.@fordschool - Candidate forum for the University of Michigan Board of R...

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Good afternoon everybody and welcome it's wonderful to have you here this afternoon I'm Susan Collins the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean here at the gerald r ford school of public policy and we've all been looking forward to this event this afternoon we're very honored that Susan Smith who is the president of the league of women voters of Michigan and she's also the moderator for today's program ask the Ford school to work together with the league to host this special event today the League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization which sponsors candidate forums to help raise policy awareness through education and advocacy and that really is an important service for our community and so we're delighted to be partnering with them i'd also like to acknowledge professor john chamberlain who helped to connect the league and the Ford school in addition it's my pleasure to recognize the student organizations that are assisting us and working with us today and in particular they are the domestic policy core the Rackham student government and the students of color and Rackham and so we're delighted to have representatives from each of those organizations here with us well of course today's event wouldn't be possible if our candidates were not willing to join us this afternoon and so it's wonderful to have Regent Kathy white ambassador Ron wiser rob steal and Mike beam thank you all for joining us we will be introducing you more fully in just a few moments so Susan Smith will do those introductions but i would like to remind our audience who are watching live on live web stream that you can tweet your questions into us please use the hashtag regions read I'm sorry regions form is the hashtag and for those of you who are in the audience you should have received cards they will be volunteers who will be coming down the aisles to collect your cards for the question part of the session which of course is so important and with that is my pleasure to turn things over to Susan Smith.
Thank You Dean Collins and good afternoon everybody and welcome the league is pleased to be having this opportunity to co-sponsor the forum along with the Ford school and student organizations the league is nonpartisan organization we do not support or oppose candidates or parties I would like to take just a minute to introduce the candidates and then i will explain the format we're going to be using this afternoon we have a mic beam first on my left.
Ron wiser I'm sorry start failed already robbed steel rod wiser and Kathy white they will have an opportunity each of them to make an opening remark and then we will have the questions and then at the end we will they will have an opportunity to make closing remarks the order in which they make the opening remarks and the closing remarks was predetermined by drawing from a hat before you all arrived we have timers hear from the league this afternoon to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to speak so 15 seconds before the time is up the league member will hold up that sign and then at the end the stop sign and after that hook comes up from the side and we drag him up.
I'm sure everybody will observe the time limit questions are important and I believe you were given cards when you came in.
Please fill them out and students will come around and pick those questions up and give them to our screening committee which is sitting down here in the front of the room the screening committee is made up of representatives from the league and the student organizations and the that's so that we can avoid duplication of of questions and as Dean Collins pointed out if you want to tweet your questions you can do so and those questions will also be submitted to the review committee.
We have an hour and 15 minutes i will ensure that the time limits are observed and i'm pleased them that we are going to begin the first opening statement with mr. Steele thank you all for the opportunity to be here at the Ford school and all the other groups that are helping to sponsor this along with illegal women women voters my name is dr. rob steal and I guess for my brief introduction here i'll just make the comment that when you look at the board of regents there's eight members and they all should bring different strengths and weaknesses so they can cover for each other and make sure that the University activities are covered my graduated from the university of michigan medical school when I was 23 years old serve 20 years on the faculty at the University in charge of a major rotation so very involved in medical education in my private practice out of st. Joe's helped found that practice three and twenty employees ran finance and benefit so I have some experience there and also we've been engaged in clinical research and I've been literally involved in dozens and dozens of research projects and since the budget at the university is six point nine billion in the health center is 3.6 billion i will bring an absolutely unique qualifications of the team there at the board.
Thank You mr. wiser.
