Midterm elections are approaching in the state of Michigan. While some statewide races, like for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, have garnered national attention, others have comparatively slid under the radar.
In an unusual quirk of electoral politics, voters in Michigan are able to vote for the governing boards of major public universities in statewide elections. Members of the University of Michigan Board of Regents, Michigan State University Board of Trustees, and the Wayne State University Board of Governors serve uncompensated for eight-year terms, and are elected two at a time in staggered, two-year cycles.
As part of a series of candidate profiles for the state’s three publicly elected university boards, Michigan Public sat down with the Democratic and Republican candidates for MSU’s Board of Trustees to discuss their campaigns, platforms, and hopes for the future of the university.
The Democratic Party has nominated incumbent trustees Kelly Tebay Zemke and Brianna Scott for reelection. Tebay Zemke is the director of government and external relations for the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. Scott is an attorney, operating her own firm out of Muskegon, and is the current chair of the board.
The Republican Party has nominated Roger Victory and Julie Maday as its candidates for the board. Victory is a farmer from Hudsonville who has served as a state Senator since 2019. Maday is a former member of the Novi City Council. She ran for trustee in 2024, and lost by less than 5,000 votes.
The candidates from each party are not running as a ticket in the traditional sense. Voters can select up to two candidates for trustee, but may also vote for fewer, and are able to vote for two candidates from different political parties if they wish.
Divisiveness and Ethics on the MSU Board
This year’s board election takes place in the shadow of several years of infighting among the current board. This culminated in May, when MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz nearly left his post for Clemson University despite a $1 million pay raise, citing frustration with the board’s division. He decided to stay after receiving support from MSU community members and donors, but the saga has nevertheless damaged public confidence in the trustees.
“As a board, we've done a lot of introspection on what we feel our role is,” Scott said. “I think at least the majority of the board feels the same on what our role is and our responsibilities. And for those that don't, we now have implemented a process in which we can hold people accountable.”
That process is a revised code of ethics, which emphasizes loyalty to the university and bans trustees from dissenting against majority board decisions after they have been made. Current trustees Rema Vassar and Mike Balow have refused to sign the code, and are joined by the two Republican candidates, who believe it is overly restrictive.
“This goes too far,” Maday said. “This is an infringement on free speech. A duty of loyalty is not why we are elected to this board.”
“Our job is to make sure that Michigan State is going to survive for another hundred years,” Tebay Zemke said. “Continuing to undermine the administration and the president, who we have entrusted to do their job, is not helpful to the university.”
Affordability and Funding
Scott and Tebay Zemke are both campaigning on the Spartan Tuition Advantage, which covers the tuition of in-state students from families making $75,000 a year or less. The program was implemented during their term, as was a multiyear tuition freeze in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think we did a lot,” Tebay Zemke said. “But I think obviously there's a lot more that needs to be done in that space, too. I'm hoping we can increase that cap for families, but then also include living spaces as well.”
Maday and Victory are more focused on stemming MSU’s current $12 million budget deficit, which officials said largely originates from cuts in state appropriations passed by the Republican-led state House of Representatives over the summer.
The Republican candidates argue that MSU must cut wasteful spending and work to align with the priorities of state legislators.
“I have good working relationships with legislators,” Victory said. “I understand what their perspective is. And if Michigan State is not in line with its role, the legislators are going to say, ‘why are we funding MSU?’”
Scott describes this approach as “not acceptable.” The Democratic candidates instead want to lobby the Legislature to reform state university funding to a per-student basis, similar to K-12 education, and aggressively advocate in favor of MSU more generally. In lieu of a sympathetic state House, they hope to substantially grow MSU’s endowment by pursuing donor funds.
The candidates also seek to highlight a variety of other issues. Drawing on his farming background, Victory feels very strongly about MSU’s role as a leader in state agriculture, and wants to increase its involvement in food research and programs like 4-H.
“When you go to the supermarket, you're buying that fresh produce, and you want to make sure it's safe for your family consumption,” Victory said. “MSU is behind that, and we’ve got to make sure that they continue to step up to that and bring on those opportunities.”
Culture Wars
The two Democratic candidates initially campaigned in 2018 on a platform of reforming MSU’s response to sexual assault in the wake of scandal surrounding the arrest of Larry Nassar, a convicted serial sex offender who abused hundreds while working as a physician at MSU.
The board continues to face criticism for its handling of sexual assault reporting, and was sued by Nassar survivors in 2023 due to its handling of documents pertaining to his case, but Tebay Zemke is proud of the reforms that have been implemented during her tenure.
“We've made a lot of improvements in the office that houses the reporting for relationship violence and sexual misconduct,” Tebay Zemke said. “There's still more work to be done, but I'm really proud of some of the things that we were able to accomplish.”
Maday has highlighted conservative culture war talking points in her campaign. She opposes "cancel culture" and wants to keep transgender women from participating in women’s sports at MSU, a subject she thinks is under-discussed at the university.
“I'm not going to lie, I don't have the solution for how we deal with trans athletes,” Maday said. “But I think the reason we don't have a solution is because nobody wants to talk about it.”
There were zero transgender athletes in any of MSU’s varsity programs this summer when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bans on transgender athlete bans at public schools and colleges are constitutional.
The incumbent trustees are proud of the various buildings and amenities that have been built on campus during their tenure. Scott is particularly proud of the university’s new multicultural center, which opened last year.
“It is a beautiful building,” Scott said. “It looks like a green Rubik's cube in the center of campus, and it is the heartbeat on campus. It's always full of students.”
