Outgoing C.U. President Hank Brown Turns Over the Reigns to Incoming President Bruce Benson

"[Outgoing CU President Hank] Brown plans to teach political science and law classes at CU beginning in May, and he is tenured in the Department of Political Science."---Reporter Heath Urie of Boulder's Daily Camera

"I'm enormously grateful for the opportunity the Board of Regents gave me to lead this wonderful institution"--Outgoing CU President Hank Brown

"I think he's done a fabulous job," [incoming CU President Bruce] Benson said about Brown. "He's settled things down, he's gotten everything on the right track and he's made a lot of organizational changes. I feel very good about the way he's leaving things"---Reported by Heath Urie of the Boulder Daily Camera

The University of Colorado's outgoing President Hank Brown was honored at a party on Friday. CU's new President Bruce Benson will begin work on Monday, March 10, 2007.

Daily Camera (3-8-08) writer Heath Urie writes:

The afternoon gathering of about two dozen close friends and CU system employees erupted into cheers and applause when Brown arrived to celebrate the final two hours of his nearly three-year tenure as president of the university system. Republican oil and gas executive Bruce Benson will take over the office Monday morning...

Brown will return to CU's Boulder campus to teach classes in political science and law, and quipped to his colleagues that he'll make good use of his position.

"Next week, I will become a member of the faculty, and I will have a number of observations and suggestions for you all" Brown joked [Full text].

On March 7, Heath Urie reported:

As Brown addressed the Boulder Faculty Assembly for the last time as CU president, a faculty member shouted at him from a back row, "Are you sure you won't stay?"

Brown replied simply, "Yes," with an accompanying nod and a smile, and thanked the group for its support during the past three years that he's held the institution's highest office.

"It's challenging at times to share feelings; at least it is for me," Brown said. "I'm enormously grateful for this opportunity. It has been a pure joy and enormously fulfilling. I'm deeply grateful to all of you."

..."I came here when I was 17, a little over 50 years ago," Brown said, noting his time as an undergraduate, graduate and eventual law student. "This magnificent place has a meaning far beyond a place that gives you a diploma. It has a sense, for me, of being a home where I grew up and learned about the world.

"The privilege of coming back and being part of it again for almost three years now has been a very special experience."

...[Incoming President Bruce] Benson praised Brown for handing over an institution in good shape.

"I think he's done a fabulous job," Benson said about Brown. "He's settled things down, he's gotten everything on the right track and he's made a lot of organizational changes. I feel very good about the way he's leaving things.

"I wish he had some budget money, though."

Brown plans to teach political science and law classes at CU beginning in May, and he is tenured in the Department of Political Science [Full text].

Caroline Murray of the Colorado Daily (2-6-08) reports:

During his time as president, Brown dealt with university controversies such as the football-recruiting scandal that prompted the Title IX lawsuit, the dismissal of professor Ward Churchill, the arrest of student Max Karson after his comments on the Virginia Tech shooting and the stabbing of a student at the UMC last August.

“Hank Brown was absolutely the right person at the right time,” said CU Regent Michael Carrigan. “I just wish it was a longer time.”

...While serving CU, Brown was also named the National Western Stock Show's 2008 Citizen of the West, an award which is “given to a person who embodies the spirit and determination of the Western pioneer and is committed to perpetuating those Western ethics” [Full text].