DENVER – On Wednesday afternoon, the University of Colorado Board of Regents will vote on censuring CU Regent Wanda James.
“Their allegations come back to the fact that somehow or another, speaking out against the university, or speaking out against this program somehow violated a fiduciary responsibility that I have to the university," James said. "However, I will say that my fiduciary responsibility to this university is to ensure that we do not put out racist and harmful images that are harmful."
James said the censure vote stems from an incident in December when a University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus anti-marijuana ad campaign used images of a dark-skinned Black man and baby experiencing the negative impacts of marijuana.
“None of the regents stood with me at all. The leadership was lukewarm. They took down the images, and then from there, it was over for a month," James said. "And then a month after that, the board chair and vice chair sent out a memo on me, and the memo was completely just not true, and that's what started this whole ball rolling."
After denouncing the images, James was then accused of talking to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis about defunding the campaign.
“Let me go on the record: I have not spoken to Gov. Polis about this issue at all," she told Denver7 on Tuesday. "I spoke to a person in his office who is in charge of cannabis for the state, and I spoke to that person after a number of people in the cannabis space alerted me to this and informed me as to where the money came from for this campaign. It was from the cannabis or the marijuana tax fund. By the time I had spoken to anybody in the governor's office, it was already made clear to me that the money had already been cut in November, three months before I'd even seen this campaign.”
James is a dispensary owner, and some the regents, fellow Democrats included, have accused James of using her influence to advocate for the removal of funding for the campaign because of the campaign’s potential to harm her business.
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According to James, she’s accused of violating several rules including conflict of interest and fiduciary responsibilities.
James has retained legal representation regarding the matter from Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC.
In a statement issued in March, CU Board of Regents Chair Callie Rennison and Vice Chair Ken Montera announced they requested an independent review of James’ conduct.
The statement reads in part: “As the Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Regents, we have requested an independent review of Regent Wanda James' recent efforts to eliminate certain state funding for the Colorado School of Public Health.”
The Chair and Vice Chair issued another statement in April which reads in part:
"We wanted to take a moment to provide an update on the independent review we requested on March 18, 2025. University Counsel's Office has hired outside counsel to perform the review and report back to the Board concerning any possible regent law or policy violations."
The results of that review have not been released yet.
James said more than $300,000 has been spent on the independent review.
A special meeting where the censure vote will take place is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
