CU Students, Faculty and Community Members Protest Presidential Finalist

Students, alumni and others gathered on the C-U campus Monday to protest the sole finalist for the job as University of Colorado president. The C-U Board of Regents last week announced Mark Kennedy as their choice to lead the four-campus system. KGNU’s Roz Brown reports that Kennedy’s anti-gay and anti-choice voting record while in Congress has set off alarms about whether he’s right for Colorado.

CU Students, Faculty and Community Members Protest Presidential Finalist Maeve Conran

Antonio Salazar was one of the speakers who addressed the crowd, expressing his concerns about Kennedy.

“You are telling your marginalized population that you don’t support them as students but you’d rather support the business aspect of this university, which also makes me and a lot of other students upset and angry because we’re not here to be profitable, we’re here to obtain a higher education and frankly a majority of us have worked tooth and bone to get here.”

Salazar told KGNU that he was not representing all marginalized or students of color but was sure many would agree with what he had to say.

On Saturday, the chair and vice chair of the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents, vigorously defended the choice of Mark Kennedy as the lone finalist for president of the institution. Jamie Sudler has more.

Kennedy, The sole finalist for the position of President of the University of Colorado, sent an open letter to the university community on Friday afternoon. Kennedy, who is currently the President of the North Dakota University, said in his letter that his position on marriage has evolved and he would not vote the same as he did when he was in Congress. He was a Republican member of Congress from Minnesota from 2001 to 2007.

The Denver Post reports that as a US representative Kennedy voted in favor of restrictions on abortion and against gay marriage. The ACLU gave him a zero percent rating in 2003 and 2004 and a 26 percent rating in the following two years.

The CU Regents are expected to take a final vote in early May on whether to hire Kennedy following a 14-day vetting period during which he will meet with people on the four CU campuses.