My name is Ron wiser and I'm running for Regent i'm running for one term I'm running because i think i can make a difference i've been involved with the university since 1963 when I started school here in 25 years later I became heavily involved with the university i was able to help initiate three major programs and work perfectly on others and I'm happy to talk about that later on but I believe that I can make a difference i believe the biggest problem facing the university now is the unrelenting growth intuition and how that can be reduced without reducing the excellence and tradition of the university is one of the major problems that faced in the future and I think I bring the the qualifications to help the university help guide the University and finding solutions to that problem thank you okay thank you mr. beam hi everyone my name is mike beam I'd first like to thank encountered like to think Smith for moderating here today I'm an attorney my office's up in in flint in the middle part of the state i graduated from the university with a ba in english in 1989 I and graduated from wayne state in 1992 from law school in my 23 years as being an attorney I sort of found a lot of my practice on finding consensus with people in addition to being an attorney i founded I'm a chairperson of a group called business forward and basically what business forward does is takes local voices to michigan and from Michigan to Washington DC and let's Washington know our thoughts on how to increase our economical recovery I think that's important in a place like university of michigan with the Open Meetings Act I something we'll talk about how to bring more voices and also the top issue i'm sure we'll discuss is affordability and accessibility here at the University and so those I think would be my top two priorities I'm going to discuss them today thank you thank you Miss way thank you and i want to thank everyone who's put this together today it's a wonderful opportunity to speak to all of you my name is Kathy wide on the current chair of the University Mission Board of Regents and my top priority has always been to maintain and improve the educational and institutional quality at the University of Michigan on all three campuses and arbor flint and dearborn and with such quality education it is important to keep the University of Michigan affordable and as the relative amount of state funding has decreased policies to keep the University of Michigan affordable have to be in place and the reason why affordability is so important is because we have to have students from all different backgrounds with different perspectives who are in an environment that is an enriching academic.
Environment through which they can engage with each other and share ideas and during my tenure on the board the University of Michigan has increased financial aid commensurate with any tuition increase for in-state students thank you all right we'll turn then to the questions and the first person to answer will be mr. beam and here's the question what challenges will the University be facing in the next 10 years and how would you address them well i think first of all mentioned it its affordability and accessibility I I group those two items together because i think they go together when you talk about affordability and just look at things like what pell grants used to cover two and a half decades ago a Pell Grant covered roughly eighty percent of school for student and now at only twenty-five percent so i think one of the things that's occurred there's a study out two years ago that talks about in Michigan thirty-nine percent of students of college students at the universities public and private in Michigan received need-based loans but only thirteen percent here at the University of Michigan receive need-based loans.
I think that's reflective of two things the University not well it needs to increase the picture in the group of students that come here to Michigan to make an opportunity here and make a college education affordable so we're not when we graduate looking over our shoulders for fear of you know heading into bankruptcy the University produces students and the students should be able to move into the job market without looking over their shoulder so I think that's an extremely important issue here and there are a couple ways we need to go about it one that I would look at would be if we can't get more money from the state to look at loaning money to students from the University here thank you dr. Steele challenges and how would you address them i think we'll all agree that access and and affordability r2 i'll throw one in after I make a comment on affordable for building access that the one you want to compare whether or not it's affordable just look at a part-time job used to be when i was in school you could have a part-time job and pay for school.
That's obviously going by the wayside accessibility is a disaster for students from the state of Michigan forty-six percent of the students now from out-of-state state of Michigan taxpayers have invested billions and billions and billions of dollars we have students with perfect s80 scores from the state of Michigan are not accepted that's intolerable these students students leave the state they never returned state of Michigan has gotten older faster than Florida we have more people under age 40 leaving the state any other state in the Union so we need to make sure our qualified students get in portability will take care of a couple different ways for three years I've campaign on the great job that the administrators and donors like ambassador wiser done creating this an endowment to use the endowment as the bank for student loans rather than federal funds to help restrain tuition and align the interests of the donors the students the University and educational project product they received another big thing is this building's i know people who run a business no they don't close it for four months out of the year we should sell the tuition in the summertime cheaper we should get our students in on a cut rate discount tuition to get him through school faster with less debt and fewer housing costs and help reduce the help change the dynamic of the capital cost structure the university by using the building's 12 months out of 12 instead of eight.
