CU President Candidate Name-Dropping

Gary Harmon, columnist for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel – on the far west end of the state for those unfamiliar with Colorado – has issued a call to the CU Board of Regents to keep it simple when they choose the university’s next president:

Misplaced reliance on a long line of bookworms well steeped in the nuances of medieval animal husbandry or Jackson Pollock-brushstroke patterns as revealed in his lesser-known works was what landed higher education in general in the briar patch it now uncomfortably inhabits. CU just happens to be the institution squirming most at the moment.

No, what the regents need to look for is the kind of leader who can reintroduce the erudite and sophisticated faculty at CU to some rather rudimentary facts that have escaped their notice. Call it the “Sesame Street” approach.

Harmon suggets that current governor Bill Owens would be an ideal candidate for the CU presidency, but it’s doubtful the writer is aware of Owens’ friend Hugh Hewitt‘s campaign for the post. His nationally-syndicated radio show is only available on the Internet to folks on the Western Slope. It appears that Colorado’s current Chancellor of the Collegiate Peaks would fit most of Harmon’s qualifications:

The new head Buff also would do well to appreciate football, be generally acceptable to Coloradans from Cortez to Burlington, to say nothing of Delta to Denver, and be looking for a situation.

As it happens, there is someone with a varied background, executive experience, political heft, an appreciation of timely, scholarly work such as that of Victor Davis Hanson and the need for a visible perch for the next five to 10 years.

It’s debatable how much a Buckeye / Cleveland Browns fan can be judged to truly “appreciate football.” Hugh would need an opportunity to clarify his other qualifications. But then again he has been sheltered away in the nation’s capital for some highly sensitive strategy meetings and hasn’t had a chance to promote his candidacy.

Besides Hugh, King Banaian and SWP have also submitted their names for the RMA’s consideration. Are you interested? Drop an e-mail to Jim (jimc@thinkingright.net).