President tackles tough questions about future of CU
Presidential finalist Hank Brown told a standing-room-only audience that the future of the university is as bright as its students, faculty and staff.
In acknowledging that CU will not get as much as it hoped to cover mandated costs and make up for past cuts, Brown said he was still optimistic. “Can you become a great university without the funding?” he asked. “So far, we’ve done remarkably well.”
As one of the top 65 universities in the country, CU is one of 35 that are publicly funded. Considering that the percentage of state funding has dropped from 26.5 percent to 9.5 percent since his tenure in the Senate, Brown said the institution is obviously doing incredibly well.
“When you look at our history, we have made great strides,” Brown said. “We’ve grown to be one of the great universities in the nation, and we’re building a number of areas where we are world class.”
As Colorado’s premier higher ed institution, CU has a great responsibility as a leader and a forerunner. It all comes down to the fundamentals and accountability, he said, and the key to keeping the university on the right track in the public eye is being more transparent ourselves. “People in the press thought we weren’t straight with them, and there was some truth to that,” he said. “We’re digging ourselves out of a hole. Having credibility as an institution will more strongly connect us with the state.”
Brown has put in place a means for people to gain access to the university’s records quickly and easily, without having to file an open records request. He’s established a hotline for those in the university community to address problems, be heard and feel comfortable “without fear of retribution.”
Also planned is a communications policy stating that if there are problems in the work area, employees recognize they have an obligation to bring them forward. “We need to work with people and through them, not around them,” Brown said.
“Short changing people who do the work in the university is not a strategy,” he stressed. “The quality of the university depends on the quality of people who are here.”
When asked about his position on PERA, the Colorado public employee’s retirement plan, Brown empathized with concerns by staff members over proposed changes passing through the General Assembly. However, he stressed, with PERA having projected its earnings substantially higher than market projections, and with Social Security in peril, adjustments will need to be made. “The size of the problem is so large, there will need to be sacrifices by everybody, not just one group,” he said.
The lone finalist for the post, Brown is the 21st president of the University of Colorado.