Elliott Hood
CU Regent – At Large
2024 – Answered the following questions from APA:
Elliott Hood
Learn more about Elliott Hood at hoodforcolorado.com
In the spring students set up an encampment at Tivoli Quad on CU Denver’s Auraria Campus to support Palestinians and demand that the University divest money from companies operating in Israel and issue a statement condemning Israel’s actions. How would you have handled this situation? Would you have negotiated with the students?
I believe very strongly in the right to free speech and support students in their efforts to stand up and speak out on issues of public concern, including the War in Gaza. However, anyone who wants to protest on our campuses needs to follow the rules that apply to everyone regardless of the message–including those messages we do or do not like. If we bend for one group, we need to do it for everyone, and if we don’t, we aren’t even-handedly enforcing our own rules, which undermines the rights of all members of our community to use our spaces in a fair and equitable manner. While I can sympathize with some of the messages being communicated by the protesters on the Auraria campus, that campus–which is governed largely by a council separate from the CU system–has a clear rule that camping is not allowed, and that rule applies to everyone no matter the message. The Auraria campus council and CU Denver were right to enforce their own rules and regulations, and I’m grateful they were able to accomplish that without the need to involve law enforcement. I hope every day for a peaceful resolution to the
conflict in the Middle East.
How should the regents weigh competing needs for funding in the university including professor salaries, corporate-backed research, football and basketball programs, and even smallish expenditures like the Gateway Canyons retreat? Will you be looking at the increasing use of adjunct professors who have little incentive to stay with the University?
This is the most complicated issue we face in higher education in Colorado, especially in a state where we have TABOR and therefore limits on what our state can do to fund our colleges and universities on par with other states. As regents, our main task is passing the budget and, as part of that, making value judgments about how we spend our dollars. I would prioritize people-focused spending that focuses on reducing the cost of an education at CU while also paying our people what they deserve. At the end of the day, we are an education institution and the flagship university system in Colorado, and we need a budget that reflects that core function. The athletics department is a separate “auxiliary unit” of the university system that needs to stand on its own, so money that is budgeted for professor salaries or research or tuition relief should not be routed to athletics, nor can it under this system. I support a strong and accountable athletics program at all of our campuses, because I believe that our student-athletes are incredibly dedicated people who learn important leadership skills as part of the athletics experience, but ultimately they are student-athletes, and we need to remember that and ensure that all of our students get an excellent education at CU. As for adjuncts, I am fine with using adjuncts to provide instruction, but we need to treat them fairly and provide them with a path to promotion that hopefully keeps them in the university system for many years.
College is becoming more and more expensive. How will you, as regent address tuition, affordability and access to students from middle and low income families?
We need to make CU more affordable and accessible so that our scholars across Colorado can attend CU and get their degree without being burdened with debt. You should not have to mortgage your future to get a college education. Many students in Colorado and across the nation are opting out of attending college because they question the value of that path. That trend will continue if we do not make college more affordable. This is potentially existential for CU and other higher education institutions. It is several times more expensive to attend CU than it was when I graduated 20 years ago, and many students are opting out of college based on the sticker shock of what a degree will cost them. Many who do attend CU end up with significant debt, and Coloradans are collectively shouldering $29 billion in student debt. This is a problem not only for CU but for our whole state. The regents can help address this problem by keeping tuition in check and rolling up their sleeves to find ways to save our students money. For instance, we can prioritize building more affordable housing for our students; we can provide books and materials at lower cost based on need; and we can expand our advancement office to increase the size of funds for tuition relief. We have to do everything within our power to find creative ways to reduce the cost of an education at our university.
SB 24-131 restricted concealed carry permit holders from carrying firearms onto public college and university campuses. How will you as regent ensure that this is enforced and students remain safe from gun violence on campus?
When I launched my campaign in June 2023, one of my biggest priorities was to ban concealed carry on our campuses. No one needs a gun to attend or teach a class, and the presence of guns in classrooms is dangerous and disruptive. Sadly, the regents have dragged their feet on this issue for years and had their hand forced by the state legislature this past session through SB 24-131. Now that state law prohibits the possession of firearms on campus, we need to enact a policy that not only is consistent with state law but also that communicates our values as a university system on the issue of guns on campus and provides clear expectations about how this policy will be enforced. While the regents have officially changed their policy on guns to reflect SB 24-131, the policy merely cites to state law and says that CU will follow it, which is basically not having a policy at all. Not only that, some of our campuses have not even updated their websites to reflect this policy change, creating confusion for many in our system. Students attending our schools, and parents sending them there, need clarity on this issue, and I will fight hard as regent to ensure that we do.
Often, in a budget crunch, students find they cannot access required classes in order to graduate on time, how will you, as regent, ensure this problem is solved?
We need to expand access to dual or concurrent enrollment programs at CU, allowing high school students to take college courses early. This not only helps them get ahead on credit hours but also saves them money. Additionally, CU should be more flexible in honoring credits earned by community college graduates, so students don’t have to retake or add extra courses when they transfer to CU—something that can be both costly and discouraging. We should also collaborate with community colleges to establish a clear set of courses that CU will recognize for transfer students, ensuring a smoother, more affordable path to graduation. Moreover, we need to ensure access to affordable continuing education courses for students, which many students (including me) have taken in order to get necessary credits to graduate.