A look at the university board races on the ballot in Michigan

This election season, voters across the state will fill two seats on the leadership boards of Michigan’s three largest universities, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.

The state constitution gives statewide elected boards general supervision over each institution’s finances, as well as over the hiring of top university positions — including its president. Each board’s eight members serve staggered eight-year terms, with candidates nominated at party conventions.

Wayne State University Board of Governors

Incumbents Mark Gaffney and Michael Busuito are running to keep seats that expire in January.

Gaffney is a Democratic nominee. He’s a retired Teamster and former president of the Michigan AFL-CIO. He teaches in Wayne State’s labor program.

He says he’s proud of the work the board has done during his tenure and wants to continue that work.

“We want to continue to raise the graduation rates,” Gaffney said. “We want to increase the diversity. We want to be more welcoming to all kinds of students, and we want to better market the wonderful news about Wayne State University.”

Gaffney points to Wayne State’s status among research universities and says he wants to make sure it’s accessible to students who face both economic and academic challenges.

He says all students should feel they have a place and a voice at the university, adding that recent student protests around the conflict in Gaza and university investments have challenged the university to strike a balance between sometimes competing viewpoints.

Suzanne Roehrig, the Working Class Party nominee, says she visited the pro-Palestinian student encampment on campus in the spring and feels the university should work harder to protect student rights.

Roehrig says she was eight months pregnant when she started at Wayne State, making it difficult to juggle the responsibilities of single parenting and school work. Roehrig studied education and library science and has worked as a teacher and librarian in Detroit and Ferndale.

She says her education came at a financial cost, and believes college should be free.

“In the wealthiest country in the world, there is more than enough money to make this a reality,” Roehrig said. “The working class produces what is needed to run our society. They have a right to a free education.”

Rasha Demshkieh, the other Democratic candidate in the race, came to the U.S. from Syria when she was 19 years old. She is an alumna of Wayne State’s pharmacy school; served on the Port Huron Area School District board for 13 years; and served for eight years on the Michigan Civil Rights Commission.

Demashkieh says she’d like to see the diversity of Wayne State’s student body and faculty reflected on the board, and wants the university be a bigger part of the cultural and economic development in Detroit.

“I wanted to be a part of being able to push in that direction where we provide different opportunities to our students,” Demashkieh said. “When you provide them with a good job that helps the economy of Michigan… we want our students to stay in the area.”

Republican businessman and Wayne State Alumnus Sunny Reddy is also on the ballot, along with Farid Ishac from the Libertarian Party, William Mohr from the U.S. Taxpayers Party, Sami Makhoul from the Green Party, and Kathleen Oakford from the Natural Law Party.

Voter Guide: Learn more about the candidates running for WSU Board of Governors.

Michigan State University Board of Trustees

There are no incumbents running to keep their seats on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees this election cycle. Eight candidates are vying for the two spots left vacant by outgoing board members Democrat Dianne Byrum and Republican Dan Kelly, whose terms expire in January.

Rebecca Bahar Cook, a 1992 MSU graduate and parent of two Spartans, is the Democratic Party nominee. She’s worked for several political campaigns and served on the Ingham County Commission and on nonprofit and public boards. She says one of her big concerns is the cost of tuition.

“Michigan State was founded to be the university for ordinary, everyday Michiganders who want a higher education,” Bahar Cook told WDET. “I think there has to be sort of a recommitment to keeping college affordable.”

Mike Balow says he has probably been to every board meeting for the past four years. The Republican candidate jokes some people call him the “ninth trustee.”

“Michigan State’s had its own very public and particular set of challenges over the last decade,” Balow said. “I became very dissatisfied that the administration there and the board was dealing with the problems in an open, honest, transparent and forthright way.”

Balow says the university’s handling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal and its survivors was “abhorrent.” And he also says tuition is too high.

Green Party candidate John Anthony La Pietra says the party believes college should be free.

Though not a former Spartan himself, he took a training there when he was preparing to teach English as a second language in Japan decades ago — and he says he later joined protests on campus against the war in Iraq. He wants to make the university a place he would be happy to send his own young daughters one day.

La Pietra suspects he’s pretty different from current and typical board members.

“I am someone who is independent of the big money or big influence that seems to be prevalent on University Board,” he said. “It’s almost like legacy positions in some ways.”

La Pietra says the university has handled recent student protests poorly and that he opposes the way students were “punished.”

Democrat Thomas Stallworth III says he was politically active when he was a student at MSU and thinks it’s important to provide students space for that.

Stallworth served two terms in the state House. He says MSU helped him find his talents and led him to a successful life and career.

He says he’s concerned that recent crises have caused conflict among board members. He hopes to bring some stability to the body.

“We’re at a point in time where we really need to learn from the experiences that we’ve had,” Stallworth said. “The Nassar incident, the shooting on campus, the firing of the football coach… These are all occurrences that have resulted in significant, traumatizing experiences for students, staff and the state. We need to be focused on understanding how we can perform better.”

Julie Maday is also on the ballot for the Republican Party, along with third-party candidates Janet Sanger and John Paul Sanger of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, and Grant T Baker, representing the Libertarian Party.

Voter Guide: Learn more about the candidates running for MSU Board of Trustees

University of Michigan Board of Regents

Republican candidate Carl Meyers has run for the U-M Board of Regents several times before. He says with six of the eight current members being Democrats, it’s hard for Republicans to win a space on the board.

Meyers says one of his concerns is how expensive a U-M education is, and how much debt students and families take on to fund it.

“My mission is to increase access to the university system by controlling costs, which will increase diversity,” Meyers told WDET. “If the University of Michigan is something made up of the Uber wealthy, it’s a bad thing.”

Democrat Denise Ilitch is the only incumbent running for reelection. Ilitch has held her seat since 2008, and says she has been “laser focused” on affordability. The program that makes tuition free to most families in the state was created while she served on the board.

She says her work on the board has also included advocating for an independent office to report sexual misconduct.

Ilitch says when students complained that it was hard to get mental health services on campus she advocated for the expansion of Counseling and Psychological Services.

“I have advocated for putting more resources towards that so that students can see therapists and counselors much quicker, particularly if they have an emergency or crisis on hand,” Ilitch said.

Republican Sevag Vartanian graduated from Michigan in 1991. His son graduated from the school last year. He says to lower tuition, the university will have to have different priorities.

“It’s got a huge budget, especially with the medical system,” Vartanian said. “We really need to look at what is essential to the student experience and what is not. And you have to make hard decisions, and you have to cut programs that don’t have a positive net present value return on them.”

Vartanian also says the university has too few spots for Michigan residents, relying on higher out-of-state tuitions to fund its projects. He points to the Ross School of Business expansion planned for California.

There are six candidates running for two Regent spots that expire in January.

Other candidates in the race include Democrat Shauna Ryder Diggs, Libertarian Andrew Chadderdon and Donna Oetman of the U.S. Taxpayers Party.

Voter Guide: Learn more about the candidates running for U-M Board of Regents.

The general election is taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. For the latest election information, visit WDET’s Voter Guide at wdet.org/voterguide.