Is it weird to you too?
How, in Michigan, we vote for the people who oversee three of our public universities, and each university uses a different word for the same role? Regents for the University of Michigan (U of M), Trustees for Michigan State University (MSU), and Governors for Wayne State University (WSU).
When you vote this November, you’ll be asked to vote on two candidates for each of these three university boards.
Are we the only state to do this?
MSU Extension confirms in an article about Michigan’s university governance systems that Michigan is, in fact, “the only state to elect its boards for public universities via a statewide citizen vote.”
Three other states do have public elections for university boards, but MSU Extension notes the elections in those states are regional, not statewide.
But the weirdness to me is not just that we do this in Michigan, it’s that we only do it for three universities: U of M (including the Dearborn and Flint campuses), MSU and WSU.
Governing boards for the other 10 public universities in Michigan are appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the state Senate. This is a more common method in other states.
Ok, so why do we do it this way?
The history of university boards on our ballot.
Simple answer: We do it this way because it’s in the state Constitution.
Longer answer: It’s in the state Constitution because of something called Jacksonian democracy, at least according to Eric Lupher, president of the Citizens Research Council, who wrote about Michigan’s unique way of choosing university boards in 2018.
“Michigan’s propensity to rely on elections instead of appointment is lodged in Jacksonian democracy, which advanced the concept that the problem with government was the appointive status of government officials,” Lupher wrote. “It was hoped that the fragmentation of power and frequent turnover of officials would prevent the formation of a government aristocracy.”
Okay, fine, but why just three universities?
I honestly had trouble finding the answer to this question. Lupher called these three the “flagship” universities of the state, and I think most of us would accept U of M and MSU in that category. As for WSU, it does rank third in total student enrollment. But there have been times when Western Michigan University and Grand Valley State University ranked higher. And in terms of research status, Michigan Technological University is ranked as highly as WSU.
The real answer why WSU is included, as far as I can tell, is just that voters decided it should be. WSU originally formed as a municipal university, run by the Detroit Board of Education. It became a state university in 1956 and in 1959 voters passed a constitutional amendment to allow its board to be elected by popular vote.
Power to the people: Is it working?
Okay, so if the original reason why we had statewide elections for these boards is to keep the power close to the people, and prevent a government aristocracy, how is it going, really?
Well, not great, according to Lupher’s analysis:
“Candidates to the flagship university boards do not have to appeal to statewide electors to get on the ballot,” he continued. “Major political party candidates for U (of) M’s, MSU’s, and WSU’s governing boards are nominated at those parties’ conventions. The conventions are not open to the public. The candidates are often well connected party insiders that often have an affiliation with the universities and their major backers.”
Each party gets to decide who to put forward for the university boards, so if you don’t go to the party convention, you don’t get a say in who is nominated. You just get to choose on your ballot which party’s people you want to support.
Could this process ever change?
If you don’t like how Michigan handles university boards, you have a couple of options. The first option is to vote to change the state Constitution. Voters are being asked this year whether to call a constitutional convention, so if you’re really motivated, there’s one chance right there.
The second chance would be an amendment. This summer, two state legislators introduced a resolution that would have put an amendment before voters to change the process, and have all university boards appointed by the governor. It also called for primary elections for secretary of state and attorney general candidates. The resolution didn’t get enough support to appear on this year’s ballot, but the idea could come back if more people support it. If this is something you really care about, you could contact your state representative and see where they stand.
In the meantime, we’ll be voting on the candidates this year to fill two board seats each at U of M, MSU and WSU.
Do you need to vote for university regents or trustees?
Thanks to Jean for this question. I can't tell you whether you should vote or not, but I can tell you more about researching candidates for these seats. It would have been hard to do a few weeks ago, but now that the parties have held their conventions, we can at least see who they’ve nominated for the boards.
You can find the candidates if you scroll to the bottom of this page. And here’s our guide to tracking political donations, which may help you find out more about each candidate.
The U of M Faculty Senate is hosting a candidate forum September 24 to learn more about Regents candidates. If you hear of other forums for MSU or WSU, let us know about them!
We also got a question about how to recall people from a university governing board. These board members are subject to Michigan’s recall law, so recalling them is the same as any other recall effort in Michigan. The Michigan Secretary of State’s office has a lengthy guide to the recall process here.
We’ll be back next week with your guide to mail-in (or absentee) ballots.
See you then,
Dustin Dwyer, Reporter
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Today’s newsletter was written by Dustin Dwyer, produced by Kalloli Bhatt, and edited by Michelle Keller.
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