August 4, 2005
By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News
August 5, 2005
"It will haunt me for the rest of my life"
Hoffman admits to mistakes on football scandal, deposition
Former University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman said Thursday she made mistakes in her handling of the school's football recruiting debacle and warned leaders they must adapt to an exploding media climate that moves faster than public officials can react.
Hoffman, speaking publicly for the first time since leaving the job last week, told the Denver Forum civic group that she listened too closely to lawyers - and not enough to public relations experts - as the sex-booze-and-football crisis unfolded in early 2004.
She said she also regretted giving a deposition on a Saturday morning when she was exhausted, a move that led to one of her biggest gaffes, in which she agreed that use of the "C-word," in reference to women, was vulgar, but also said she had heard it described as a term of endearment.
The deposition last summer was part of a major lawsuit against the university in which three women alleged they were raped by football players or recruits. The case was recently thrown out of federal court.
"I will never again do the second day of a deposition on a Saturday morning when I was exhausted - and the only reason to do it was to get me to say something dumb," Hoffman said. "I allowed myself to say something dumb . . . I allowed myself to get rattled and get angry.
"It will haunt me for the rest of my life."
The pressures at CU became overwhelming, with what Hoffman called "a perfect storm" of controversy that included the rape lawsuit, an essay by ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill in which he compared Sept. 11 victims to an infamous Nazi bureaucrat, and the struggle to secure sufficient state funding for the school.
It became impossible to keep various interest groups happy, Hoffman said, in large part because - with so many major decisions strung so closely together - people would forget about actions that may have pleased them and seize on the ones that didn't.
Hoffman, who weathered 18 months of relentless coverage, warned that many leaders in the public and private sector "are unprepared for how rapidly the media is changing," and cited talk radio and TV and Internet Web logs, or blogs, as part of a dizzying network that moves too fast for story subjects to get out their side on an issue.
Officials and institutions "are tried and convicted in an instant," she said.
She cited blogs in particular for changing the civic landscape. Ten minutes after one blogger posted the first report on Churchill's Sept. 11 comments, people were calling Gov. Bill Owens, demanding he order Hoffman to fire Churchill, she said.
But Hoffman emphasized that there's little anyone can do to change the ballooning number of media outlets and opinion mongers. She urged leaders to adapt, rather than simply lament the changing landscape.
Hoffman said she hoped to put the rugged experience of the past two years to good use, but wasn't sure yet what she wanted to do beyond her immediate plans to teach public affairs at CU.
Whether she becomes a university president again, writes a book or shares her recent experiences with other leaders, she has yet to decide.
"Out of every crisis comes opportunity," she said. "Everything bad that happens you step back and say, 'What have I learned from this experience?' "
hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5048
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