Curt Williams

Regent candidate Curt Williams is going into Saturday's 2nd Congressional District Assembly extremely confident in his qualifications for the position.

"I've been with the university as a professional for more than a decade," said Williams. "I've been in the classroom as an instructor, and I've had the opportunity to help develop curriculum with the Multicultural Writing and Rhetoric program. I'm there right now working in the libraries, and I help faculty, staff, students and community members with research needs."

Williams has bachelor's degrees from CU in English and Journalism and a master's in English. Today, he is the Circulation and Media Services Director for the CU Libraries Access Services Division.

During his campaign, Williams has emphasized what he calls the "Three A's" of Affordability, Access and Academics. But on the affordability front, the sitting regents recently voted to allow increases in tuition rates and student fees, and Williams has a different idea.

"I am pledging that if elected, I will vote against any proposed increase in tuition or fees during my first term, until we as a greater community come together on finding real solutions to meeting not only the needs of educating our current students, but future generations," wrote Williams in an e-mail.

He said Tuesday that it will be important for CU to find other sources of funding if tuition and fees don't go up, but also said CU must offer detailed information about its needs during the process.

For example, Williams said if the university needs money for capital construction it should work with the state Legislature towards crafting precise solutions, as opposed for asking for a "blank check" or a "blanket" tuition and fee increase.

"I think if we target what we're trying to fund, we can go to the state and probably more readily go to the public and say, 'This is a tangible need - help us," said Williams. "Let's don't put it on the students, let's don't put it on our families -this is a shared expense, and that's where I'm going with this."

He offered mixed reviews of the higher education-related performance of the 2008 Legislature. For example, Gov. Bill Ritter has championed a possible ballot initiative that would increase severance taxes - or taxes on oil, gas or mineral extraction.

A significant portion of the severance tax money would go towards higher education scholarships, but Williams said the initiative wouldn't address what would happen to overall higher ed funding after the 2005 Ref. C five year Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) "time-out" sunsets. He also said he was disappointed that the Legislature didn't create a "rainy day" fund for higher education.

Williams said Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff took a "good step" in proposing a referendum that would remove TABOR refund requirements and mandated inflationary K-12 spending increases under the 2002 state Amendment 23.

The would-be TABOR refunds would instead go to a state education fund, while potential A-23 savings might free up money in the state's General Fund - a major source of higher ed funding.

But Romanoff pulled the measure after finding that he probably didn't have enough votes in the Legislature. A similar citizen initiative might still be on the 2008 ballot, but Williams said it was "unfortunate" that the Legislature couldn't come together on the issue.

"Even some Republicans acknowledge that there's an entanglement here and it impacts all aspects of our community and how we meet our communal needs -not just higher education, but everything," said Williams.

Going into Saturday's assembly, Williams said there has been no polling yet so there will be some "drama" surrounding the results -but he said he has heard some feedback from the delegates who will be voting.

"The general response pretty much across the board is, 'You're obviously the person who's best for the job because of experience,'" said Williams. "You're on the ground, you know what's going on all the time, and you've got parental concern because you've got kids."

Contact Richard Valenty about this story at (303) 443-6272 ext. 126, or at valenty@coloradodaily.com.