[dropcap]Bruce[/dropcap] Benson cuts to the chase.
Add up the number of students he’s got to oversee.
The budgets.
The staff.
The faculty.
The four campuses.
It’s a huge job — president of the largest university in the state, CU.
He’s got to the cut to the chase.
Otherwise, he’d get nothing done.
Or, if he did, he’d take up so much energy on each item that he’d burn out.
Bruce Benson is not burning out.
He’s been on the job as president of CU longer than anyone in 60 years.
He likes heading CU.
Because he’s getting things done.
He’s cutting administrative staff, making the university more efficient.
He’s raising money, the proverbial “tons” of money.
He’s keeping tuition as low as he can, given the super-low percentage of CU’s budget covered by the Colorado legislature.
Oh yes, he’s having fun, even as he’s working hard.
But we’ll come back to that.
The truth is, the most important thing he is getting done cannot be measured.
The tone.
The message.
The mission.
Benson’s got it exactly right.
“Our job is not to teach students what to think; it’s to teach them how to think.”
In a nutshell, Bruce Benson cuts to the chase regarding higher education today. It’s become indoctrination, to an extent. One-sided. And it’s become less rigorous.
Not in Benson’s vision.
Let the students think what they will; just so they think carefully and just so they do their research.
This, coming from a staunch Republican, has surprised many a Benson observer. But hey, he’s on the job longer than most of his predecessors.
People see his energy.
They like it.
People see his commitment to higher education.
His relish.
His enthusiasm.
His nose to the grindstone.
People like what he’s doing.
Because he’s doing education, not indoctrination.
Because he is raising standards, not just letting things get by.
[dropcap]Bruce[/dropcap] Benson talks straight — very straight. A few quotes from our recent interview:
“Don’t call me President. Just call me Bruce.”
“I like fixing things. It’s important for people like me to stop making money and do something that’s good for society. What’s good for society is creating a place for everyone. Open.”
“Be careful who you pass on the way up because you might pass him on the way down.”
“Work with everybody. I talk to the janitorial staff. Everyone is a person.”
“You have to do things people won’t like. You can’t just keep driving up costs. Got to make efficiencies.”
“Higher education needs a major shift — to collaboration. Chancellors working with each other. One refused a $5 million grant because he’d have to share it. You get a lot more done working together.”
“Somebody was up for tenure. The chancellor refused because she wanted to do interdisciplinary studies. The old group didn’t want that. We gave her tenure.”
“We need to get on top of our costs. Cut frills. More efficiencies. Are we walking all over each other? We cut staff, or didn’t hire replacements.”
“Can’t complain all day about budget — do something about it. Where do we put our assets where they can do the most good?”
[dropcap]Bruce[/dropcap] Benson stays in shape.
He aims for 10,000 steps a day.
He’s in the pool.
Lifts weights.
“It’s the right thing to do.”
He’d like to do it every day, and he does — 2,700 steps by midday, the time of our interview.
But 12,000 steps a day on the weekend on his ranch.
Bruce Benson likes rewards.
Not his salary.
That, he gives back.
His biggest reward is “making a difference.”
“You got your reputation. Don’t lose it.”
He came to a university with a background of football scandals, sexual assaults. “You will have problems. Don’t put them off. Don’t make excuses.
“Problems don’t go away. Run at the problem, not away from it. And speak with one voice.
“That helped with our reputation.
“We had a reputation as a party school. We’ve fallen off that list.”
And marijuana?
“I don’t think those who voted for it thought beyond smoking. It’s not the pot smoking — it’s the edibles. A few of them and you’re in the hospital.”
[dropcap]CU[/dropcap] Anschutz — an animal unto itself.
“A huge operation,” says Benson.
“It’s budget is bigger than Boulder’s by $425 million annual research funding.
“Supposed to build the campus in 40 years. It took 12.
“Huge asset to the State of Colorado.”
Its many medical facilities highlight Benson’s high value: collaboration.
“Anschutz will become a national medical center. Stop saying Mayo. Stop saying MD Anderson. Start saying Anschutz. We’re getting there.
“I’m on the board by statute. My predecessors sent someone else to go to the board meetings. I said, ‘No, I’ll go.’ Phil Anschutz and I talk all the time.
“Technically, Anschutz is a separate ‘authority,’ a separate entity, but the CU regents appoint its board [one from each Congressional district] and I appoint the chair of the board.”
Collaboration.
This authority has now picked up other hospitals around the region.
What about the VA Hospital now going up on the Anschutz campus — a hospital mired in political scandal, cost overruns and delays?
“CU is not responsible for the VA Hospital. We could have built it for $400 million. Then the politicians got involved and it’s over $1 billion.
“I called the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. His response: ‘I don’t talk to college presidents.’ The current secretary would talk to me, but by then the horse was out of the barn.
“Anschutz sold the VA 30 acres. We don’t have any control, but we need to be involved because we have so many docs working there — just as at Children’s Hospital.”
Collaboration.
[dropcap]Diversity[/dropcap] is a challenge.
“It’s tough when you don’t have enough [minorities] to choose from.”
Then what?
“So we have to train them. Grow them ourselves.
“I won’t hire an unqualified person just to say, ‘I hired a minority.’”
So CU has joint programs with Denver Public Schools to “grow” enough minorities for jobs.
“Kids will learn better if those teaching them look more like them — it’s just a statistic.
“Nothing you do overnight.
“It’s long. Slow. Hard. If you’re impatient, you get nothing done. I can be impatient — but you learn through life.”
Bruce Benson wants to keep learning because he likes making a difference.
Retirement? Don’t talk to Bruce Benson about it.
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg may be reached at hillel@ijn.com
Copyright © 2016 by the Intermountain Jewish News