BOULDER, Colo. -- The University of Colorado, which has a national reputation as a leftist hotbed thanks to Ward Churchill, is looking to hire a professor who goes against the liberal grain.

Leaders at the University of Colorado Boulder are trying to raise the money to create a $9 million endowment to fund the Visiting Chair in Conservative Thought and Policy.

Now that the presidential elections are over, CU's College Democrats are focusing to campaign against it.

"The entire concept of a Visiting Chair in Conservative Thought and Policy politicizes academics in a way that is contrary to the university's mission," said senior Jesse Jensen, president of the College Democrats.

"By endowing a chair in one specific political ideology, we are not promoting intellectual diversity -- we are tokenizing a point of view that should be presented in all classes on political thought."

Republican and CU Regent Tom Lucero agrees that hiring a conservative professor would be a "token" move and a bad idea.

Lucero said a Conservative Thought Chair in Boulder would be like an animal at the zoo -- a curiousity that draws spectators but doesn't create real dialogue.

"We need real ideological diversity on Boulder campus and not going to happen with just one professor who is isolated. This is not a token conservative," said Lucero, a CU Regent for the 4th Congressional District.

CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said endowed chairs are nothing new in the realm of academic instruction, and the Visiting Chair in Conservative Thought and Policy has been discussed on campus for years and has received support from a wide spectrum of faculty members and administrators.

Hilliard said they're looking for a conservative scholar -- not a conservative activist. But opponents say it's a slippery slope.

Jensen said creating a conservative thought professor doesn't seem right.

"The hiring of Bruce Bensen was political and now were seeing the results of that," Jensen said.

CU Chancellor Bud Peterson started raising funds for the Conservative Thought Chair last year to fill a gap in campus curriculum.

"This is someone who has expertise in the area of conservative thought and policy, which is a legitimate, scholarly and academic pursuit," Peterson said.

CU has only has raised $575,000 in private funds toward the $9 million goal, according to the Colorado Daily newspaper.

CU created national headlines when former professor Ward Churchill made his name claiming the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks provoked them.

"I think the idea behind this chair is that this university has lots and lots of liberals and not a lot of conservatives conservatives," said political science Professor Ken Bickers.