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C.U. President Hoffman Resigns

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Mon Mar 07, 2005 at 11:07:25 PM EST
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University of Colorado President Elizabeth (Betsy) Hoffman has resigned. The principal reason was the football recruiting scandal. Was Ward Churchill a contributing factor? I agree with Instapundit, who says:

A lot of readers think that the Ward Churchill angle has been downplayed, but I really don't think it had much to do with her resignation -- the football scandal is bigger, has been fermenting longer, and much more directly implicated the University Administration. Churchill certainly didn't help, and it's possible that he was the straw that broke the camel's back, but I really think that the football scandal was the main mover here.

Colorado Pols offers another reason: The Regents were tired of Hoffman's demand for more money.

Yet, it was Hoffman's claim of a job offer from Penn State (a job offer which actually didn't exist) as a reason she should get a raise that really turned the Regents against her. You can read our post from January on this here. The talk is that[C.U. Regent] Michael Carrigan had enough of Hoffman's antics at this point and headed up the effort that led to Hoffman's resignation today.

The full text of her resignation letter is here (html).

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    C.U. President Hoffman Resigns | 13 comments (13 topical)
    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 01:04:52 AM EST
    Jeralyn: I beg to differ. You don't "agree with Instapundit." By sheer accident, Instapundit analyzed a situation with a modicum of commonsense.

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 01:12:19 AM EST
    It's a strange thing that a university president would quit or be fired over the university's football or basketball program, but I think it's probably the case that the athletic success or failure of the headline teams - men's basketball, football, maybe women's basketball in come cases - could be a critical job element for many alumnis. I went to a major university - UT Austin - back in the days when they won a national championship or two, but I have never been to their games and I didn't experience the sports program as really contributing anything to University life. All this sports madness of America kind of goes right by me.

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 05:19:54 AM EST
    "I think it's probably the case that the athletic success or failure of the headline teams - men's basketball, football, maybe women's basketball in come cases - could be a critical job element for many alumnis." But that's not what happened, of course. CU football during the Hoffman presidency was as good or better than its ever been. What got Hoffman in trouble was not that the program wasn't successful enough, but that she helped in succeed by tolerating use of sex and alcohol as recruiting tools for young athletes.

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#4)
    by Jlvngstn on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 05:52:01 AM EST
    And Gary Barnett is still employed?

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#5)
    by Sailor on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 06:56:37 AM EST
    I go for the football scandal too. When ever you have a university president say in court testimony that "c**t" is often used as a "term of endearment" for women, you gotta wonder about her competency.

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 08:34:41 AM EST
    ...UT Austin - back in the days when they won a national championship or two, but I have never been to their games...
    that's heresy in these parts, you should never mention that again. believe me i learned personally the pitfalls of bad mouthing college football in any state, and high-school football in TX, FL, PA, GA, heck all of them too. it's big business, coupled with pride and recognition; least we forget the "machismo competitiveness".

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 02:02:43 PM EST
    Wow, Sailor, really? She ought to clone herself with the guy from Harvard. Women's Studies, anyone?

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 05:50:44 PM EST
    Discrimination against Evangelical Christians Dr. Phil Mitchell, Professor at Univ. Of Co. appeared today on the O'Reilly Factor. O'Reilly assured him that if he is dismissed because he is Christian he will be in contact with Govenor Owens on his behalf. So let me get this straight; if you work hard and play by the rules you can do and achieve anything you want and there is no longer discrimination in America. Ok, if that is the case then why does Dr. Mitchell have an issue? Or, are we now at a point in our society where the only discrimination that we choose to recognize and appose is discrimination against Evangelical Christians? I am not being funny or sarcastic, I am asking a serious question. What discrimination is OK and what is unacceptable?

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 06:38:43 PM EST
    Rea, you sort of miss the point about the prospects for the CU football program in the aftermath of the sex etc scandal. Historically schools have not done quite as well after they are sanctioned by the NCAA or whoever. They get a bowl ban or something and you would think it's the end of higher education in the state. After all, how can you get a decent education in a school that get into a bowl game? Hmm.... let me think... is it possible to get educated at a school that doesn't have a premier sports program? hmm... As to heresy and Texas football, it's like Hoosiers and high school basketball, just because most of the folks are hysterical, it doesn't mean they are correct or acute in their hysteria. What was the football team that won the Alamo? Football goes back a long way in Texas, right? That Sam Houston, he was some kind of quarterback. Btw, I am a native born Texan and make no apologies for it or for my lack of interest in the gridiron. Macho competitiveness generally looks stupid to me.

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#10)
    by demohypocrates on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 08:43:45 PM EST
    At the time of the Tailhook scandal, liberals called for the head of the top brass in the Navy. To an extent it happened. Why shouldnt Hoffman be fired? She probably would have survived. Who knows. But who would want their name equated with this kind of thuggery. I agree Barnett should have been fired also but I suspect that firing him would have been equated with an admission of guilt in the pending civil cases against the university, i.e. its too costly to fire him now.

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 09, 2005 at 11:14:04 AM EST
    Tailhook? Sex parties with female victims under your command is not conformative with the military rulebook. The other people are what we call CIVILIANS. They haven't taken an oath to uphold the honor of the military. It's a funny thing -- no court martials. You just have to quit in disgrace. I shared her testimony about female anatomical 'endearments' with a group of women last night, and they HOWLED with laughter at the idea, and alternately pulled faces of considerable disgust. I don't know why it's perhaps THE ugliest word in the English language, but let's just say that if Ward Churchill had called Bush one, he would have been right again, for all Bush's smirking and violence against the innocent, for his enjoyment of treason. "It's fun. As your Preznit, I try to betray the country by noon, and then again by 3 PM. Dick and I have some real yucks, though he mostly counts the money."

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#12)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Mar 09, 2005 at 05:38:32 PM EST
    Doesn't seem as if CU can actually fire Churchill. They'd have to show his work was inadequate. He could probably show it hadn't gotten any worse while they were hiring him, promoting him, and tenuring him. If they can't show he actually got worse, then we have the question of why call him inadequate NOW. That would, of course, bounce back to trying to get rid of an embarrassment for being a loudmouth, which they probably can't legally do. It would also bring up the question of why he got hired, promoted, and tenured. I don't think the regents or anybody concerned with his continued employment would want to touch any of these questions. So they'll have to buy him out.

    Re: C.U. President Hoffman Resigns (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Mar 10, 2005 at 01:15:34 AM EST
    "They" don't have to buy him anything.They have to fulfill his contract, and they have to ignore his acts as they should, allowing that the price of free speech is allowing controversial speech. Imagine if Ward Churchill were some boring prof. He'd kill the interest of some of his students, and generally FAIL the university. But WC's students are thinking. And THAT'S what scares you, Richard. That's why you want to shut him up. YOU want to buy his silence with your scandalizing of an alternative point-of-view from the Clown Bus.

    C.U. President Hoffman Resigns | 13 comments (13 topical)