Six candidates are running for two eight-year seats on the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents in the Nov. 3 midterm election.
Democrat and incumbent regent Paul Brown graduated with a master's from U-M and his J.D. from Wayne State University. He was appointed by President Joe Biden to the U.S. Treasury’s Small Business Administration Lending Advisory Council.
Brown says he wants to improve access to education; diversity, education and inclusion initiatives; and academic independence. He says the university needs to be more transparent in matters like the Los Alamos National Laboratory research computing center.
“I think we are violating our core responsibility as a public institution. That is to listen to the public and, when possible, to do what the public wants us to do.”
Brown says he has expanded the Go Blue Guarantee. He has been involved in 12 lawsuits challenging President Trump’s actions threatening higher education.
Lena Epstein is a Republican and fourth-generation U-M graduate. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Harvard University and a master of business administration degree from U-M. She is a co-owner of Vesco Oil Corporation, one of the state’s leading women-owned businesses.
Epstein wants to build on the Go Blue Guarantee and believes more in-state applicants should attend U-M. She also says she favors stronger university-business ties and research partnerships with Israel and, like Brown, protect university research from federal funding threats.
“My goal is to offer collaborative consensus-style leadership, so that, as a board, we are working as effectively as we can with each other, and as we interface with entities like the federal government.”
Epstein says she also wants to combat antisemitism.
Kyle Maas is running under the U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan. He graduated high school at 10 and started college at 12. He believes students should get a return on investment in higher education and more opportunities with the advancement of AI.
“But also protection of First Amendment rights, and, in particular, I tend to think that we have lost a lot of our skill in civil discourse, which is causing a lot of the social problems on campus.”
Maas says education should include civil discourse as a topic in the curriculum.
The three other candidates for the Board of Regents are Republican Michael Schostak, Democrat Amir Makled and Libertarian Andrew Chadderdon. They did not respond to WEMU’s requests for comment on this story.
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