With the University of Colorado board of regents approving a final tuition hike Thursday that was opposed by Gov. Bill Owens, the rift between the two sides appears to be at its peak.
Owens backed off threats to trim the school’s budget authority Thursday but said the tuition hike will be addressed in next year’s budget.
Owens and CU president Betsy Hoffman have been at odds for more than a year, with Owens criticizing CU’s handling of football and alcohol scandals, comments by controversial professor Ward Churchill and now tuition.
“It’s more than a disagreement about numbers and figures. They are playing to two different constituencies,” said Eric Sondermann, a Denver political consultant.
Sondermann said Hoffman’s main support is from liberal faculty and supporters of higher education, while Owens is backed by conservatives who see the school and Boulder as outside the mainstream.
Both Hoffman and Owens’ staff maintain it is a disagreement about two legitimate positions – Hoffman wants to make sure CU has enough funding to keep its quality, while Owens wants to keep education affordable.
But most everyone agrees that the tone of the debate has grown personal.
“I was very disappointed,” Hoffman said Thursday. “I tried to keep this … at the professional level and never said anything personal about the governor.”
Rick O’Donnell, executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, said CU’s not notifying state officials about the latest proposal until the last minute and the regents’ refusing to respond to Owens’ request for a meeting have fueled the animosity.
“I think it would be fair to say it has been frustrating,” O’Donnell said. “For the regents not to engage (in budget discussions) is a dereliction of duty.”
Regents mostly maintain that Owens has a legitimate position but say they need the 28 percent tuition increase in the coming school year to make up for loss of state funds.
The plan approved Thursday will rebate money to undergraduate in-state students, resulting in a 15 percent overall increase for in-state freshmen and sophomores and 20 percent for in-state juniors and seniors.
The governor’s office and CU have sparred over whether CU broke a commitment to keep tuition increases to no more than roughly 11 percent for most students. CU contends that there was no such agreement and that CU should be able to raise tuition more for some students than others after the legislature gave them budget authority.
Owens last month asked the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee to rescind $13.8 million of the $43.5 million of that authority to raise tuition. The JBC rejected Owens’ request and asked the two sides to compromise.
Sean Duffy, Owens’ deputy chief of staff, acknowledged that a lack of trust might have contributed to the dispute.
“The old left-right, that’s a part of it,” Duffy said. “There’s some antipathy about the sheltered nature of the folks at the University of Colorado. But in this case, it’s more of just a complete lack of trust and confidence in their willingness to communicate.”
Owens sent the regents a letter last week asking to meet and never heard back while CU staffers kept making proposals to Owens staff that were rejected.
CU said negotiations would have been impossible with nine regents so the staff tried to come up with a plan that would please Owens and the JBC.
CU complained that Owens never came forward with a counterproposal.
Owens sent the regents a letter Wednesday insinuating that Hoffman lied when she told reporters she had shared the plan with the governor.
“Paraphrasing former President Reagan, there she goes again,” Owens wrote.
That letter sparked Hoffman’s comment about the governor getting personal.
Regent Michael Carrigan said he senses the conflict could be fueled by the fact that Owens does not control CU.
“The tension between the governor and the board of regents is because they are independently elected and not appointed,” he said.
David Longanecker, executive director of the Boulder-based Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, agreed, saying cuts in state funding in the past three years have added to the turmoil.
He said that with a 28 percent growth in the base of tuition, the next president will have an easier time with CU’s budget.
“In part, (Hoffman) will be trying to give (incoming president) Hank Brown the best circumstances possible,” he added.
Brown, for his part, sees the way the tuition battle came out as a win for all sides. He noted that CU received a substantial increase and avoided a fight in the JBC, and students received a break with the rebate, which should please Owens.
“There was some progress, though I wish they had gone further,” he said. “To me, it’s puzzling that there can be such a communication breakdown between two good people.”
Staff writer Susan Greene contributed to this report
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
