The seats of Regents Andrew
Richner (R) and Andrea Newman
(R) on the University of Michigan
Board of Regents are up for reelec-
tion this November. With Jordan
Acker (D) and Paul Brown (D) chal-
lenging the incumbent candidates
for a position on the Board, citizens
across the state will get the opportu-
nity to cast their ballots for who they
think should serve on the Univer-
sity’s governing board for another
eight years, as outlined in the Michi-
gan Constitution. This process of
electing governing boards applies
to Michigan State University and
Wayne State University as well.
Many other states appoint the
governing boards of their public
Universities and officials have long
debated with process is best — elec-
tion or appointment.
Michael
Traugott,
professor
emeritus of communication studies
and political science, explained how
the system functions.
“In the past, a larger proportion
of its the University’s budget came
from tax money appropriated by
the state legislature,” Traugott said.
“But it’s the money of taxpayers in
the state of Michigan that supports
the University, so it doesn’t seem
unreasonable to me that the quali-
fied residents of the state should be
able to vote for (the Regents).”
Regent Katherine White (D)
emphasized the historic aspect of
the election process for the regents,
noting the system is more resistant
to political change.
“Over the intervening 164 years,
this system of governance has held
the University of Michigan free
from untoward political interfer-
ence, and has guided the University
to its standing among the world’s
leading institutions of higher edu-
cation,” White wrote in an email
interview.
White also said the statewide
election of regents allows more
voices to be heard.
“Because registered voters in the
State of Michigan elect Regents,
every two years voters have an op-
portunity to have their voices heard
at the ballot box directly,” White
wrote. “Direct election of the Board
of Regents to all Michigan voters al-
lows for a lot of participation.”
Former Regent Philip Power,
who wrote an article following
MSU’s conflicts with its governing
board earlier this year, said there
are two general arguments for
and against the system. Power
said one of the benefits is the di-
rect connection of the citizens to
the University. On the other hand,
voters are much less informed.
“The argument against is that
candidates for these governing
boards are found way down the
ballot,” Power said. “And worse,
most people who vote at these
elections have no idea who these
candidates are, what their qualifi-
cations are or where they stand on
the issues.”
Traugott explained the term
“roll-off” that specifically applies
to the concept of voters being less
likely to vote farther down the
ballot.
“There is a phenomenon called
roll-off across the ballot where
the farther down you go people
don’t vote for these offices,” Trau-
gott said.
Power added in his experience
campaigning, there was a vast
population that he couldn’t reach.
“When I was running, there
were nine million people in the
state, now how does one candi-
date for a not very well-known
office way down on the voting bal-
lot manage to talk to nine and half
million?” Power said. “The short
answer is you don’t.”
White said that most voters
would have some relation to the
University because of its influence
as an employer and institution.
“The University of Michigan is
one of the top-five employers in the
State of Michigan, has an outstand-
ing Health System ranked in the
top five nationally, and has about
63,000 students across the three
campuses,” White wrote. “Thus, all
people in the State of Michigan have
a stake in and have a relationship to
University of Michigan.”
LSA sophomore Michael Briggs
has been encouraging other stu-
dents to register to vote. Briggs
co-produced a non-partisan video
series with the Washtenaw County
government with steps on register-
ing. Last gubernatorial election in
2014, 17.4 percent of the voting age
population turned out to vote, a de-
crease from 21.9 percent in 2010.
Briggs said he emphasizes being
an informed voter to the students
he reaches out to, giving them re-
sources and ways to become more
informed.
“I always refer students to michi-
gan.gov/vote and remind them to
research every candidate and issue
on their ballot,” Briggs wrote in an
email interview. “I’m often asked
by students about specific offices,
such as regents. When this happens,
I give the information I have and
encourage students to do research
independently about all the candi-
dates.”
This election system, many re-
gent campaigns are addressing is-
sues that would impact students
and recent grauduates such as in-
creasing tuition rates, accessibility,
health care, economic impacts of
University projects and more.
Traugott said lack of information
is one of the contributing factors to
roll-off.
2A — Friday, October 12, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
TUESDAY:
By Design
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Behind the Story
WEDNESDAY:
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MONDAY:
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BE HIND THE STORY
QUOTE OF THE WE E K
“
You should know that one neighbor spent nine months
constantly, and I mean daily, dealing with city, University police and
Greek life entities before one of these party houses set up by members of
a banned fraternity was shut down. This is a real problem. Others in this
neighborhood must constantly deal with trash, public drunkenness, loud
music and other violations of city ordinances. Oversight of these groups
is not done at the national level despite the claims of their attorneys.
Oversight by the University and the Office of Greek Life does not seem
to make much difference.”
Peter Nagourney, the co-chair for the North Burns Park Association and neighbor to several Greek life houses
Every Friday, one Daily news staffer will give a behind the scenes
look at one of this week’s stories. This week, LSA junior Julia Ford
looked into how voter registration initiatives are switching gears
now that voter registration day has passed.
“I’m from Pennsylvania so I didn’t really think about what it’s like to
vote in Michigan and I assumed that it was very similar and one of the
things we can do in Pennsylvania and many a lot of different states
is just use an absentee ballot whenever you need so I’m doing that
but in Michigan, you can’t vote for the first time with an absentee
ballot which I found very interesting. It makes more sense as to why
more voter registration initiatives are necessary in order for students
to be able to vote and to know what they need to do to get to the
polls … I think it’s important that people do go to the ballots knowing
who they’re voting for and why they want to vote for them. I think
it’s important that organizations on campus care about providing
information that’s unbiased and I think we do have some great
organizations doing that so students of any political affiliation can vote
for who they believe in based on facts and good information.”
Julia Ford: ‘U’, student orgs shift into voter education”
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