Thank You mr. wiser well the question was what the problems are not necessarily solutions and I think there are many solutions to the issues that face the University and I believe that's what the responsibility of the region Cyrus to make sure that the university is adhering to its mission that the major strategies are in place to advance that mission and that the university's officers and Dean's and others in the faculty are in are heading towards that strategy and.
Making sure that that strategy is being utilized for the purpose of what the purposes for which they were intended once that can be done and accomplished then each of the challenges that all these two these two gentlemen have talked about and I believe that kathy will talk about can be addressed there are many many different ways to look at the affordability issue the budget of the University and we can talk about state of Michigan cuts but forgetting everything else it's grown so much more rapidly than inflation over the years it's made a huge difference in the lives of not just the students when they graduate with this heavy debt but with their families and that burden put on families to for students to afford to be able to come to this great university so solutions have to be found to that and there are many and I have literature out and look at my website I mean some of those are solutions but those are just ideas and in the end run it has to be the leadership of the University the president and the officers and the deans who are able to bring about the change that will be necessary and it won't be easy.
Thank you these white challenges over the next ten years how would you address them.
Well I think it's unanimous we often accessibility affordability in the near term and certainly out even 10 years is going to be the one of the greatest challenges what the board has done thus far on we have along with the administration we're raising a billion dollars in financial aid or scholarships and and fellowships for students we've already raised 440 million of that so I think we're on track to do that and hopefully we can do even more this endowment would of course the stain the ability to continue to provide financial aid at a higher level to make things more affordable for students also i'm a big proponent of trying to get veterans to be coming to our university as well on they provide a lot of different perspective and i spearheaded the move to have them get in-state tuition because sometimes they have a their benefits are tied to having in-state tuition want to make the place more accessible for veterans as well there's a lot of different ways in which we can continue to work on cost-cutting we caught 289 million to the base budget since 2004 and another hundred and twenty million r is going to be caught between the period of 2003-2007 2 2013 I'm sorry 2013-2017 another hundred twenty million and in the budget for this year is 24 million dollars in cuts to the base budget so on and the other to stop got me to some time yeah sorry thank you the first person to answer this question that the next question will be dr. Steele and it has to do with diversity.
What does I diverse you of them look like to you is that important how would your opinion on diversity frame your approach to being a region well certainly diversity is important that's been recognized by many different groups who studied higher education we also have to take into account the diversity means many different things we do know from the voters in the state various changes to the current constitution the Supreme Court has ruled that race-based aspects diversity it cannot be a sole determinant so that issue is is kind of directly out of our hands.
I agree with region white one of the things that I've campaigned on in to help improve diversity is to recruit Veterans on the GI Bill to get a more mature group of students a group of students that have discipline and have planning in there and in how they do things and I think that's critical there's no question that diversity encompasses many different things my my daughter is a freshman at the University of Chicago and during their orientation session they during their week-long orientation one of the one of the things they did in some of their various questionnaires was about people's attitudes and at the university of chicago there were six percent of the students that self identified them as conservatives and forty-seven percent that identified themselves as liberal so we we know we have an issue with diversity on that as well but we need to fix k through 12 if we want to improve the the.
Strong issue that we have with a affirmative action type diversity and one thing the University absolutely can do for this pool of students be far more aggressive with their grants and stipends we're competing against stanford and harvard and we have to be able to say to these few students who are available.
