BOULDER, Colo.—When Bruce Benson started his job as president at the University of Colorado, he thought the office looked as though it belonged to a used car salesman.
So, the self-made oil tycoon spent $50,000—out of his own pocket—remodeling it with new furniture, fresh paint and carpet. Eventually, when he retires, the furniture will be left behind for the next university leader.
Benson, the owner of Benson Mineral Group, accepted the job as CU’s top leader almost two years ago. Not once has he turned in a receipt to the university for reimbursement.
He pays for business lunches and dinners with donors, business and state leaders. He pays for his own airfare when he travels for CU-related trips, chartering private planes.
He hosted regents at his ranch near Silverthorne for a meeting retreat instead of renting hotel and conference space. And, over the summer, when he traveled throughout the state for an outreach tour to tell the story of his alma mater, Benson picked up the tab for the gas and his hotel.
When his annual donations are tallied up, and the amount of money he spends to conduct CU business is considered, the expenditures come close to canceling out the take-home pay from his $359,000 salary.
In essence, he’s a free president.
“I’m not doing it for the pay,” Benson said. “I am doing all I can to help the university. I’m more than happy to basically volunteer my time.”
Throughout the past year, Benson said he’s spent $112,000 that could have been categorized as “expenses” to be repaid by CU, and which he can deduct from his income taxes. But that’s a conservative estimate.
“I don’t keep track when I drive my car around the state,” Benson said. “A lot of lunches and dinners slip through the cracks.”
Benson, a multi-millionaire oil and gas executive, became CU’s 22nd president amid controversy in February 2008, after the regents named him the sole finalist for the job.
His highest level of education is a bachelor’s degree, as he abandoned graduate work for physical work on oil rigs.
Critics questioned whether the former chairman of the state’s Republican Party could shelve his politics for the bipartisan leadership job. Environmentalists criticized Benson’s success in the oil and gas industry.
But, Benson—whose name lands on the CU Foundation’s top 10 donor list—persistently said that he was on a “crusade” for education.
Benson had chaired boards, including the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and the Board of Trustees for Metropolitan State College of Denver. The CU presidency became his next step in the education crusade.
The role of university president had evolved to become much less of an academic job and more about securing donations and state tax dollars for the school. A series of reforms before Benson’s arrival crisply defined chancellors’ roles, giving them more power on the campus level, especially on academic issues.
When he took the position, Benson said that he didn’t negotiate his pay. He turned down a car allowance. And, he now lets his oil company run on “auto pilot,” checking in for a few hours every month, he said.
“It costs me a lot of money to do this job,” Benson said. “Because I could be out making money.”
Now, Benson’s colleagues say he works seven days a week, and his wife Marcy contributes an immense amount of her time to CU business, including outreach to donors and business leaders.
Today, he remains concerned about the accessibility of college and the financial stability of higher education and its starved budget, as the university plans for a $50 million budget shortfall from the state over two fiscal years.
“If we do not educate the less fortunate people in this country, we’re going to become a third-world country,” Benson said.
Benson—over the last year—cut $6.3 million from the central administration budget by implementing a 5 percent pay cut for top administrators, including himself. He also moved forward with a controversial measure to save about $600,000 by eliminating the Silver & Gold Record, a faculty and staff newspaper.
But, the president’s generosity raises the question whether CU will turn to its donor rolls when looking for its next leader.
Regent Michael Carrigan, a Denver Democrat who voted against Benson’s selection for president, doesn’t think so.
“Being a large donor is not a qualification for being president,” Carrigan said. “And that is not why President Benson was chosen.”
The recession has caused the shortfall in state funding, but CU’s Foundation last year posted its second-best fundraising year, with a record number of individual donors.
Carrigan said he appreciates that Benson saves the university money by not filing expense reports, with the caveat that the public can’t expect all CU leaders to be in a position to do so.
Clare Van Ummerson, vice president for the Center for Effective Leadership with the American Council on Education, said Benson’s decision to pay his own expenses is rare.
She sees it as a benefit to the university.
When schools are searching for presidents they look for strong leaders, Van Ummerson said.
“They’re not looking at whether somebody is independently wealthy or has enough wherewithal to pay all of their expenses,” she said. “I hope that it doesn’t set a precedent in any way and limit the kind of choice they’d make in the future.”
The way Benson conducts business may be considered lavish.
But it’s not costing taxpayers, and, in fact, it often covers other employees’ expenses.
Take, for example, when he paid for a chartered plane to Texas last fall to attend an alumni event—paying travel costs for himself, his wife and a few CU employees.
“The university has never booked any air flights for him,” said CU system spokesman Ken McConnellogue. “Not only is he paying his own way, but he’s saving the university money.”
Mary Kraus, a faculty member and past chair of the geology department, said Benson has had a profound effect on the department, which enrolls 180 undergraduates and 90 graduate students.
Benson chaired the $14.5 million fund drive for the Benson Earth Sciences Building, which is named after him, and he donated $3 million to its construction before it opened in 1999.
“He’s critical to our department,” Kraus said. “You talk about generosity, he not only put forward much of the money for the building, but he spearheaded the fundraising effort.”
When it comes to his donations, the CU Foundation has confidentiality rules that keep private a donor’s lifetime giving record.
But, by the time Benson was selected president, he had already donated $8 million.
“He’s a very important donor to the university,” said Jeremy Simon, a spokesman for the CU Foundation. “His gifts make a substantial impact.”
