Given that I have commented widely on the Churchill business at CU, I figure I ought to weigh in on the resignation of CU President Elizabeth Hoffman. I actually don’t think that the Churchill situation really had all that much to do with her decision, but rather the ongoing football scandal is undoubtedly the catalyst:

Just last week, a grand jury said two female trainers alleged they were sexually assaulted by an assistant coach and that a “slush fund” was created with money from coach Gary Barnett’s football camp, according to a report leaked to the media.

The grand jury, which finished meeting Aug. 19, handed up a single indictment accusing a former football recruiting aide of soliciting a prostitute for himself and misusing a school-issued cell phone.

The Churchill thing simply adds to the university’s PR problems, and therefore to Hoffman’s general difficulties. I don’t think anyone should construe this resignation as some sort of triumph in the Churchill siutation–rather, this is about a remarkable set of problems in the football program (and other issues), something that would be in the direct responsibility of the university president, while the situation with Churchill would not be.

Bryan S. at Arguing with Signposts comments as well and righlty notes:

as is often the case in the business world when a company starts going south - the leader should probably step aside as part of the clean-up process.

The Rocky Mountain News has the details of a bad week for Hoffman (Hoffman steps down from CU presidency):

Hoffman’s resignation followed a disastrous week in which just about everything that could go wrong did for the embattled president.

It began last Monday, when 9News broadcast the sordid details of a leaked grand jury report produced by a panel of citizens last summer investigating allegations that CU used booze and sex to lure star football players to the school.

The secret document, according to 9News, included previously unreported allegations that student female trainers were sexually assaulted by an assistant coach and harassed by players and recruits demanding sexual favors.

Media coverage of the grand jury findings dominated the news until Wednesday, when Hoffman called a news conference at the Capitol in hopes of rallying support for the school, asking critics, including Owens, to meet with her and discuss their concerns firsthand.

But that message was all but lost when Hoffman abruptly ended the news briefing, walking out with several regents and administrators in tow after a series of tough questions not about her message, but about her handling of the football scandal.

As reporters shouted that they had more questions for her, a lone regent - Michael Carrigan - was left behind to face some two dozen journalists shouting questions, including asking if Hoffman’s refusal to face hostile questioning indicated a problem with CU’s leadership.

That evening, Hoffman enjoyed one of her few bright moments in recent days - celebrating popular CU women’s basketball coach Ceal Barry’s last home game.

But Thursday, speaking to about 40 members of the CU-Boulder Faculty Assembly, Hoffman fired up her critics again. During an impassioned defense of academic freedom, she warned professors about a “new McCarthyism,” referring to blacklisting of people in the 1950s in a movement led by U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.

Critics lashed back at Hoffman, indignant that she would compare their criticism of Ward Churchill and his likening of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to an infamous Nazi and his purported calls for violent overthrow of the U.S. government to McCarthyism.

“I can point to two bright shining moments where (Hoffman) made a fool of herself,” said KHOW radio legal analyst Craig Silverman. “It was Wednesday when she held that abortive press conference, which was a waste of gasoline for everybody who drove there to cover it.

“Then, Thursday when she talked about a new McCarthy era, I would have liked to have asked her if she was talking about Charlie McCarthy, since it was such a ‘dummy’ statement to make,” he said.

And, then there’s:

Also looming over Hoffman’s week were a lawsuit filed by the CU Foundation, the school’s $780 million fund-raising arm, against 9News, and a notice of intent to sue the state attorney general’s office, alleging that both have mischaracterized the foundation’s actions.

It would seem also that there were some issues of the state budget and tuition hikes.

Indeed, if one reads the entire piece (and notes the timeline at the end) in the News as well as this companion piece, one will come to the obvious conclusion that Churchill had really very little to do with her decision.