You're in and there's no cost attached Thank You mr. wiser given the constraints of the Constitution Michigan Constitution and the laws that are in place the university has to strive to find ways to have a diverse population of students here because it enhances the educational experience it creates greater opportunities for research and the interaction of research there's many many reasons why that's important finding a way to do that is really a charge of the regions and the executive officers diversity in economic background quite often can bring about diversity of other types and whether it's a poor family from the Upper Peninsula or a poor family from the city of Detroit or Flint or muskegon or lansing or ann arbor for that matter having the ability to bring not only bring students here in a way where they can afford this university and understand and their families understand they can afford this university but and and also to leave without a huge burden but also those students have to be brought here in a way where they can be if they are not adequately prepared because quite often the the backgrounds the less economic disadvantaged backgrounds means they don't have the educational background to succeed here or the environmental background we need to make sure that not only do we have diverse students but they have the opportunity to succeed here there's nothing worse than having a student come and then failed.
Alright thank you ms white as diversity is extremely important all types of diversity racial and ethnic diversity along with people with disabilities to on which I'm really focused on lately to make sure that we are including people with disabilities in our definition of diversity and socio-economic diversity is very important because when you are faced with learning in a classroom environment the way in which you can understand from other perspectives the challenges that are happening for other people on means that you're going to have a better ability to face and tackle ill structured problems that are very difficult to find solutions to and you want to start by having students learn early that people who are different from them can provide a perspective that they're not familiar with and so diversity is extremely important one way we have to continue to do a lot of diversity of course is making the University affordable which we've already talked about but also we are challenged with making sure we have enough outreach to to encourage students who are very well-qualified to come here that they can't afford it and that they should come here and this is an open place that is tolerant and is welcoming and wants to have the most talented students it can get at this university and so we need to continue to do more and I'm committed to do that Thank You mr. beam these two issues are intertwined affordability and accessibility and what I mean by that is if you cannot afford tuition then the university is not accessible to you also from a racial standpoint i believe if he took a picture of the state of michigan and the people in it.
This is a state university and the picture of the student body should reflect the state we need to improve that you know for example there's fourteen percent african-american population the state of Michigan there's four percent here at the University that needs to be fixed like everyone's talked about there are ways to go out this within the grants and greater decisions that's university now has to abide by the economic issue i mentioned those numbers about thirteen percent of the students here receiving need-based grants and 39 across the state that is a problem that needs to be fixed like everyone's mentioned you see these students i'm a big brother for example I have two little brothers who are in fifth grade they're absolutely smart enough to eventually come to school here but they don't have the tools and the they're not afforded the ability to get those tools and I think we really need to look into potential outreach programs from the University from the three branches I see the students that use them Frank quite often and they're looking forward to we're looking into an outreach program into the local students I think that's a way to prepare the students to attend school here Thank You mr. wiser you'll be first this time and the question has to do with sexual assaults what can Michigan do to improve its responses to sexual assaults on campus what policies would you support to change the culture on campus to help prevent sexual violence and to make our community safer for all students.
Well the policies have to be developed by a combination of the university leadership as well as the students together because i think the students themselves will have the best input as to what they feel they need in order to prevent this.
These horrendous acts from continuing and we know they're continuing we know the high percentages of of rapes and other types of aggressive behavior that have taken place on campus not just this campus but campuses across the United States so I believe it's the job of the regents of the university to encourage a dialogue between the executive leadership.
The deans the student student leadership to find solutions that will work for everyone.
