Cu’s Board Of Regents Planned To Fire Bruce Benson Before He Announced Retirement, Records Show

Bruce Benson’s announcement in the summer of 2018 that he planned to retire as president of the University of Colorado preempted a previously undisclosed attempt by a majority of the Board of Regents to fire him, according to records obtained by The Denver Post. Seven pages of notes kept by Regent Sue Sharkey, released by CU under the Colorado Open Records Act, detail the elected leaders’ private discussions that summer about firing Benson over concerns about his lack of leadership and efficacy at the helm of the four-campus, multibillion-dollar university system. Sharkey’s notes also reveal efforts by then-Regent Kyle Hybl to be named interim president, and suggest Benson retaliated by using CU donors to somehow threaten Hybl’s job outside the university. Benson, now 82, retired last year after 11 years in office, and with successor Mark Kennedy already in place. Benson and Hybl each declined requests by The Post to discuss the circumstances leading up to the former president’s decision to retire, though Sharkey, in an interview, denied Benson was involved in any kind of threat to Hybl. Aims McGuinness, a consultant with the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems who has worked with CU’s Board of Regents since the 1990s, said it’s typical for university governing boards to work out deals to facilitate presidential departures, usually allowing leaders to resign or leave on their own terms. “A highly visible firing of a president of a major university is rare,” McGuinness said.