Regent At-Large candidates Hood and Rinard debate on campus

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Democrat Elliot Hood and Republican Eric Rinard went head-to-head on Thursday in a debate hosted by the CU Independent for the University of Colorado Board of Regents At-large seat.

The CU Board of Regents is the governing body of CU, the largest university system in Colorado, with campuses in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver and Aurora. The regents manage a budget of $6.28 billion each year. Roughly $1.3 billion of that budget is generated from student tuition and fees.

The sitting Board of Regents approved an increase in tuition in April that will ultimately raise tuition by 3% for undergraduate students at CU Boulder, CU Denver, and UCCS. This does not apply, though, to CU Boulder’s continuing students who are ensured a four-year tuition guarantee. The board also is responsible for formulating and implementing universitywide policies, hiring the president of the university system, approving undergraduate and graduate student programs and finalizing significant contracts.

The debate was moderated by Jessi Sachs, the Editor-in-Chief of the CU Independent and Lincoln Roch, a managing editor for the CU Independent.

Hood, originally from Chicago, mentioned in the debate that he is confident in his ability to thrive as a sitting regent because of his career as an education attorney representing public school districts statewide. He added that he works with elected officials often and believes he understands governance well because of this. He also attributed his qualifications to his former career as a public school teacher and education nonprofit director.

“I’m running for regent because I love this university. I believe very deeply in the promise of higher education, and I think that I have the experience and the skills to fight for priorities that I know the people of Colorado really care about, like making college more affordable, making sure that we are helping students stay in school and graduate … making sure that we’re doing more to address the climate crisis,” Hood said.

Rinard, who labeled himself a “lifelong Coloradan,” is a senior engineer who works on lasers at KMLabs, in which he shared that his work experience has taught him to listen carefully to his colleagues and those around him. He expressed that he believes his qualifications to be a regent are largely developed through being on the board of directors for Aspen Ridge Preparatory Charter School. He indicated that he has learned more about education through this experience, as well as learning how to collaborate with varying personalities.

“I’m running for regent now because I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I’ve pretty much built everything I want to build, and so now I want to help the next generation, not just my kids, but everyone’s kids,” Rinard said.

Rinard, once an electrical engineering major, and Hood, once a political science and communications student, both attended CU Boulder. During the debate, the candidates realized that they lived in the same dorm in each of their respective freshman years, Buckingham Hall.

Looking back on their time at CU Boulder, Hood emphasized his exposure to diverse viewpoints. Rinard mentioned that he regrets not immersing himself with other students as much as he could have, but believes he has made up for this in later years after graduating.

Affordability for students

Both candidates mentioned that their top priority if elected, is making CU more affordable for students. Hood discussed the debt crisis that all Coloradoans face, but especially students, citing a collective student debt in Colorado of $29 billion.

“We’ve got to make sure that as many students as possible that attend CU, graduate debt-free or with limited debt,” he said. “I’m ready to roll up my sleeves with the rest of the regents and with the administration of this school to figure out ways to save students money, to limit the amount of debt that our students graduate with.”

Taking a different approach to making CU more affordable, Rinard explained that CU should become more innovative in their approach to limit costs for students, through programs that can reduce the number of years spent in college and other expenses related to seeking a college degree.

“My top priority will also relate to affordability, but I think we’re kidding ourselves if we think we’re going to be bringing down the tuition at a university. Inflation is forever,” Rinard stated. “Most prices go up, they don’t come back down. The university has done a very good job of controlling the growth in tuition, and yet it’s still about 30 times what it was when I went to school here.”

Rinard mentioned using endowment funds from the school to build more affordable student housing. He also suggested another way to lower overall fees for students is making almost all additional fees optional, through choices like opting in.

Hood also spoke about using endowment money from the school but in the context of using it for tuition assistance. He emphasized that he believes the four-year tuition guarantee that CU Boulder has should be on all campuses, as CU Boulder is currently the only campus with this guarantee.

Both Rinard and Hood mentioned partnering with high schools to make it more accessible for high school students to take classes for college credit prior to graduating high school. Similarly, they’d like to work with community colleges to make it easier to transfer credits to CU to avoid more unnecessary expenses.

