Vote 2002
Change in store for CU brass
Three seek open regent seat
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by Staff (Editorial@boulderweekly.com)

Cindy Carlisle (D) is a graduate of CU/Boulder, holding bachelor's and master's degrees from the university, and is a former Boulder City Council member. She is seeking the position of University of Colorado Regent.

Carlisle advocates capping the Boulder campus' enrollment, while expanding educational opportunities throughout the CU system, which includes the Health Sciences Center, CU/Denver and CU/Colorado Springs.

She has pledged to seek expansion of public and private funding for CU, and is a supporter of equal student rights for women, minorities, domestic partners and the disadvantaged.

Carlisle has been endorsed by Congressman Mark Udall, a fellow Democrat. "I've known and worked with Cindy for many years, and I believe she has the broad perspective on the needs of Colorado and how our fine system can serve those needs," Udall wrote in his endorsement. "As a regent, Cindy will be an effective leader for both the University of Colorado and the Second Congressional District."

Carlisle has carved out a reputation as a civic leader on environmental, land use and humanitarian issues. She chaired the Transportation Committee for Boulder's first Transportation Master Plan, and won the Daily Camera's 1990 Pacesetter Award. She is also a Gates Fellow with the Kennedy School of Government Program in State and Local Government.

Diane Greenlee (R) says CU Regent is the "only office I'd ever consider running for."

A registered Democrat for 17 years, Greenlee switched her party affiliation to Republican in 1998 so that she could vote for her husband, former Boulder mayor Bob Greenlee, in the primary that secured him the Second Congressional District nomination.

Greenlee says the office of CU Regent is concerned with serving the entire state through four facilities, only one of which is located in Boulder. At all other locations, CU has been "welcomed with open arms" and offers to build student housing, she says.

Only in Boulder is the university considered a problem for the city to deal with. "That's the important thing to remember, as regent you have to serve the statewide system," she says.

Greenlee is on the board of directors of her alma mater's foundation, the Iowa State University Foundation. CU's current president, Betsy Hoffman, came to Boulder from Iowa State, and Greenlee says she's already acquainted with Hoffman.

"I intimately know her persuasive power and fundraising skills, and it would be an honor to work with her," Greenlee says.

Proposed construction on the South Boulder campus near the Flatirons could have been avoided if the city of Boulder had purchased the controversial land when it was offered, Greenlee asserts. "The issue is that on more than two occasions the real estate was offered to the city of Boulder."

Boulder County's comprehensive plan would also allow the construction of athletic facilities or student housing on the site, Greenlee adds. But the City of Boulder will still have the ultimate say on the project, because it can't happen unless the city annexes the property to provide water service and fire protection, she points out.

Flux Neo (L), a University of Colorado junior, has been dogged by controversy since he declared his candidacy for CU Regent.

Prior to declaring, a DUI arrest resulted from Neo's refusal to speak to Boulder police; he wasn't drunk but he wouldn't talk to the cops, so they arrested him for refusing to take a blood alcohol test. The charge is pending, but the Daily Camera caught wind of the unresolved charge.

"Somebody at the Daily Camera wrote a nasty article about me like I was some kind of womanizing drunk," Neo complains.

Then, because of his shaved head, Neo was accused of being a neo-Nazi by a supporter of the Black Student Alliance. Actually, his tattoos are Sanskrit as well as English, not German, and one of them reads, "There is no religion higher than truth."

"I'm appalled that a supporter of an organization which promotes tolerance and diversity would be so quick to prejudge another upon the basis of their looks, and would do so in a blatantly offensive and mean-spirited manner," Neo says.

The CU Regents need to listen to the students, Neo says. "If a student's voice was integral to the decision-making process, a lot of decisions wouldn't have been made.

"To be in a position like Regent, I would probably become despised. Naiveness would be a great asset, because people would have to explain why it's that way," he says.

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