University of Colorado president Hank Brown says lawmakers threatened to slight funding for the medical school if CU leaders did not testify against a bill that would make it easier to fire tenured professors.
Brown would not say specifically who made the threat, only that the university received “demands that we testify against the bill.”
“We have had threats from legislators in this process, threatening funds for the Fitzsimons campus,” Brown said at a CU regents meeting Wednesday evening.
The university has asked for $23 million in Referendum C money to restore cuts in state funding to the Fitzsimons campus. Brown said he “had every reason to believe” before the tenure bill arose that CU would receive the money.
Rep. Keith King, the Colorado Springs Republican who sponsored the legislation, showed up at the close of the regents meeting to ask for support. House Majority Leader Alice Madden and Rep. Jack Pommer, Boulder Democrats who oppose the tenure bill, were on speakerphone.
Madden and Pommer said they did not know what Brown was talking about.
“I think he was talking about someone else, and it wasn’t someone on the phone,” Madden said.
At the beginning of their conversation, they were interrupted by Regent Paul Schauer, Pommer said. Schauer asked the Democrats if their call on the tenure bill was related to CU’s funding, Pommer said.
“We didn’t know what he was talking about,” Pommer said.
CU’s funding request for Fitzsimons “has never been supported” by many lawmakers, Madden said. They don’t like that the university is seeking funding under both a health care and an education line in the budget, she said.
The resistance to CU’s funding request long preceded last week’s hearing on King’s bill in the House Education Committee, she said.
Brown and regents said they felt stuck in the middle and didn’t want to choose a side.
Pommer said he can’t understand why CU regents are refusing to take a stand on the bill. In its original form, it weakened tenure and may still, despite an amendment King proposes, Pommer said. CU lobbyists frequently say the university needs money to maintain salaries that attract top-notch professors, but without tenure, good salaries alone will not attract academic talent, he said.
Regent Tom Lucero, one of three regents on CU’s tenure- review committee, said the university is doing its part with a landmark review of tenure policies and doesn’t need to take a stand on the legislation in the middle of that review.
“I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with the position that the university has taken at this point,” he said.
Rod Muth, head of the Faculty Council for all of CU’s campuses, urged regents not to endorse the bill.
“It is inappropriate for the legislature to set standards for the hiring, evaluation or termination of faculty at CU,” Muth said. “That is the job of the board, the administration and particularly the disciplines which establish national criteria for faculty excellence.”
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
