CU president Kennedy to resign this year

BOULDER — University of Colorado president Mark Kennedy will resign this year, marking an end to a brief tenure at the state’s flagship university.

In a statement, Kennedy said he and the CU Board of Regents have begun discussions for an “orderly transition” after new members joined the panel. Kennedy did not say when exactly he may be leaving, or who would fill in for him if the Board of Regents were to begin a search for a new chief executive.

However, Kennedy’s contract is due to expire in June 2022.

“I appreciate the many smart and dedicated people who work hard every day to help the university meet its mission to serve its students and the state. CU is on a positive trajectory,” he said in a statement.

Kennedy took the reins of the system that manages the CU campuses in Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs, and the CU-Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora in the summer of 2019 after three years as president of the University of North Dakota.

Prior to that, he was an executive at Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) and Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M), and held a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007 while living in Minnesota.

However, Kennedy’s tenure was controversial before his swearing-in. He was approved for the role by a 5-4 vote in a process that was marred by opaqueness, as the Board of Regents refused to release a full list of finalists for the position.

The Boulder Daily Camera sued the Regents for the full list, and while a district court judge ruled that the Regents are required to release the names of the finalists, an appellate court overturned that decision. The paper is now asking the Colorado Supreme Court for a decision.

(Editor’s note: the author of this story is a board member of the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter, which is a signatory to an amicus brief in support of the Colorado Supreme Court taking up the case.)

Several staff members and student groups also opposed Kennedy, a Republican, to lead a system with a flagship campus in one of the most progressive cities in the country.

The CU Student Government and CU-Boulder Faculty Assembly formally censured Kennedy in April based on what they viewed as leadership that failed to foster diversity and inclusion on campus.

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