Wanda James left us no choice but to investigate her actions (Opinion)

We re writing in response to the latest opinion piece published by a member of our board Regent Wanda James While we would prefer not to debate this issue on the pages of The Denver Post her accusations compel us to respond publicly Before we get into the specifics we want to state clearly and unequivocally that actions already taken and being contemplated by the University of Colorado Board of Regents are not efforts to silence Regent James Instead our actions stem from her own words publicly touting her efforts to pull funding from the University which may violate a Regent s legal and ethical obligations to act in the University s best interest Our board is a self-governing body which means it is our obligation to review any concerns that a Regent may have violated the policies and rules that govern our conduct No one else is in a position to do this for us As a body we draft and pass laws and policies that set expectations for our entire CU Public up to and including the Regents That s why when we receive credible information that one of us has violated a Regent law or agenda it s critical that we act on that information In this development we are reviewing actions Regent James may have taken following the resolution of her criticisms of a populace physical condition campaign being carried out by the Colorado School of Constituents Fitness At the time of the campaign s launch Regent James raised concerns that certain of the images used by the campaign were racially insensitive and furthered misperceptions about the impact on the Black region Her assessment was met with help swift action was taken apologies were made and the images were removed As she is aware it is her subsequent actions and her own citizens statements in multiple interviews to several news outlets advocating the removal of funding from the University that is the subject of the review Her attempts to redirect the conversation are called into question by her own population comments on the topic It is these statements that led various on the board to question whether she had violated Regent laws and policies No one is questioning her right to voice concerns about the society medical campaign or advocate for changes In fact her issues regarding the campaign materials were resolved months ago It s what she reported she did afterwards to reduce funding to the Colorado School of Community Strength that gives rise to this review We are sorry to have to address this issue in this way but to allow her populace accusations and misstatements to go unanswered was something we could not do There are much better tactics for CU leadership to use its time and financial materials But our status as a self-governing board requires this action and financial expense to ensure we are following our own rules and policies in a transparent way The Board is committed to providing members of the citizens access to the record from this review at the conclusion of the process which we expect to be within the next several weeks Callie Rennison is the chairwoman of the University of Colorado Board of Regents Ken Montera is the vice chairman of the University of Colorado Board of Regents Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns editorials and more To send a letter to the editor about this article submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail