AURORA | Tuition hikes at the University of Colorado may seem inevitable, but voters get a say by picking university regents, who oversee the president and CU bureaucracy.

Republican candidate Ken Montera, a businessman with executive experience in big brands, is motivated by his own experience as a working-class kid who attended CU Boulder.

Democratic counterpart Lesley Smith said her she’d bring an academic perspective based in her 30 years of teaching at CU Boulder.

The two are competing for an at-large seat on the board of nine regents, representing the entire state. The CU system includes campuses in Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, and the Anschutz medical campus in Aurora.

The election comes as CU President Bruce Benson will step down next summer, so the winner will have a role in choosing his replacement.

Montera is a retired business executive with experience at major brands like Johnson and Johnson and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

He said he is a third-generation Coloradan who grew up working-class in Pueblo. Montera received a scholarship to attend CU Boulder, and he credits that opportunity with jump-starting a passion for business and life.

“If it wouldn’t have been for CU, I wouldn’t have had the opportunities or the vision I had for myself,” Montera said.  “It opened my eyes on what was possible.”

After retiring from business, Montera moved back to Colorado and worked to establish endowments for working-class kids go attend CU.

“I’ve always believed in giving back to where you come from. Every Colorado kid deserves a great Colorado education, regardless of where you come from in life,” he said.

Cost is a big concern for him, given that the estimated total cost of two semesters in Boulder is over $28,000.

“So many parents are concerned about the inability to provide that for their children,” Montera said.

Lackluster funding from the state and federal government partially explains the funding gap. CU leadership has to look for private funding from endowments or corporations while raising tuition to bridge that funding gap.

Montera said lobbying the state government to restore funding is crucial, as is securing funds from private donors.

When Benson resigns next July, regents will pick his replacement. Montera said he would like to “eliminate preconceived notions of experience” and would cast his vote for someone with either academic, business, government experience, or a mixture of all three.

His priority is establishing an “overarching framework” based on student and faculty success, to cut through partisan bickering on the board.

“If we can get around that strategy, then we can get around the partisan divide that may exist,” Montera said.

Lesley Smith said she’s lived in Boulder for thirty years “as a CU scientist, CU educator, CU mom, and Colorado taxpayer.”

Smith joined CU Boulder in 1989 as a research fellow, and recently, worked to secure education grants for scientific research.

Smith said “CU is strong in many respects, but it faces big challenges,” and listed funding shortages, affordability and achievement gaps for “Black and Latino students.”

“I want to help CU reach its full potential, and I have the experience to make a difference on these issues,” Smith said.

“In my view, the next Board should have two priorities: hiring a top-notch President to lead the University into the next decade and bringing down tuition to make CU affordable,” Smith said. “Partisan bickering won’t help us achieve either.”

Smith said her experience on the Boulder Valley School District school board included collaboration with different stakeholders. She said that she’d work to soften partisan divisions on the Board of Regents while “holding the line on my values.”

On funding, Smith said that tuition increases are likely because of under-funding from the state, but she’d advocate for restoring funding to pre-recession levels.

“To slow tuition growth, I would like to see CU Boulder’s guaranteed tuition program, in which tuition stays constant during a student’s college career, implemented at the other three campuses,” Smith added.

To choose a replacement for Bruce Benson, Smith would look for candidates that have experience working in higher education systems who can secure public and private funding for CU.

Ken Montera

Montera is a third-generation Coloradan from Pueblo. He attended CU on a state-funded scholarship and went on to a 33 year career in corporate America, including high-ranking positions at Fortune 200 companies like Baxter, Pepsi, and Johnson & Johnson.

Lesley Smith

Smith holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, and conducted field research in a NOAA underwater research lab. She came in Boulder in 1989 as a research fellow. Recently, she worked to secure grants from the National Science Foundation for research institutions at CU. She has also served on the Boulder Valley School District school board.

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF LESLIE SMITH:

What food do you hate most? Corned beef

Do you indulge in recreational marijuana? Nope

Who would play you in a movie about your life? Meryl Streep

What Olympic sport do you wish you could win gold in? Tennis

What was your favorite childhood candy? Milk Duds, which to this day bring back memories of chomping them down at the movies.

If you could be an eyewitness to one event in history, what would it be? The fall of the Berlin Wall.

If the Secret Service gave you a code name, what would it be? Jaws

If you had to sing karaoke, what song would you sing? Car karaoke counts. She Blinded Me with Science by Thomas Dolby.

What epitaph would you like written on your tombstone? “Go where no woman has gone before.”

Is a hot dog a sandwich?  No way!

What is the last concert you attended?  Los Lobos

What movie do you never tire of watching?  West Side Story.

Dogs or cats? Dogs. I have a 100-pound bloodhound, Jackson, who does NOT like the letter carrier, but I try to be respectful and keep him quiet.

Candidate Ken Montera did not respond to these questions.