The CU-Boulder campus is beautiful indeed, but what does the future hold for the CU system as an institution? Photo by Aidan M. Grey, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22596611
The University of Colorado Board of Regents oversees the University of Colorado system, which includes the CU-Boulder campus, the CU-Denver campus, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The budget for the entire CU system is about $4.5 billion. There are nine Regents on the Board – one Regent representing each of Colorado’s seven Congressional districts, and two serving at-large when they win a statewide race. Regents serve six-year terms. In 2020, there is no statewide race, and for this guide I will only write about the race in the 2nd Congressional District. This district basically lies in north-central Colorado, including much of Boulder County, along with all of Larimer, Broomfield, Gilpin, Grand, Clear Creek, and Summit counties, and parts of Eagle, Weld, Jefferson, and Park counties.
Callie Rennison, Democratic: Rennison holds a bachelor’s in Psychology, master’s degrees in Sociology and Political Science, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Houston. Her professional career has largely been in higher education at some level, though she worked as a statistician in the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton and Bush administrations. In higher ed, she is a tenured professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. She started her career at UCD as an instructor, and later as a Clinical Research Professor. She earned positions as Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs in the School of Public Affairs, and as the Director of Equity and Title IX Coordinator at the UCD and Anschutz Medical campuses.
Dick Murphy, Republican: Murphy has an extensive resume, with some direct experience in higher education and K-12, but much in the private sector as well. He has a Ph.D. from Iowa State University, with his dissertation topic titled “Equality of Educational Opportunity and Educational Finance…” He was an assistant professor of economics at three universities. Murphy operated a financial consulting firm with clients including Colorado Department of Education, Colorado Governor’s Office of Budget and Planning, Colorado Association of School Boards, the Colorado Education Association and the Colorado State Treasury. He held private sector positions with Boettcher and Company, Dain Bosworth, Stern Brothers, and Langhoff Brooks. He served as Chief Financial Officer for the Boulder Valley School District, and as Deputy Treasurer for the State of Colorado.
Christian Vernaza, Libertarian: I did a quick search, but couldn’t find a website or any indication of an online campaign.
Richard’s Take: Vote Rennison. On a positive note, she has had a long and distinguished career in higher education, and she will hit the ground running. Also, she’s running in the Second Congressional District, which has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of Democrat +9. Democrats have won this 2nd CD Regent race in every election cycle this century, Rennison has full support from many key local figures and it would be extremely surprising if she did not win this race.
Her Republican challenger Murphy certainly has an impressive resume, including deep financial experience, which would be valuable given CU’s large budget and current challenges. I assume he would do a completely competent job if elected. But voters should know that Republicans currently hold a majority on the Board of Regents, and in my opinion the current majority has abused its power by spending a disproportional amount of political capital on partisan pursuits, including efforts to expand the influence of conservative thought at CU.
Whether it’s coordinated with national forces or not, the deceptively-named “free speech” movement is a nationwide conservative effort that goes back decades, at least to the days of David Horowitz and his Academic Bill of Rights. The at-large Regent Heidi Ganahl openly opposed last year’s Proposition CC, which would have literally provided additional funding for the CU system, and instead campaigned with Republican partisans against the interests of the institution she was elected to represent. Also, the Board hires CU’s President, and this partisan majority gave the university system a partisan President in former Republican Congressman Mark Kennedy, whose qualifications might have been inferior to certain other candidates for the job.
I don’t want to blame Murphy for any of this, but the current majority needs to flip, which could happen in 2020 if Democrat Alana Spiegel wins in CD-6 while safer seats like CD-2 remain Democratic. I would probably prefer the Board of Regents not to be partisan at all, and would definitely prefer the Board to laser-focus on real challenges that will face the CU system moving forward – affordability for students, safety for all in this time of pandemic, the future of live instruction and/or remote learning, attraction and retention of top academic talent, CU’s standing as a research institution, and of course serious economic concerns that might come with the pandemic and whether students will feel safe on campuses. I am not saying that today’s majority is not aware of these challenges, but I am saying that partisan politics and ideology ought to be something Regents should keep on an extremely distant back burner.
