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Bruce Benson interviewed in the Denver Business Journal

absinthe

absinthe

Ambitious but rubbish.
Club Member
Junta Member
Hat-tip to Dallas Alumni Chapter for linking this on Facebook:

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/broadway_17th/2013/06/bill-husted.html


here is an interesting quote:
Husted: What is fundraising like for you? Is it difficult to go out and ask people for money?

Benson: I've been doing it a long time. Fundraising is sales. You sell your product, you sell yourself, you get people to like you and understand what you are doing. I set the bar a bit because I am a major donor. It's easier to ask a guy for a million dollars if you’ve already done that.

Husted: What about the athletics?

Benson: Just like the rest of the university, we have fallen way behind on what it should be doing. We have a lot of potential and a lot of good people. It's a big business. The budget is about $60 million and it should be about $80 million to do all we want to do. I’d like it to be an economic driver both for the marketing we get out of it and the cash we bring in. We can do that.
Click to expand...
 
great quote.

i hope he's got his hands on the hiring process for the new ad.

i agree with him 1000000000X.
 
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There is no doubt that the dude can fundraise. Please Bruce, go get the help we need to make the AD a success.
 
At least someone gets it. But I want to see change/progress now. I'm sick of waiting.
 
More credit would be given if President Benson showed a little contempt for losing and heartfelt commitment to getting back into the top 25.

Going from a $60B enterprise to an $80B one is fine and good. But where is the pride?
 
Yeah, I'd rather hear him talk about more wins and more championships than just increasing the operating budget. I'm sure he feels there is a correlation between increasing revenue and winning, but it comes across a little like the money is more important that winning, but it's still much more encouraging than anything I've heard from these guys in the past.
 
What Benson can control is money. It's appropriate for that to be his focus. He's in a bit of a bind if he talks about winning championships. If he says that the AD budget needs to increase by $20 MM to position the sports teams to compete, then he's excusing them for not winning now. But if he talks too much about how they should be winning now, then he undermines his case for needing that $20 million. I think he handled this the right way for the most part. I'd like to hear more statements along the lines of "better position our programs to compete for championships and showcase the university". But I don't think the way he said things is worth us getting our collective panties in a bunch.
 
Buffnik said:
What Benson can control is money. It's appropriate for that to be his focus. He's in a bit of a bind if he talks about winning championships. If he says that the AD budget needs to increase by $20 MM to position the sports teams to compete, then he's excusing them for not winning now. But if he talks too much about how they should be winning now, then he undermines his case for needing that $20 million. I think he handled this the right way for the most part. I'd like to hear more statements along the lines of "better position our programs to compete for championships and showcase the university". But I don't think the way he said things is worth us getting our collective panties in a bunch.
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I DID pick up on a heartfelt sense of pride for his ranch on the Blue River outside of Silverthorn. And he clearly adores his wife. He was reluctant to take the CU position in the first place. Five years in, he has the medical center and the abolishment of 420 behind him. He clearly has passions.

Its not the way he said things that is the knicker twisting issue.

The issue here is the better late than never approach to righting a wrong and finally starting to come around on the roll of athletics towards the reputation of the school.
 
At least Benson says the right things. Phil can't even get that part right. I was never a big Phil fan, especially after his dust up with Brad. But now I'm really starting to have a genuine dislike of the guy.

My issue with Benson is that he hasn't done much to correct the problem with Phil. Maybe Phil is great at running the campus in all aspects other than the athletic department. I kind of doubt that, though.


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Oh, and one other thing- the next CU President needs to have his office in Boulder. Enough of this Denver office bull****. Boulder is the flagship. That's where the President belongs.


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sackman said:
Oh, and one other thing- the next CU President needs to have his office in Boulder. Enough of this Denver office bull****. Boulder is the flagship. That's where the President belongs.


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While I agree that Boulder is the flagship, I think enough legislatures, donors, etc. think of CU as the People's Republic of Boulder, rather than the entire University system. Keeping the office in Denver, where there are 2 CU campuses, shifts the focus away from the politics of Boulder a bit.
 
unionbuff said:
While I agree that Boulder is the flagship, I think enough legislatures, donors, etc. think of CU as the People's Republic of Boulder, rather than the entire University system. Keeping the office in Denver, where there are 2 CU campuses, shifts the focus away from the politics of Boulder a bit.
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The President needs to have his finger on the pulse of the goings on at the flagship campus. If he's too involved glad handing and lobbying, he'll lose track of what's important.
A lot of things have coincided with the decline of CU football, one of them is the relocation of the President's office. You're running a school. You need to be at that school.


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unionbuff said:
While I agree that Boulder is the flagship, I think enough legislatures, donors, etc. think of CU as the People's Republic of Boulder, rather than the entire University system. Keeping the office in Denver, where there are 2 CU campuses, shifts the focus away from the politics of Boulder a bit.
Click to expand...

Agree with this. Boulder has about 29.000 students, both undergrad and graduate. UCD and the Medical Campus combined have about 28,000, UCCS has grown over 11,000 and is gaining on the other campuses.

Boulder is the flagship and the President needs to have a strong presence there but with a combination of the distribution of students over all campuses, the political power being in Denver, and the donor money being in Denver the office should be in Denver.

The probem is in this kind of structure each campus should have a Chancellor who is able to have a solid understanding of the needs and values of his/her respective campus and be able to be a strong and effective advocate for the campus both with the President and with the Board of Regents, as well as assisting these people in advocating politically and with donors. Unfortunately the Boulder campus has a person in this position who by all appearances is a career pencil pusher who lacks both understanding and passion for his campus.

It is a good thing to hear that Benson is advocating for a significant increase in Athletic budget but as if not more important for his legacy and the future of the school is the hiring of an effective AD and more importantly a replacement for Phil who is the opposite of Phil.
 
If we had a strong Chancellor, then it wouldn't matter that the President's office is in Denver.
 
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