Leadership is not about titles. It is about judgment, values, and loyalty to the people who put you in office. By that standard, Regents Ken Montera and Callie Rennison have failed the University of Colorado and the voters they were elected to serve.<\/p>\n
In 2020, for the first time in 42 years, Colorado voters delivered Democratic control of the University of Colorado Board of Regents. That result was not accidental or symbolic. It was a clear mandate. Voters expected Democratic leadership rooted in Colorado values like transparency, inclusion, and accountability. They did not vote to hand control back to Republicans.<\/p>\n
However, CU Regent Callie Rennison chose to undermine that mandate when she sent an email to the entire board explicitly signaling that she would vote against a Democrat leading the Regents as chair and hand control of the board to Republican Ken Montera.<\/p>\n
The email told board members, who elect their own leadership every January, that Montera would run for chair and she would run for vice chair.<\/p>\n
She aligned herself with Montera, a Republican from one of the most extreme MAGA districts in the state, deliberately engineering a power structure that transfers control of a Democratic board to the GOP. Montera is positioned to lead and herself retaining power as vice chair.<\/p>\n
Voters did not elect a Democrat to empower MAGA Republicans. Through procedural maneuvering, Rennison chose personal power over public trust. A lame duck who is not seeking reelection, she faces no electoral accountability, making her actions especially reckless. Leadership without accountability is not stewardship. It is an abuse of power.<\/p>\n
Regent Montera has shown no ability to lead a diverse, statewide public university. He comes from a district where voters are openly hostile to diversity, equity, and inclusion, at a time when the national Republican agenda is actively dismantling those values. Montera has never spoken out against the MAGA movement.<\/p>\n
Colorado\u2019s Latino students are the largest demographic group under the age of 22. CU Denver and CU Anschutz are federally designated Hispanic Serving Institutions. Leadership that dismisses or undermines inclusion inflicts real harm on students, faculty, and staff.<\/p>\n
Together, Rennison and Montera took a board once regarded as the most effective in CU history and turned it into one of the most racist boards in CU history. That shift did not happen because of outside pressure. It happened because of their choices.<\/p>\n
Those choices included censuring and sanctioning me<\/a>, a military veteran commissioned through CU Boulder, the only Black Regent, and the first Black woman to serve on the board in 43 years. My crime? Speaking out against racist tropes<\/a>.<\/p>\n