Tireless fundraiser. Effective lobbyist. Academic jack-of-all-trades. Eloquent spokeswoman. Champion of academic freedom.
Divorce Elizabeth Hoffman from the controversies roiling at the University of Colorado for the past year and a half, and she’s practically a model university president.
Battle-tested, yet also battle-weary, today is her last official day as president of the four-campus CU system. Tomorrow, she embarks on a one-month vacation. From there, her future is undecided but full of possibilities.
She resigned her presidency when the public and her regents began to lose confidence in her leadership as a result of a stream of athletic department storms and the need to defend the indefensible in Professor Ward Churchill.
When hired in September 2000, Hoffman was a rising star in the academic world. Regents hoped her “call me Betsy” charm would boost CU’s image with everyday Coloradans after two previous unsuccessful presidencies.
Hoffman quickly proved to be an effective leader not only for CU but for all of higher education, whether at the statehouse or in board rooms and community halls across Colorado.
When Colorado’s budget crisis hit, and millions were sliced from higher education – including $80 million from CU – she led the effort to change the way colleges are funded so schools could escape the confining caps of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Budget cuts, including $119 million in capital funding, made Hoffman’s fundraising skills even more vital.
She presided over $680 million in private donations in her nearly four years at the helm, including $250 million from William and Claudia Coleman – one of the largest private gifts to a public higher education institution.
In her first years, CU’s 20th president brought some much-needed stability to the office. But in 2004, as accusations swirled about CU football using sex and booze to lure athletes to campus, Hoffman was reticent. Saying she couldn’t comment on litigation, she remained on the sidelines as the allegations exploded into full-blown controversy. And then she couldn’t put out the fire lit by Churchill’s incendiary remarks regarding Sept. 11.
Hoffman was the right person at the wrong time. She earned the respect of faculty and students even as her goals for CU became lost in the shadows of controversy. When the air clears, Hoffman’s legacy will encompass her soaring passion for education and her ambitious vision for the CU campuses.
