By Jennifer Brown
Denver Post Staff Writer
The ex-CU president, noting the pressures of instant criticism via the Web, says she made errors in her handling of the football sex scandal and the Ward Churchill flap.
Former University of Colorado president Betsy Hoffman said Thursday it became increasingly difficult to make ethical, principled decisions while a "perfect storm" of media fired upon her.
Hoffman said the spread of rumors on Internet blogs creates an instantaneous "trial and conviction" before both sides are heard. She announced her resignation in March amid scandals involving the school's football recruiting program and professor Ward Churchill's essay comparing some victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to a Nazi official.
"Decisions are made in an instant, when real thoughtful change takes time," said Hoffman, speaking to the Denver Forum in her first public appearance since she stepped down Sunday.
"One of the criticisms of me was, 'Well, she can't make a tough decision,"' Hoffman said. "No, that's not a problem. The real problem was I had a lot of really tough decisions that had to be made in this perfect storm."
Hoffman said that if she could do it over again, she would listen less to lawyers and more to public-relations staff.
She also addressed a widely reported gaffe that appeared in a deposition taken while three women were suing the university over their alleged sexual assaults. In it, Hoffman played down a CU football player's calling a female player what is sometimes described as "the C-word," saying that in the 14th-century period of poet Geoffrey Chaucer, the derisive word was a term of endearment.
"I said it, and it was a really very dumb thing to say," Hoffman told about 60 people after a luncheon at the Oxford Hotel. "There's no question about it. I allowed myself to get rattled, and I allowed myself to get angry. I'm an academic, and I used an academic example, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life."
Hoffman said she would "never again agree to do a second day of a deposition on a Saturday morning when I'm exhausted, where the sole purpose was to get me to say something dumb."
She also said she wished she would have assigned one of her staffers to read political blogs every day, as she does now.
One of the first mentions of Churchill's essay appeared on a blog called "little green footballs" after the professor was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Within 10 minutes, people were calling Gov. Bill Owens and asking him to tell Hoffman to fire Churchill, she said.
"Ten minutes - that's how fast things happen today," she said. "There was a period there when I was measuring my e-mail in boxes and pounds. You cannot manage and lead by the number of e-mails you get. You really have to think about what is best for the institution."
Hoffman said she hopes leaders will be able to stick to their principles in the current media environment, which will rush even faster as people rely more on the Internet.
Hoffman left CU because sticking to what she believed was becoming nearly impossible, she said.
"I felt that I was called upon to sacrifice my principles," she said. "When the story is constantly about the individual and not about the institution, it's time for the individual to step aside."
Hoffman, who has accepted a teaching position at CU-Denver's Graduate School of Public Affairs, said she hasn't ruled out another university presidency.
The Denver Forum, which originally billed Hoffman's speech as a candid talk about why she left CU, said Wednesday she would talk about ethics in leadership.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News
August 5, 2005
"It will haunt me for the rest of my life"
Hoffman admits to mistakes on football scandal, deposition
Former University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman said Thursday she made mistakes in her handling of the school's football recruiting debacle and warned leaders they must adapt to an exploding media climate that moves faster than public officials can react.
Hoffman, speaking publicly for the first time since leaving the job last week, told the Denver Forum civic group that she listened too closely to lawyers - and not enough to public relations experts - as the sex-booze-and-football crisis unfolded in early 2004.
She said she also regretted giving a deposition on a Saturday morning when she was exhausted, a move that led to one of her biggest gaffes, in which she agreed that use of the "C-word," in reference to women, was vulgar, but also said she had heard it described as a term of endearment.
The deposition last summer was part of a major lawsuit against the university in which three women alleged they were raped by football players or recruits. The case was recently thrown out of federal court.
"I will never again do the second day of a deposition on a Saturday morning when I was exhausted - and the only reason to do it was to get me to say something dumb," Hoffman said. "I allowed myself to say something dumb . . . I allowed myself to get rattled and get angry.
"It will haunt me for the rest of my life."
The pressures at CU became overwhelming, with what Hoffman called "a perfect storm" of controversy that included the rape lawsuit, an essay by ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill in which he compared Sept. 11 victims to an infamous Nazi bureaucrat, and the struggle to secure sufficient state funding for the school.
It became impossible to keep various interest groups happy, Hoffman said, in large part because - with so many major decisions strung so closely together - people would forget about actions that may have pleased them and seize on the ones that didn't.
Hoffman, who weathered 18 months of relentless coverage, warned that many leaders in the public and private sector "are unprepared for how rapidly the media is changing," and cited talk radio and TV and Internet Web logs, or blogs, as part of a dizzying network that moves too fast for story subjects to get out their side on an issue.
Officials and institutions "are tried and convicted in an instant," she said.
She cited blogs in particular for changing the civic landscape. Ten minutes after one blogger posted the first report on Churchill's Sept. 11 comments, people were calling Gov. Bill Owens, demanding he order Hoffman to fire Churchill, she said.
But Hoffman emphasized that there's little anyone can do to change the ballooning number of media outlets and opinion mongers. She urged leaders to adapt, rather than simply lament the changing landscape.
Hoffman said she hoped to put the rugged experience of the past two years to good use, but wasn't sure yet what she wanted to do beyond her immediate plans to teach public affairs at CU.
Whether she becomes a university president again, writes a book or shares her recent experiences with other leaders, she has yet to decide.
"Out of every crisis comes opportunity," she said. "Everything bad that happens you step back and say, 'What have I learned from this experience?' "
hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5048
