While his authority as president extends only to CU, the former Republican U.S. senator's statewide credibility makes him a major player in any discussion of ways to restore massive budget cuts to higher education of recent years.
His stumping in 2005 is widely credited for the passage of Referendum C, a fundraising measure that helped higher education and other agencies.
"He is such an extraordinary individual, universally respected, thoughtful approach. You never hear him overstating a situation," said Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, the vice chairman of the legislature's Joint Budget Committee.
Brown's announcement this week comes as legislators and higher education officials begin discussing long-term funding strategies.
Brown said he will continue to be part of that discussion during his remaining year as president. But he's not promising to stump for a plan that emerges as he did in 2005. And it may be years before higher education is ready to go to the voters, he said.
Others said they expect Brown to jump in when the time is right.
"I'm just confident, in one place or another, Hank Brown's going to be involved and will continue to exhibit his real concern about funding for the state," Buescher said, adding, "I don't think we'll let him stay out of it."
Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, who represents many CU faculty and staff, said he thinks Brown will want to be involved.
"He went to CU and he loves CU," said Pommer, also a member of the JBC. "He seems like the kind of guy who's going to be engaged in what happens in Colorado until the day he dies."
Regent Cindy Carlisle said Brown has already had an impact, alerting people to higher education's financial troubles.
"People get it now, that we need some dramatic changes if we are going to keep the kind of quality that we have had, and he has been instrumental in helping us present that," Carlisle said.
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