Henrietta Hay's Column

Gene Nichol doesn't get it -- yet. And I don't think he should be in the United Senate until he does. Considering the static I take all the time from my Republican friends, I do hesitate to oppose a fellow-Democrat, but since Nichol is running in next month's primary on the Democratic ticket, I guess I'm going to have to do it.

I never heard of him until he became famous back in January, 1994 on the campus of the University of Colorado. There are two newspaper photos, which will always be firmly engraved on my brain. One of them is that row of grim white males in pin stripe suits sitting in judgment on Anita Hill. The other is closer home. It is the picture of a row of white male deans in shirtsleeves, sitting on the floor in a crowded meeting room and passing judgment on Judith Albino, University president. There is something about a row of entrenched males confronting a single embattled female -- for whatever reason -- that makes most women, including me, very angry. And now one of those deans, Gene Nichol, wants to be a United States Senator. . It is a picture he can't live down and one I can't forget.

Lest you have forgotten, early in 1994 a group of seven deans and a vice-chancellor at the University of Colorado led a revolt to force the removal of the president of the University. Judith Albino was the first woman to become president , and they tried to shoot her down before she got her furniture unpacked. By sheer coincidence (if you are interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge), the deans were entrenched members of the Boulder old boy network and the president was female. One of the members of the revolutionary cadre, one of the guys sitting on the floor at that infamous meeting, was Gene Nichol, the Dean of the Law School.

Writing of that Boulder meeting in the Denver Post, Carolyn Schomp said far better than I could, "The outrageousness, it seems to me, has been perpetrated by a bunch of spoiled little boys who don't like taking orders from a girl. And now they're throwing a tantrum in hopes that the teacher (the regents and the legislature) will take their side."

The power play the good old boys started continued until the regents finally bought out her contract. Nichol was one of the main players. It was a nasty chapter in the history of the university, and Gene Nichol has to accept his share of the blame.

Now that he is running for the Senate, he would like to erase those years. He says that it is in his best interest to keep the controversy from becoming an issue.

It certainly would be, but a lot of us haven't forgotten it. He should have quit while he was ahead.

In a gesture not unlike Phyllis Schafley asking Gloria Steinem for a contribution to the Eagle Forum, Gene asked Judith for a contribution to his Senatorial campaign. Eventually, according to the Denver post report, he told her that, "...he would be forced to say things that would 'hurt' her if his role in seeking her resignation at C. U. became a campaign issue. 'And the only way I can see around that is if you make a contribution to my campaign.'" He added the suggestion that she should pre-date the check so that her contribution would appear on his financial report to the FEC.

At that Albino said, "The word that crossed my mind after that conversation was blackmail."

Although he denied that it was an attempt at blackmail, he did say, quite accurately, that the request to back-date the check was, "wrong and boneheaded." I'll certainly agree with that and we already have enough boneheads in the Senate.

Gene didn't get it then. The record shows that he still has problems with powerful women. There are eight of them in the Senate now. Is he is quite ready for them?

A lot of Coloradans are going to carry that news picture of the deans and the president into the voting booth with them on the 13th.