Proposed budget changes

The candidates were asked how, if elected, they would like to change the CU systems budget.

Hood said that he would hope to change the budget by making more investments in sustainability on CU campuses, through climate change initiatives and renewable energy sources. He also emphasized the importance of not over-hiring administrators, in an effort to use that money elsewhere Hood also proposed his idea to try to keep more students enrolled in school all four years.

Hood stated, “I want to see more investments made in keeping students in school. I want our universities to be investing in what I would call a case management model more for students who come in and we know have a risk of dropping out more easily or more likely. So we can keep more kids in school.”

Rinard used the time allocated for this question of how each candidate would change the current budget to, instead, talk about principles he values.

“There’s a tremendous support staff for the Board of Regents and for the administration and the university that’s going to be bringing all that to my attention in due course,” he said. “But I can talk about the principles that I’ll follow. I believe in free market principles, of individual choice. I don’t believe in mandates and having things be required to people, whether they like them or not.”

Increase of Reported Sexual Assault at CU

Sexual assault has reportedly increased over the years on CU Boulder’s campus with 16 rapes being reported on campus in 2018 and 36 reported in 2023.

Hood pointed out that CU is mandated by Title IX, a federal law requiring schools to protect its students from sexual harassment, to keep both men and women on campus safe from sex-based harassment.

“If the number of rapes that are happening at CU either on campus or just off campus involving students, is going up that much, we’re failing,” he said. “And we need to put more resources and time and dedication into solving that problem. I would fight for that as a regent.”

Rinard mentioned that he was unaware of that statistic, or that sexual assault was a rising issue on CU campus. He said if this is true, it should be addressed urgently.

“At the same time, I’m a little bit leery of statistics, because sometimes date rape gets lumped in with stranger rape,” he stated. “And so obviously, if any student commits a rape, that student should be expelled. There should be zero tolerance for that … the university should do everything possible to make sure they’re prosecuted as strictly as possible.”

 

Campus protests

Boulder Students for Justice in Palestine was recently moved into bad standing as a registered student organization within CU Boulder.

Hood emphasized the need for students who decide to utilize their First Amendment rights to assembly and speech on campus to follow campus rules regarding doing so. He supported the university’s decision to unrecognize this group.

“That particular organization routinely was cited for violating university policy, and because they violated the rules that apply to everybody,” he said. “They were undermining our ability to equip our space for our students and everybody else in our community to freely express their views. And I support that decision.”

Rinard, an avid supporter of free speech, drew attention to the need for the university to draw a line between speech and intimidation. He noted that occupying space or preventing people from getting around campus freely is intimidation, which should not be confused with free speech.

“People have a right to speak. They don’t have a right to insist that they’re listened to,” he stated. “They don’t have a right to insist they’re heard.”

Sustainability on campus

Hood has stated in his campaign that he plans to make CU more sustainable, with part of this plan being executed through achieving net zero carbon emissions. In the debate, he highlighted CU Boulder’s current plan to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. He believes that this plan should be expanded to the entire CU system.

“We do that (achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2025) by prioritizing spending now in renewable energy, making sure that we’re retrofitting existing buildings to make them more sustainable, and ensuring that any new buildings that are built are top LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified energy efficient, and relying on more renewable sources of energy, and we’re currently relying on light natural gas,” he stated.

Rinard’s campaign does not mention sustainability. When asked about his plans, if any, on sustainability measures in CU, he pointed out the lack of conversation around economic sustainability. He expressed his interest in nuclear energy, using France as an example, and how he wishes this was an energy source more discussed among sustainability conversations.

“We’re told by experts and world leaders that we’ve got to make complete changes to our economies, to our ways of life, to our actions based on the potential rise of the Earth’s temperature by one and a half degrees in a century,” he said. “And even that is theoretical. So, you know, I think that there’s a lot of critical questions that aren’t being asked and sustainability that’s worked for a long time is the free market and capitalism.”

