Benson has advice for successor Kennedy
University of Colorado president Bruce Benson remembers the opposition he faced when he took the helm of the state’s largest higher education institution 11 years ago, not having earned an advanced degree and bearing strong ties to the state’s Republican Party.
In the wake of an equally divisive nomination and this week’s highly partisan vote to hire his successor Mark Kennedy, Benson on Friday offered advice for uniting a fractured CU Board of Regents and an aggrieved university community.
“Cut the (expletive) and get on with the serious work,” said Benson, who will step down at the end of June. “Be bipartisan and forget your party affiliation. There’s so much serious work to get done.”
CU’s elected regents voted 5-4, along party lines, on Thursday to make Kennedy the next man to lead the multibilliondollar, four-campus CU system. (Benson similarly was hired by a 6-3 party-line vote.) The leadup to the vote was filled with controversy over Kennedy’s votes in Congress against gay marriage and in favor of abortion restrictions, unrest over his time leading the University of North Dakota and mudslinging
between members of the politically clashing board of regents.
“You hate to see that happening because you ought to forgot about partisanship when you’re running a university,” Benson said.
Michael Carrigan, a former Democratic regent from Denver, voted against hiring Benson in 2008, in part because Carrigan worried about the wealthy oilman’s “very recent activism” in Republican politics.
“He pledged to all of us that he would stay out of partisan politics as long as he was in office,” Carrigan said. “He kept that pledge.”
Moments after voting against Benson for president, Carrigan said he was first in line to shake the new president’s hand and pledge his support to work with him.
“During my many years working with Bruce Benson, we had plenty of disagreements, but none of them were over partisan issues,” Carrigan said. “People need to not carry a grudge. A vote has been cast and now the board and the president need to focus on the many things they have in common as opposed to what divides them.”
Former Republican Regent Tom Lucero, who served from 1999 to 2011, recalls the Democrats on the board at the time of Benson’s hiring saying they hoped the new president would prove them wrong — a sentiment some Democrats expressed about Kennedy on Thursday.
“As I recall, he won them over and they were all pleasantly surprised,” Lucero said.
Lucero attributed Benson’s success to his ability to listen.
“Bruce definitely knew what his strengths were and what his weaknesses were,” Lucero said. “When he had weaknesses, he listened and when he had strengths, he still listened — but definitely took more charge in those areas.”
Benson recalled the open forum held to introduce him to the Boulder campus — attendees at a similar event last week openly booed Kennedy and asked him pointed questions about diversity and inclusion — during which protestors banged on oil drums, drawing attention to Benson’s background with the oil and gas industry.
Benson said CU staff members who attended his town hall in Boulder and Kennedy’s thought the campus was even more hostile toward Benson than Kennedy.
When Benson was invited to the Boulder Faculty Assembly a month later, people asked how he was going to handle interacting with a community that largely disapproved of him.
“I got there a little early, went around the room and talked to people one-onone,” Benson said. “It was friendly conversation with no big agenda. When I started talking, my agenda was all about what would be helpful to the faculty — nothing onerous. It was ways we could get more money and support the place and make it a better place to work.
“I wasn’t pandering. It was just what I believe, and I came across as real, and we had a nice conversation.”
Benson said Kennedy should talk nonstop about the great things being done on CU campuses and praise the faculty, staff and everyone on campus for being a part of the university’s magic.
“I could go on and on about it all for hours,” Benson said, starting to dive into CU’s accomplishments in outer space, engineering and beyond.
Kennedy acknowledged Thursday that he will need to earn the trust of the CU community.
Carrigan said he believes Kennedy could go on to be a successful president if he engages the regents on issues about the quality of a CU education and academic rigor — issues Carrigan said cross party lines. He urged the new president and the regents to find common goals they all share and work toward those.
“The key to success will be if the new president and the board members can set aside their egos and party affiliations and put the university first.”