The University of Colorado’s pick of former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown as its sole presidential candidate reflects a national trend to find college leaders with political savvy rather than traditional academic experience, education experts said Thursday.
University of Oklahoma president David Boren is a former U.S. senator and governor. Texas A&M president Robert Gates was head of the Central Intelligence Agency, University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer was the state’s attorney general, and Colorado College president Richard Celeste was governor of Ohio and U.S. ambassador to India.
Brown, who stepped in as interim president last summer after Betsy Hoffman resigned, was chosen Wednesday from more than 40 applicants as CU’s only finalist for the permanent job.
The school’s regents, state politicians and donors have praised Brown for smoothing over damaged relationships with the state higher-education commission and legislators who determine the university’s budget.
“He’s taken leadership of the university under some difficult challenges and is meeting them head on,” Gov. Bill Owens said. “He brings real credibility when he comes to the Capitol.”
CU needed a leader with the characteristics Brown “uniquely possesses,” said Sheldon Steinbach of the American Council on Education in Washington. “Hank Brown has a unique political touch and academic sensitivity and a degree of social grace that provides the foundation for healing. I’m not sure other candidates would have had that particular combination.”
Brown, who also is a lawyer and a CPA and was president of the University of Northern Colorado, said he draws on his experience in politics and business for his current job.
“It’s kind of a happy coincidence that it involves some of the things I’ve done earlier in my life,” he said. “In a way, you kind of save the best for last.”
Brown’s nomination as president was a predictable end to six months of searching by a 12-member committee of administrators, professors and a student. Many faculty were outraged when he was appointed without their input, suggesting his permanent hiring was a foregone conclusion. But the faculty anger isn’t aimed at Brown, only the process. Most faculty seem pleased with his leadership.
“He’s a very pragmatic guy,” said David Kassoy, a CU-Boulder engineering professor. “He has a very good understanding of the political process, which is probably the most important thing that a president of a university can have at this point in history.”
Even Faculty Council chairman Rod Muth, an outspoken critic of Brown’s rushed appointment, suggested in November that regents suspend the search and hire Brown.
“There was no reason to go through and spend the money to basically end up at the same place that we were,” Muth said Thursday.
State Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada, said critics of the university are less apt to attack when “someone they admire and have a close friendship with is now leading the institution.”
Brown will go through interviews on each of CU’s four campuses during the next couple of weeks. Regents expect to decide whether to name him the permanent president within about a month.
Regents budgeted $300,000 for the presidential search. The search committee spent $88,842, most of that to hire a search firm.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
