When Nolbert Chavez and a group of fellow Colorado legislators of color made the trek to the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus on a snowy night 20 years ago to talk diversity, equity and inclusion, the crew was met by faculty and students — but there was no leadership in sight.
“It was a striking message to all of us that you can talk about it all you want, but unless it’s a priority for us internally, then nothing is going to change,” Chavez said in an interview with The Denver Post after winning the District 7 seat on CU’s Board of Regents in an uncontested race. “And with good reason. The chancellor was not getting pressure from the president and the president wasn’t getting pressure from the board. Diversity wasn’t a priority.
“Today I hope to advance those conversations so that they’re given the serious consideration that they deserve and a heck of a lot more consideration than they did then.”
Chavez, who will be sworn in come January alongside fellow Democratic newcomers Ilana Spiegel and Callie Rennison, already can feel the tides changing on the Board of Regents.
The nine-member body, selected through a partisan election process that’s rare for university governing boards, next year will be controlled by a Democratic majority for the first time in 41 years.
With Spiegel’s win over Republican opponent Richard Murray in District 6 on Tuesday, CU’s governing body lost its distinction as the last statewide board with a Republican majority.
For decades, the board that governs the four-campus, multibillion-dollar CU system — the third-largest employer in the state, generating an annual statewide economic impact of $14.2 billion — has been criticized for its fierce partisan nature and dysfunction.
“I would hope that as the new members get on, they appreciate the role of being a member of a governing board rather than being in a position where they’re going to serve as a mini legislature to get an agenda through,” said Aims McGuinness, a consultant with the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems who has worked with CU’s Board of Regents since the 1990s.
“If they really function as a governing board, I think that the new regents could make a big difference,” he said. “To the extent that it continues to function as driven by partisan difference, it could have the same problems as it had historically.”
The incoming Democrats ran on platforms pledging to uphold transparency, tackle college affordability and commit to diversity and inclusion efforts. Whether hindering partisan divides prevail on the board remains to be seen, but current, incoming and former Democratic regents all agree that three fresh members and a new majority are sure to shake up a board ripe for rehabilitation.
The Post also reached out to each current Republican regent to discuss the significance of the shift in political power. Of those board members, only Glen Gallegos, a Grand Junction resident who has been a regent since 2013 and currently serves as board chair, responded to the inquiry.
Gallegos, like his colleagues, is unfamiliar with a board on which he’s now in the minority party. But he said the flip doesn’t change his mindset about his mission.
“I would hope that we can do maybe a better job than we’ve done in the past to really serve our constituents, which are the University of Colorado students and faculty,” Gallegos said. “I’m not naïve to think there won’t be some fallout, but I’m not sure where. I don’t know the people that have been elected very well, but I know they have the interest of the University of Colorado at heart and God knows we have our share of challenges with COVID and dollars.
“I don’t feel threatened. I’m not sitting here thinking, ‘Woe is me.’ We have a mission, and that’s the University of Colorado. I’m looking forward to it.”
Getting up from the sidelines
What Spiegel’s historic win lacked in pomp and circumstance — thanks to COVID-19 restrictions — was made up for by her family’s contributions to an election night headquarters in their Englewood living room, complete with Sonic tater tots and cherry limeade.
Spiegel, who has led a career in education from teaching to advocacy to policy work, looks forward to digging into the university’s budget to understand what’s driving up college costs — health care, Spiegel offers as an example — and figure out what to do to lower it.
At a time when COVID-19 has exacerbated Colorado’s butchered higher-education budgets, Spiegel said the board must endeavor to make CU accessible to all.
“The key to future financial stability at CU is the ability to enroll low-income students, first-generation students and students of color, and that’s going to require help at the federal level,” Spiegel said.
Spiegel expects the board to work more efficiently with the government, at least on the local level, due to the new Democratic majority riding Colorado’s blue wave.
“You’ve seen the electorate change in Colorado, the community change, and we now have a board that’s in better alignment and can reflect those needs and values and really work for those,” Spiegel said.
Regent Jack Kroll, a Denver Democrat who has been on the board since 2017, echoed Spiegel’s thoughts on improved relations with local decision-makers whose work impacts higher education.
“For the past half century we’ve been on the sidelines of some really important issues — Proposition CC, for example,” said Kroll, referring to the failed 2019 ballot initiative CU President Mark Kennedy and Colorado higher education experts said would financially benefit local universities. The initiative was, ultimately, not supported by the GOP-controlled Board of Regents as Republican Regent Heidi Ganahl chaired a committee against Proposition CC.
“I look forward to partnering with the legislature and governor’s office, given we have alignment there with respect to party majority,” Kroll said. “We can now lead in a way we haven’t been able to in the past on issues that can support not just CU but all of higher education — pushing initiatives, raising awareness around the importance of higher ed, working with the governor’s office. I’m excited.”
Partisan politics at play
Outgoing Regent Irene Griego, a Lakewood Democrat, said too much of the board’s time during her tenure was focused on a Republican agenda rather than on serving the students, faculty and staff of the largest university system in the state.
“We weren’t even able to draft a resolution to support our DACA students because we didn’t have the votes to support them,” Griego said. “Board members should not be using the Board of Regents… for their own political personal agenda and advancement. This is about our students’ lives, our society.”
Michael Carrigan, who served as a Democrat on the CU Board of Regents from 2005 to 2017 and chaired the board for three years, said there were times when proposals in the best interest of the university system were turned down because the Republicans weren’t interested.
“My last act as a regent was to create a vice president of diversity and inclusion position,” Carrigan said. “Unfortunately, President (Bruce) Benson never filled that position and Republican regents did not force him to do so.”
The position was filled by Kennedy, Benson’s successor, earlier this year.
“I strongly encourage the Democrat majority to revisit and reinvest in the bipartisan participation that the board practiced more than 20 years ago,” Carrigan said, noting that most of his time on the board was spent working across the aisle. “CU is at its best when the regents are not acting in a partisan manner.”
McGuinness, who has observed the often inhibited Colorado board along with many other university governing boards across the country, said the new board will need to function as a cohesive unit to be successful.
“To have the greatest impact, they must develop policies that come out of the board with consensus developed in an open, transparent way in which the public can see how the points of view are expressed and that will make it considerably more effective for the president and others to hold the campuses accountable,” he said.
Presidential evaluation
Presidential effectiveness is one area the new Democratic majority will have to decide how to navigate.
Kennedy, a former Republican lawmaker who was opposed by large factions of the CU community, was hired last year on a 5-4 party-line vote.
With the new voting majority, will the Democrats push to oust their conservative leader? The incoming regents offered varying takes.
Chavez said it would unfair to make that call now, and that he’d prefer to have transparent conversations with his new colleagues.
Rennison and Spiegel noted that evaluating the president was a major responsibility of the regents, and one that they will take seriously.
“It’s part of our responsibility to oversee him, and if he’s not doing things in alignment with the values of our system, it’s our job to reassess if he’s president or not,” Rennison said.
Kroll said the board will have to wait to see how the three new regents feel about Kennedy.
“If the board wants to be successful… it needs to be working with a president that has the board’s full support,” Kroll said. “If the board doesn’t have that, it’s going to severely limit the board effectiveness as well as the president’s effectiveness.”
Ken McConnellogue, CU system spokesman, said Kennedy has no intention of leaving his post over a changing of the political guard.
“One of the most important things a board does is evaluate the president, and the current board gave President Kennedy high marks because he’s doing a great job,” McConnellogue said. “I don’t think there should be any concerns whatsoever about President Kennedy’s commitment to the university. He is all in.”
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