Gun violence on campus

Last year, there was a school shooting on one of the CU campuses, UCCS. The shooter killed two people, his roommate and a woman on UCCS campus.

Rinard stated that he believes that gun control and banning concealed carry is not the answer to solving gun violence, which he acknowledged that he believes far too many people are dying from. Rather, he pointed out that economic conditions and mental health are the biggest factors contributing to gun violence.

“Concealed carry permit holders are law-abiding citizens who believe in safety and who believe in protecting … themselves and others from gun violence. The gun’s not the problem. Permits are not the problem. The problem is mental health and economic situations that can be addressed if we really want to,” he said.

Hood said he believes it was shameful that CU allowed concealed carry on campus for as long as it did. He clarified that state lawmakers were the ones who banned concealed carry on campuses, not the regents. Hood claims he would have pushed for a ban on concealed carry, if he were to have been on the board of regents at the time, and also noted the importance of passing constant gun control measures for the CU system.

“Nobody needs a gun to attend and teach a class … Too many people are dying from gun violence every year. Too many people are in class afraid of gun violence every year,” Hood said.

Mental health

When asked in a previous interview with the CU Independent, both candidates shared that they believe mental health is one of the biggest crises that students face today.

Rinard said that he feels cognitive dissonance- the mental state of having contradictory thoughts and actions- is a threat to mental health.

“When your mind is at war with itself it’s really hard to be happy,” he stated. “I would like to see more discussion and education about that, especially at the incoming freshman level and basically all levels, to help people understand why they think what they do, where it comes from, the importance of holding beliefs that are consistent with each other … one of the most liberating things in the world you can do is change your mind.”

Hood shared that he would like the CU system to have both crisis intervention services and routine counseling services as part of the system’s core services.

Hood also said that, through his work as an education attorney, he has repeatedly seen that workers dealing with students’ mental health crises are battling their own issues. He believes this is a threat to the effectiveness of CU mental health services.

He said, “If the people that are supposed to be serving students can’t serve themselves, they have too many students on their caseload. That’s a problem.”

Unionization of campus employees

Unionization for CU higher education employees has been a topic of discussion among state and university representatives for years. In 2022, the United Campus Workers of Colorado spoke in front of the Boulder Faculty Assembly to ask them to sign a letter to Gov. Jared Polis in an effort to afford all Colorado employees the right to unionize.

Hood has been largely supportive of creating an avenue for CU employees to unionize and bargain.

“I believe that employees deserve a voice in the workplace and a seat at the table when it comes to wages and benefits,” he said. “I also believe that unionization is an efficient way for employees to bring concerns to their employer and for unions to work alongside the university.”

Rinard commented, saying that this topic is where he most strongly disagrees with Hood. He believes there is a place for unions in the private sector where he anticipates there are higher risks of employers taking advantage of employees, but not in higher education.

“It’s … a public institution and it’s really sort of a problem to have the employer and employee basically negotiating on the same side,” he said. “My number one constituency is the students and with unionization, one of its main goals is to increase wages. That would … increase tuition and I’m opposed to that.”

Student and audience reactions 

Reid Panzer, a CU Boulder student, said he felt that Hood performed better in the debate.

“I felt Elliot was very eloquent and well-spoken with his points and ideas,” he said. “I thought he (Rinard) did well. I thought he voiced a lot of opinions and beliefs that go against, I think, some core values of CU.”

Panzer said he would trust both candidates, but would prefer to see Hood in office.

“I think I would be confident in both of them doing their jobs. I think that with Elliot we would see more changes that would impact us,” he said.

Sebastian Knight, a resident of Brighton, Colorado, felt that Rinard won this debate, but would have preferred if both candidates provided more specific policy details.

“I felt like they both could have expanded more on what they planned to do,” he said. “There was no detail step-by-step … it was all just talk, and great ideas. And that’s great. But what’s the action?”

He said that he hopes the regents will address the issues most important to students.

“People are tired of stories,” Knight said. We want to see action and we want to see a plan.”

Election day in Nov. 5.

Contact CU Independent staff writer Hannah Brennan at hannah.brennan@colorado.edu