Voters will decide Nov. 8 who will serve in two open seats on the University of Michigan Board of Regents in the wake of former President Mark Schlissel's resignation and the aftermath of controversy about the university's handling of sexual misconduct issues.
Governing board members of UM, along with Michigan State University and Wayne State University, are elected by the public to serve eight-year terms, per the state's constitution.
Those who clinch the seats at UM will serve as a new era begins under President Santa Ono, who began his term on Oct. 14, and as the university is working to reform its culture following numerous sexual assault scandals including those that involved former Provost Martin Philbert and the late physician Robert Anderson.
On the ballot are incumbent Democrats Kathy White and Michael Behm, and Republican challengers Lena Epstein and Sevag Vartanian. The board has a 6-2 Democratic majority and traditionally has tended to be dominated by Democratic candidates.
Also in the race are Libertarian candidate Eric Larson of Williamsburg; US Taxpayers candidate Joe Sanger of Lansing; Green party candidate Sherry Wells of Ferndale; and Natural Law candidate Kathleen Oakford of Farmington Hills. Libertarian candidate James Lewis Hudler was disqualified.
'We must keep UM affordable'
White of Ann Arbor is the longest serving regent, first elected in 1998, then reelected in 2006 and 2014.
White is a law professor at Wayne State University and the only regent to serve in the military. She is a brigadier general in the Army National Guard, serving as the deputy commander of the 46th Military Police Command in Lansing. She said she has other experiences and a perspective that are not represented on the board, including being the only regent who is a union member, having an engineering or science degree and being a former college athlete.
The most important issues to White are maintaining a high-quality education at UM at an affordable price.
"Quality education is central to America's ability to remain globally competitive," White said in a statement."UM must engage in public/private partnerships to continue building bridges between education, science, industry and government to create synergies to improve the quality of higher education. UM is well-positioned to continue to translate knowledge to solve problems of general public interest tomeet societal needs.Most importantly, we must keep UM affordable to enable students from all backgrounds, with different perspectives, to enrich the academic environment and develop empathy, whichoften instills the courage to stand up and do the right thing."
She noted that during her tenure, UM passed the Go Blue Guarantee, a scholarship program providing free tuition to students from families with incomes less than $65,000 and assets below $50,000.
"To address affordability issues facing veterans and military members,I spearheaded the move to become part of the Yellow Ribbon Program and offer all veterans, reserve components, and active duty servicemembers in-state tuition so they can take full advantage of their Veterans Benefits and maximize funding levels," White said. "I will continue and expand on efforts to keep the University of Michigan affordable at all three campuses."
'Offer balance to the board'
Epstein, an Oakland County businesswoman and former U.S. House candidate from Bloomfield Township, wants to serve as a regent because she said the board has "lost balance" and "is lopsided right now in terms of leadership." She was nominated by the Michigan GOP.
"My goal is to offer balance to the board," Epstein said.
Her top priorities are to lower tuition, increase opportunities for more in-state students to attend UM and protect free speech on campus.
"I would be a very collaborative and outspoken member of the board," said Epstein. "I will work closely with all members of the board to effectuate positive change. I feel very responsible to Michigan taxpayers."
She said inflation is "out of control" and hindering families from getting a post-secondary education.
"It is more important than ever that we find a solution to (tuition) increases so a college degree is affordable and attainable," Epstein said.
Transparency around sexual misconduct is paramount, she added.
"I will also be a voice for those who have gone unheard at the University of Michigan for too long," Epstein said. "When it comes issues of sexual abuse, silence from leaders on the Board of Regents will not be tolerated. I will speak out when necessary, stand up even when it's unpopular and make decisions as if its my own daughter that's being."
Epstein also has launched a campaign for the university to recognize the famed "Fab Five" men's basketball players and restore their 1992 and 1993 Final Four NCAA playoff banners inside Crisler Center.
The 1991 basketball recruiting class that featured Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson reached the NCAA championship game in both 1992 and 1993. But their '92 and '93 Final Four banners were removed from Crisler Arena in 2002 after a scandal came to light involving Webber and others accepting money from former booster Ed Martin. Epstein argued that this controversy has eroded since current NCAA rules now allow college athletes to financially benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) after a Supreme Court ruling.
A focus on 'building trust'
Behm is the other incumbent, first elected in 2014. He is an attorney from Grand Blanc.
He said when he first campaigned, the top concern was college affordability. During his eight-year term, UM has remained "an incredible value," with Money magazine this year ranking it No. 1 among the nation's colleges for value. He said UM has also implemented the Go Blue Guarantee, extended it to the college's Flint and Dearborn campuses, increased financial aid for students and remained below the cost of its competitors. But he said he would not stop at continuing the work to make UM an affordable education.
"You can't stop and rest on your laurels," Behm said. "You need to constantly look for ways to keep tuition affordable."
He said he pushed for the minimum wage to be increased to at least $15 an hour for every employee on campus, above the state mandate wage of $9.87. If reelected, he would lobby for more shared services on campus in a newly instituted program that will require a review of all university costs.
Other key UM issues, Behm said, are accountability and addressing sexual misconduct in the wake of Philbert, Anderson and other faculty members who left the university under a cloud of accusations.
He said numerous policies have been implemented, along with creating an independent ethics and compliance office that will report to regents and the president in work aimed at changing the culture.
"This really goes toward building trust," said Behm. "After those things happened, there was justifiably a lack of trust. We wanted to solve those problems, be up front, be as transparent as possible. But now working on creating an environment of mutual respect and accountability, free of retaliation."
'Liberal bias on campus' a concern
Vartanian, a financial adviser based in Novi, is a newcomer to the UM board race. He said he is concerned about "the liberal bias on campus."
There was a time when everyone just did their own thing on campus, Vartanian said.
"Now it seems a little more openly hostile towards people who are conservatives," Vartanian said. "When the school is not inclusive for all Michiganders, I take issue with it. When people don't feel comfortable expressing themselves, that is the first step towards going against academic freedom."
He said he is also concerned that only about half of students on campus are from Michigan.
"For me as a taxpayer, that is a problem," saidVartanian. "We subsidized the school with our tax dollars ... and we are exporting our best talent. ... I’d like to see the percentage of in-state students go up."
Vartanian is also concerned with UM's "bloated" budget and the university's policies, especially the March announcement that UM would be shifting its portfolio of investments away from the largest businesses that generate fossil fuels andinvesting in those using renewable energy.
"If you are divesting your fossil fuel investments because they are bad investments, I don't have a problem with that," Vartanian said. "But if you are divesting fossil fuel investments because you don't like what the companies do, even though they offer a superior return, I think that is a breach of fiduciary responsibility."
"You can't exclude all the other investment opportunities out there to promote a political ideology."
kkozlowski@detroitnews.com
