After years of drastic budget cuts and with its political reputation tarnished by negative publicity, the University of Colorado is playing catch-up at the Capitol this legislative session.
A bill that would divert up to $15 million in yearly tobacco-settlement money to CU’s Health Sciences Center won initial approval Monday.
That came after $1.4 million from the Joint Budget Committee to pay for unexpected utility costs and Gov. Bill Ritter’s recommendation of $7 million for a new engineering building at the Colorado Springs campus.
But CU’s political success so far this year has resulted in some grumbling from other higher-education institutions, which battle one another every year for limited funding.
“We hope as we go along the needs of community colleges and other higher-education institutions are looked at as well,” said Rhonda Bentz, spokeswoman for the state community-college system.
CU leaders counter that the university suffered the worst cuts – more than $18 million in four years at the Health Sciences Center alone – of any school in the state during the recession. Publicity surrounding football recruiting and ethnic- studies professor Ward Churchill’s essay about Sept. 11, 2001, were cause for negative political sentiment toward the state’s flagship school.
“CU, for whatever reason, has been disproportionately affected over the last five years, particularly at the Health Sciences Center,” chancellor M. Roy Wilson said. “One can look upon this as catch-up.”
Senate Bill 97 from Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, would give 49 percent of the yearly tobacco-litigation money to CU. Health-care programs – including rural health care, mental health and drug and alcohol counseling for inmates and immunization programs – would divide the rest.
The money is expected to total about $34 million the first few years, then dwindle until it runs out in about 2025.
Republicans oppose the bill, saying it takes money from transportation.
But Fitz-Gerald said tobacco-settlement money always was intended for health care. Others, though, argued that all the tobacco money should go directly to health-care programs – not the medical school.
“To come after health-care dollars to pay for higher education is not really a solution,” said Dede de Percin, executive director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.
The largest portion of CU’s tobacco-settlement money would go toward faculty recruitment and salaries. CU’s medical school ranks 75th out of 77 public medical schools for the amount of state funding it receives.
“I just don’t think there is anything left to cut here,” CU president Hank Brown said. “We’re at a point of losing faculty.”
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
