Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am Elizabeth Hoffman, President of the University of Colorado, a four-campus university system.

I want to thank the ranking minority member, Congresswoman Schakowsky, Congresswoman DeGette from my home state of Colorado, and the other members of the Subcommittee for giving me the opportunity to speak on this important topic. I especially want to thank Congressman Udall, whose district includes the University of Colorado Boulder Campus, as well as Congressman McInnis and Congressman Beauprez who are accompanying me today.

I would like to begin by sharing a few facts about our university with the Subcommittee.

The CU-Boulder campus is a community of 29,000 students, most of whom are between the ages of 18 and 23, and an outstanding faculty and staff of over 7,200.

We have a great academic history.

We are dedicated to providing a superior education and opportunities for personal growth and development for our students.

Three Nobel Prize winners, and seven MacArthur Genius Award winners are current or recent CU faculty members.

Among public universities, we are ranked fifth in the nation by the National Science Foundation and first in the nation by NASA.

Seventeen CU graduates have flown in space as astronauts.A survey just published in The Economist ranked CU Boulder the 11th best public university in the world.

We are building a new state-of-the-art Health Sciences Center at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Base in Aurora, Colorado. The overwhelming majority of our students are intelligent, responsible, ethical men and women who care deeply about each other and their university.

They want and expect a first-rate education.

But recently, the outstanding achievements of our students, faculty, and staff have been overshadowed by very troubling allegations about our football program.

Among other things, there are allegations that sex and alcohol may have been used to recruit athletes.

At the present time, some of these matters are the subject of a criminal investigation by the Colorado Attorney General and some are the subject of private civil litigation pending against the University.

As of today, no criminal charges have been filed, and there have been no findings in any court.

We do not yet know all the facts about these allegations.

Much of the evidence involves issues of privacy and confidentiality, and in a number of instances the evidence is conflicting.

Nonetheless, I want to assure the Subcommittee that we take these allegations extremely seriously and that we are moving rapidly and responsibly to address the situation.

We will do everything in our power to find out what happened and to take the appropriate corrective steps.

Let me tell you some of the steps we have already taken:

1. At my urging, the Board of Regents established an Independent Investigative Committee to examine the allegations related to recruiting and our athletic culture. Committee members include, among others, two former Colorado Supreme Court justices, two former legislators, a former prosecutor, and victims’ assistance experts.
2. We strongly supported the Governor’s naming of the Colorado Attorney General as a Special Prosecutor to investigate allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
3. We appointed Dr. John DiBiaggio, a nationally renowned expert in athletic reform -- and former president of three distinguished universities – to examine our athletic department policies, practices, management and operations and make recommendations for improvement.
4. We placed the Head Football Coach on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of these investigations.
5. We have intensified our ongoing review of our policies and procedures, not just with regard to the football program and recruiting, but also with regard to alcohol abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault on campus.
6. Last week, we announced what we believe to be the nation’s most stringent set of policies and practices in Division 1A football recruiting.

The new policies and procedures are in addition to the standards of conduct currently in place – rules that already exceed those required by the NCAA.

We believe that eliminating unsupervised time on campus, eliminating student hosts, imposing an 11 PM curfew, and reducing the total time of the visit from the two days allowed by the NCAA to one day will provide an enhanced level of oversight.

We will not tolerate sexual harassment or exploitation in our athletic department or anywhere in the University.

We are determined to restore confidence in the University of Colorado’s ability to create an exemplary athletic and campus culture.

We are determined to have a high level of oversight and accountability in our football program and athletic department.

As we learn more from the ongoing investigations, we will take swift and decisive action, as appropriate.

As painful as this experience has been, we view it as an opportunity to set the standard for athletic recruiting and campus culture.

Our vision is to become a national leader for a culture of personal respect and responsibility in our football and athletic programs and throughout the campus.Again, I want to thank the Subcommittee for offering me this opportunity.

I am happy to respond to any questions you may have.