The president of the University of Colorado resigned yesterday in the wake of a series of public relations debacles at the school, including a contentious debate over a faculty member who disparaged the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In a letter to the school’s board of regents, Elizabeth Hoffman referred to the controversy over the inflammatory writings of an ethnic studies professor, Ward Churchill. However, she also cited several other issues that have roiled the university, including budget shortfalls and an upcoming civil trial stemming from claims that the school’s football program used sex and alcohol to lure recruits.

“It has become clear to me that, amid the serious matters the University of Colorado now confronts, my role as the leader of the university has become an issue,” Ms. Hoffman wrote. “It appears to me it is in the university’s best interest that I remove the issue of my future from the debate so that nothing inhibits C.U.’s ability to successfully create the bright future it so deserves.”

The school came under intense national attention in January after it was disclosed that the then-chairman of the university’s ethnic studies department, Mr. Churchill, had written an essay calling the victims of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks “little Eichmanns,” referring to a Nazi who masterminded the holocaust, Adolf Eichmann.

After those comments were publicized by conservative television and radio programs, officials at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., canceled an appearance by Mr. Churchill, citing death threats and security concerns. Governor Pataki and Governor Owens of Colorado, along with other public officials, called for Mr. Churchill to be fired.

The University of Colorado set up a review board to examine Mr. Churchill’s writings. Some, including Ms. Hoffman, said it would be difficult to fire the tenured professor for his comments, but that if the review found he misrepresented his credentials, he might be dismissed.

One of Mr. Churchill’s leading critics, David Horowitz, said he welcomed Ms. Hoffman’s departure. “I think it’s a good thing she’s had to resign. She should have been removed,” he said.

Mr. Horowitz, a proponent of legislation aimed at discouraging ideological indoctrination by professors, said Ms. Hoffman had known about Mr. Churchill’s “Eichmann” writing for three years but did nothing about it.

“She did what most university presidents do, which is to put her head in the sand,” Mr. Horowitz said. “The problem is Churchill is not an anomaly.”

The chairman of the education committee in the Colorado House of Representatives, Michael Merrifield, said he believes that the storm surrounding Mr. Churchill played a significant role in Ms. Hoffman’s decision to step down.

“I’m sure the Ward Churchill crisis had a lot to do with it, but it wasn’t the only crisis that’s been occurring,” said Mr. Merrifield, a Democrat. “The stories constantly focusing on the negative were bringing down the reputation of C.U. and President Hoffman. I think she probably made the right decision, but I’m sorry she had to do it.”

In an interview published on the Web site of the Denver Post, Mr. Churchill came to Ms. Hoffman’s defense.

“It’s both a tragedy and a travesty. I think the woman has, under the circumstances that have been imposed by the political realities of the state, done an absolutely amazing job under extraordinary pressure,” the embattled professor said. “She has been…working to defend the principle of academic integrity in the face of almost stonewall opposition to the idea that quite a range of viewpoints are deserving of articulation.”

The executive director of the Boulder-based Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, David Longanacker, said the two biggest storms swirling around the campus have been sexual abuse allegations aimed at the football program and a running political battle over the school’s budget. “Both led to tensions between the Legislature, the governor, and the University of Colorado,” he said.

Mr. Longanacker said the high-profile flap over Mr. Churchill’s comments was a problem the school just didn’t need. “Particularly in a state with a number of ongoing controversies, that one was the piece de la resistance,” he said.

Last week, a grand jury report about the football recruiting scandal was leaked to a television station. The report alleged that two female trainers claimed they were assaulted by an assistant coach. Allegations of financial impropriety in the report prompted the university’s semiofficial fund-raising arm, the Colorado Foundation, to file a libel suit against a local television station. The group also threatened to sue the state’s attorney general and a deputy for “negligence.”

There is no indication that Ms. Hoffman had anything to do with the foundation’s unusually aggressive public relations stance. However, the episodes may have contributed to a sense that the school was hurtling out of control. On Friday, the Denver Post called for Ms. Hoffman’s resignation. Some politicians began to make similar suggestions.

In an interview, Ms. Hoffman said those salvos did not play a role in her decision. “It was not prompted by the editorial, not prompted by pressure from the governor,” she said.

The chairman of the state board of regents, Jerry Rutledge, said support for Ms. Hoffman had begun to erode. “It was apparent to both of us that her support had been waning for some time,” he said. “It has become clear to many in the C.U. family that our university…has suffered greatly from a series of controversies that seem to be growing, not abating.”

“The way things have moved over the last weeks and months, the president has become the focal point,” said another regent, Thomas Lucero. “What she did today speaks very highly of her, putting the university ahead of her personal ambitions.”

Ms. Hoffman, 58, holds doctorates in both economics and history. Prior to taking the Colorado post, she was the provost of the University of Illinois at Chicago.