I mean you can come up with different ideas but those are the tactics and quite frankly the regions are responsible for tactics they're responsible for making sure that the strategies that are necessary to accomplish this goal are in place and that the tactics that are necessary to fulfill those desires of the students and of their parents and of the university as a whole are being implemented so I I didn't give enacted I didn't give any answers is to specific things because I don't think that's the responsibility of a region i believe that has to come from a different place thank you ms way the problems of sexual assault on campuses across the country as well as on this campus is a very very serious matter and the policies in place have to be looked at constantly to make sure that they not only help with preventing sexual assault from happening again but also to make sure that there's education and there's a way for the students who have been assaulted and harmed by this to get counseling and are able to receive treatment also one of the things that is really important to help prevent these issues is bystander intervention and culture change on campus to make sure that people understand that it's all of our responsibility not just the individuals but all of our responsibility to help prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault from occurring in the region's their role is again as a master wiser said it's not to handle the tactics but it is to provide an environment where innovative ideas and support can come funding can come to help tackle these very difficult issues alcohol and drugs often are go inside with sexual violence and so we have to not only tackle the sexual assault issues but also dealing with some of the alcohol issues as well and that's part of the policy issues that the board would have to engage in thank you stream i think first and foremost the environment needs to change their cross college campuses this isn't a problem that's just you know here at U of M on campus it's across all college campuses and you can't ignore this problem i think too many times the survivor of the assault is made to feel ignored made to feel that they should be quiet and not pursue this the University first and foremost needs to put a plan together to protect the rights of the survivor of the assault in in the voice of that survivor needs to be heard I think once policy like that is put in place than the environment changes I and like everyone's mentioned policies need to go into place where things like that you would know beforehand what will occur i think too many times in this day and age people either consciously or subconsciously had the feeling that nothing will occur if something like this happens the assault the person who's making the assault feels as though not much will occur and the survivor after the assault feels that way the same that nothing will occur so why should they do something about it we do need to do something about it we need to address it bring it into the light and fix this problem Thank You doctors do with any major problem in the medical field you always need robust data you can make a decision until you have robust data and I think there is certainly an undercurrent concern over this issue there is a problem there is no question there's a problem but the raw data in that in the data involved in it in the true nature of the problem the scope of the problem and how the problem is to be dressed I is is clearly lacking the problems exploded since the recent famous may letter from the department office of civil rights Department of Justice Department of Education and clearly the response that many of these universities have been problematic you know that that incredible conservative Alan Dershowitz and Charles Ogletree just-published up an op-ed in the Boston newspaper castigating the Harvard policy which is almost identical to ours which they felt totally left the quote accused without any rights whatsoever so we have a difficult act here there is no question i think one way to help which may be a tactic i think there's no question i have a great concern about a canvas run campus reporting line of of reporting with campus police.
I think it causes the opportunity that maybe interests are aligned and that sometimes people don't want to report and certainly the administrators don't want to be reporting more certainly someone who's reporting a problem doesn't want to be reporting and I think the university's to look into hiring outside legal outside up enforcement whether the city county or state and get out of the business of having their own campus police force.
Alright thank you the next question first answered by ms white and has to do with including students in university decision-making in February 2011 the regents voted to delete the section quote-on-quote student input in a university decision-making from their bylaws in July 2013 the region's formed a presidential search Advisory Committee and did not include student representation on it as a region how will you solicit student input what will you do to better ensure students are a part of the university's decision making process and I actually had to do this so i do on deal with this because I'm on the board and was part of the decision not to put students on the presidential search Advisory Committee and had to work very well with the students to make sure that their input was heard our decision to do that was because we needed to keep the committee relatively small so it's manageable the week there were a lot of groups we didn't have on the search committee we had mainly and our faculty but we did work with the the president then Mike proppy was very helpful along with Bobby shell is the current president CSG they got a survey that was incredible that took into account all student views of what they were looking for in a president and i think we actually were able to find one that had a most of their concerns addressed and so what you have to do is to engage the students early on talk about how to make sure that their views do get heard talk with the student leaders and have them work out ways that we can do the outreach and staying constant contact and communication with the students the students will tell you exactly what they want just listen that's been my experience Thank You mr. bean i think this is a very important issue it goes hand-in-hand with the Open Meetings Act I issues that have come up this in the past and the litigation the summer i think there are some constitutional constraints here in michigan i do to the Constitution we have and how its created the boards and so you would need an amendment or constitutional convention many people say to add someone has a region that being the case and with how well our legislators get along with one another in lansing I don't know that that would occur so if i was voted in as a region.
I would regularly meet with students at the CSG wanted to put a group together to advise i would want to meet with them regularly i would also extend that to other issues that have come up from supporters of the athletic department faculty members also members i had to branch campuses.
