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Former University of Colorado President Betsy Hoffman "thought long and hard" before hiring a car last year to wait outside a donor dinner in Seattle for several hours, she said this week. The $534 charge criticized by state auditors Tuesday was an unusual circumstance, Hoffman said. The house was hard to find, it was dark and she didn't want to be late. But a Rocky Mountain News review of CU payments to limousine services shows hired drivers idled outside at least 10 events Hoffman attended, from a dinner at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to the funeral of...

Hoffman has excuses, not answers By David Harsanyi Denver Post Columnist Evidently, Elizabeth Hoffman, former president of the University of Colorado, is unfamiliar with a well-known adage on leadership that goes something like this: "Anyone can steer the Enterprise when the Klingons aren't around." Last week, in a speech that was originally supposed to be titled "Why I Left the University of Colorado," Hoffman, attempted to shed any responsibility for her tenure at CU, rolling out a litany of inane excuses. Let's start with the most comical: Hoffman blamed her controversial "C-word" deposition - my personal favorite CU fiasco -...

The University of Colorado should make sure candidates for the school's presidency place an emphasis on attracting and retaining minorities, one official told the Board of Regents on Wednesday. Assuring that the search committee "makes diversity part of the discussion would not only be important, but it hasn't happened sometimes in the past when it should," said Carmen Williams, assistant vice president for diversity at CU. The regents are expected today to select a search committee to replace President Elizabeth Hoffman, who announced her resignation March 7. After hearing a report that minority enrollment is stagnant — students of color...

DENVER - As a decision nears on whether to fire a controversial professor, University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman hinted Tuesday that a proposal to change tenure may be in the works. Speaking to Republican state lawmakers, Hoffman fended off questions about tenure, pointing out that the university's governing Board of Regents will meet Wednesday and Thursday and saying she didn't want to "steal anyone's thunder." "Give us a few days," Hoffman said. She did not elaborate. Her spokeswoman, Michele McKinney, said she could not comment. Regents Chairman Jerry Rutledge and Vice Chairwoman Gail Schwartz did not immediately return telephone...

The political science department at the University of Colorado should add Hectoring 101 to its schedule next semester, a class in which students will learn how to pester, protest, bully, intimidate and threaten an individual until the target of the abuse finally gets so fatigued that he or she can't take anymore. Students in Hectoring 101 will not need to read classic literature about public service, social justice, human rights, civil liberties or due process. They won't need traits like fairness, restraint, civility or rationality. Everything they will need to know can be learned by reviewing media coverage of the...

Betsy Hoffman Submits Resignation To Regents The president of the University of Colorado-Boulder has submitted her resignation, effective June 30, or as soon as a replacement is named. "It has become clear to me that, amid the serious matters the University of Colorado now confronts, my role as the leader of the University has become an issue. It appears to me it is in the University’s best interest that I remove the issue of my future from the debate so that nothing inhibits CU’s ability to successfully create the bright future it so deserves," Hoffman said in letter to the...