Denver ? University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman announced her resignation Monday amid pressure generated by sex and recruiting scandals at the Boulder campus’s athletic department and an uproar over comments by a professor who compared the Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi war criminal.

“A lot of these issues predate me, but at some point it doesn’t matter,” Hoffman said in an interview. “President Truman said the buck stops here, and it does. The events swirling around the university and questions about me have distracted us from dealing with other important issues.”

Hoffman’s leadership had come under increasing scrutiny as the problems at CU multiplied.

First were reports that the football program used alcohol, sex and strippers to lure recruits. Then a paper surfaced by Ward Churchill, an ethnic-studies professor, likening those killed in the World Trade Center attacks to Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann.

Last week, a leaked grand-jury report said two female trainers had accused an assistant football coach of sexually assaulting them. The report also said thousands of dollars from head coach Gary Barnett’s football camp were in a slush fund, stashed in 16 boxes around campus.

Jerry Rutledge, chairman of the CU board of regents, said Monday that Hoffman was not pushed out but had offered the resignation on her own.

“However, it has become clear to many in the CU family that our university … has suffered greatly from a series of controversies that seem to be growing, not abating,” Rutledge said during a news conference. “In my discussions with President Hoffman in recent days, it was apparent to both of us that her support had been waning for some time.”

Regent Patricia Hayes said Hoffman’s job had become almost impossible.

“I think all the regents realized she was in a lose-lose situation,” Hayes said. “Everything was focusing on her in a negative way. She was generous enough to resign.”

Satisfying the bloodlust?

The resignation — effective June 30 or whenever a replacement is found — comes at a crucial time for CU.

The university is expected this week to wrap up a monthlong investigation into Churchill’s writings and background. The professor’s claim to be an American Indian, the veracity of his scholarship and how he got tenure so quickly without a Ph.D. are being questioned.

Gov. Bill Owens has demanded that Churchill be fired. The college may announce its decision as early as today.

“I think there is a mentality that someone’s head has to roll for all of these troubles,” said David Lane, Churchill’s attorney. “Maybe this will satisfy that bloodlust.

“Hoffman has been a strong promoter of academic freedom and has borne the brunt of all these things that happened at CU, which she has no control over,” Lane said.

Churchill has vowed to sue the university system if he is dismissed.

Throughout the fall, problems swirled around CU’s football program. Barnett — who said he’d like to refute the grand-jury report but is not legally allowed to discuss the investigation — was suspended briefly for derogatory comments he made about female kicker Katie Hnida, who said she was sexually assaulted while at CU. In November, CU Athletics Director Dick Tharp resigned.

All the negative attention, regents said, has taken a toll. Out-of-state applications are down 19 percent.

‘Dangerous times’

Critics said Hoffman, 58, failed to act boldly — for example, ignoring calls to fire Barnett and others in the athletics department.

“It appears she acted on some really bad advice from her attorneys and the regents,” said Peggy Lamm, who served as co-chairwoman of an independent panel appointed to examine the recruiting scandal. “When we offered our report, I thought it would prompt them to take a hard look and do some serious housecleaning — and they didn’t.”

Hoffman balked at demands that Churchill be fired. In a speech Thursday, she warned of “dangerous times” and a new “McCarthyism,” where people saying unpopular things were being targeted.

As the criticism increased, Hoffman said Monday, it became harder for her to advocate on behalf of CU.

“The most important issue facing us is the fiscal health of the university,” she said. “Ward Churchill has been a very large distraction in the last month, at a time when I need to put together a budget for higher education that will at least stop us from falling backward.”