Mark Kennedy received two starkly different welcomes to the University of Colorado on Monday: a congenial town hall with CU administrators and fundraisers, and an intense roundtable that saw faculty from all four campuses asking tough questions of the sole finalist to lead the state’s largest university system.

Kennedy, making the first of a weeklong string of public appearances, started his first engagement of the afternoon by telling the crowd gathered inside Denver’s Warwick Hotel that he grew up picking strawberries and washing dishes at a bakery and was the first boy in his family to go to college.

He ended the evening by explaining to a room full of CU faculty — who already have publicly expressed disappointment and concern over the presidential search process and his nomination — that, despite the controversy currently surrounding him, his presidency would not be “a liability” to the university.

“None of the beliefs that have caused much of the controversy are going to have any impact,” said Kennedy, whose votes against gay marriage and in favor of abortion restrictions as a Minnesota congressman in the early 2000s have drawn protest in some quarters.

“And (those beliefs) are largely irrelevant to what the president does. … I would hope I could gain your trust, respect and support and have that strong working relationship because faculty are the heart of any university.”

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Kennedy, the president of the University of North Dakota, kicked off the Denver town hall assuring the crowd of his ability to lead multi-billion-dollar organizations, his strength in working in a bipartisan way and “checking his politics at the door” — a phrase he brought up multiple times throughout the afternoon and evening.

In his second event of the day, held at the CU system offices down the street from the hotel, Faculty Council Chair Joanne Addison questioned Kennedy’s ability to leave his politics out of university decision-making.

Addison asked Kennedy if, while president at the University of North Dakota, he had signed “the Pomona letter,” which she explained as a letter that hundreds of college presidents — including outgoing CU President Bruce Benson — signed affirming support for undocumented students.

Kennedy admitted he did not know what it was.

Addison said UND had not signed the letter, and Kennedy clarified that “North Dakota has different sensibilities.”

“We don’t have many, if any, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students at UND,” Kennedy said. “Do you do it just because 700 presidents are doing it or do you do it because it’s important to our university?”

Addison asked Kennedy: “Wouldn’t it be important if there was even one DACA student?”

Kennedy said he didn’t believe there were any at UND.

“I asked two or three times if we had any DACA students, and nobody identified any,” Kennedy said.

Robert Ferry, of the Boulder Faculty Assembly, later told The Denver Post he was concerned about the things Kennedy didn’t seem to know about his own university.

“Compared to us, UND is not large,” Ferry said. “And there were just things he didn’t seem to know about his own campus that I thought he should know.”

Similarly, Addison pushed Kennedy on why he did not make any statements to his campus following federal proposals to change the definition of gender in a way that could be harmful to LGBTQ students, noting CU stated its commitment to the LGBTQ community.

“If I made a statement every time President Trump or someone else made a statement I thought was negative to its university, I’d be making a lot of statements,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy told attendees of both the town hall event and the faculty council that he fully supported DACA and LGBTQ students. He said it would be easier to speak out on these issues in Colorado, where the legislature he would need to work with would support him, rather than in “a pro-Trump” state like North Dakota.

Mark Kennedy’s University of Colorado visitation schedule CU Colorado Springs: 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, University Center, Room 116, 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado Springs

1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, University Center, Room 116, 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado Springs CU Anschutz: 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Education 2 South, Room 1102, 13120 E. 19th Ave., Aurora

3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Education 2 South, Room 1102, 13120 E. 19th Ave., Aurora CU Denver: 3 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Lola & Rob Salazar Student Wellness Center, 1355 12th St., Denver

3 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Lola & Rob Salazar Student Wellness Center, 1355 12th St., Denver CU Boulder: 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. Friday, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder

Addison later told The Denver Post that she was concerned about Kennedy’s “unwillingness” to be a leader in diversity and inclusion issues given Kennedy’s “swaying in the wind” on political issues.

During the town hall, CU Board of Regents Chair Sue Sharkey, R-Castle Rock, asked a couple pre-submitted questions, which was followed by audience members stepping up to ask a few of their own.

Responding to a question about his ability to raise funds, Kennedy said that ensuring a university has a strong alumni outreach program is the first step in good fundraising and that making sure fundraising doesn’t solely rest with him is important.

“I enjoy fundraising,” Kennedy said. “Politically, nobody has made more money for my side of the aisle in Minnesota since I left politics. … I look forward to spending a very significant slice of my time fundraising.”

If the CU regents vote to confirm Kennedy as president, he said increasing the amount of students who graduate would be a top priority for him along with advancing CU’s online education, reaching out to first-generation college students, tackling affordability, getting to know the CU Board of Regents and listening to the concerns of the campus communities.

“I’m a little uncomfortable being asked all these questions of what I would do before I’m able to listen to everyone,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy also said he thought the questions surrounding his congressional record were “unfair.”

After critics began calling out that record, particularly his stance on marriage equality, Kennedy wrote in an open statement to the community that his views on gay marriage have “evolved.”

When a transgender person at the town hall audience asked Kennedy to name specific examples of what he has done to support or promote LGBTQ diversity at North Dakota, Kennedy said increasing programming and staff, mentorship and awards ceremonies for people on campus “doing the most” to support the community.

Later in the town hall, Kennedy addressed his voting record, again.

“I’m not running for Congress,” Kennedy said. “What’s applicable? When you look at what I’m going to be focusing on… I’m going to be focusing on fundraising, I’m going to be focusing on reaching out to the legislature, I’m going to be focused on building a strategic plan. That’s the questions we really ought to be focusing on.”

Chris Bentley, 64, is the father of a CU student and serves on several boards on the Boulder campus. Bentley came to the first Denver forum because he said was “really unhappy” with Kennedy’s nomination and wanted to hear what the sole finalist had to say.

After the town hall, Bentley said he planned to attend Friday’s open forum on the Boulder campus to see if hearing more from the candidate would change his opinion. Kennedy will be holding town halls on the rest of the CU campuses all week.

“I think he was very well-rehearsed,” Bentley said. “He was aware of the questions that would be coming his way. It’ll be an interesting week ahead, that’s for sure.”

Updated 10 a.m. April 23, 2019 This article has been updated to reflect the University of Colorado’s adjusted location for its presidential forum on the Anschutz campus on Wednesday and its adjusted time and location for its forum on the Denver campus on Thursday.