary might be negotiated based on her duties.
Incoming CU president Hank Brown, scheduled to start Aug. 1, said he talked with Hoffman a couple of weeks ago about possibly staying to teach.
“The option is available to her,” he said, adding that he would support her staying. “She had a number of things in the mill.”
McKinney said Hoffman is getting offers and opportunities constantly, and she likely won’t make her decision until after stepping down as president.
Hoffman resigned in March after more than a year of scandals on the Boulder campus that she could not quell.
Hoffman started as president of CU in September 2000, coming from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she was provost and vice chancellor.
She is the school’s 20th president.
Hoffman was also professor or assistant professor of economics at the University of Arizona, University of Wyoming, Northwestern University and Purdue University.
The CU economics department chairman could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