I think they all have voices that need to be heard I mentioned my involvement with business forward because it's very similar to this sometimes you know we see politicians in Washington DC sort of act in a bubble I and not make informed decisions they need more voices it's the same here with the board the board here is more voices and interacts with more voices I think it'll make more informed decisions Thank You doctors to thank you Mike for that question.
Wherever you are sitting I was actually nominee for this position in the last election as well and one of my big issues at that time was what has now been proven to be a big issue with the lawsuits over the open meeting a chi proposed at that time three years ago regular public office hours and these public office hours wouldn't just be for faculty students administrators and anyone else it could also be for the residents of the city and the city administrators because if there's a problem that we have with with transparency and accountability here at the University of Michigan it also has to do with the relationship between the university in the city so i will have regular all open regular schedule office hours so the students will certainly be welcome to come in there i'll also knowing that the taxpayer support this university imagine if the governor the Attorney General Secretary of State your to us US senators had no way that you could get to them on a regular basis it's unconscionable also have regular open and open office hours throughout the state rotating through congressional districts every month and this isn't just for Republicans and Democrats only this is for everyone we know that Republicans Republicans Democrats particularly at the k-12 moving into the university level we agree on all these issues affordability access we want our kids to have the best we want them to stay here in the state of Michigan so that we're not chasing our grandkids all over the state so i'll be welcomed and ready to meet with the students because i'll have regular public office hours here and throughout the state thinking well my wife says is quite often she's on the State Board of Education quite unfortunately at times we forget that schools in the university is a school is about this students and not about the adult.
And if it is about the students than their import in their own futures i think is important because without that input we will be guiding them the way that we think it should be rather than necessarily not and not necessarily in what they need or feel that they need now i understand that adult people who get a wrong longer as i have supposedly have more experience and no more but the world has changed so rapidly what those needs are and what the kids want to have is their educational experience which will allow them to go forth from this university and help change the world may not be what we think it is and so that input is important and as a regent I believe that it's important that we support and make sure that the leadership of the university has the processes in place to make sure that all the areas of the university whether it be a professor or a Dean or a vice president or the president university whoever the leadership is has the opportunity and the students have the opportunity to have the input before decisions are made.
Thank You mr. beam you'll be first answer the next question it has to do with climate change do you support the UM vesting from fossil fuels and what should be the university's response to climate change I do support that it's interesting just in the past few weeks how many politicians dodge that question by saying I'm not a scientist but then they're more than willing to give an opinion on the Ebola problems that we've seen so I can't be something that's just convenient i think climate changes the fact I and when it comes to economics and policy like that there are so many jobs that can be produced from looking at climate change and making some corrections in getting away from fossil fuel dependency when I have family live so.
In the middle of the state and you see many of the windmills in the wind farms there and that's just one you know small example so i do think we need to divest from fossil fuels i think it is a job maker and i think a place like the University of Michigan like it's doing should get out and lead on this issue versus trailing behind you doctors to the answer is no absolutely I would not divest from fossil fuels in fact i am a scientist in the data on this issue is not robust when a theory is proved wrong it takes only one small piece of data when Einstein's theory was recently proved not to be quite accurate it was the most my new piece of data that you could possibly comprehend in the world of physics but yet it proved the theory wrong and what we have seen over and over and over is that we have no predictable model yet we have no predictable theory we do know we have an issue that needs study and careful attention there is no question about it but the answer is no you know we should be a leader in doing research we should be leader and coming up with solutions that are environmentally sustainable regardless of what the issues surrounding climate change are because we want to have efficient energy use in a sustainable environmental policy regardless of the final answer on climate change but it's clear with 18 years of no warming that it is not a proven theory there's just no question about it.
Thank You mr. visor well the university is we all know is one of the leading research institutions not just in the country in the world and so solving these problems of making sure that we have adequate adequate energy supplies for ourselves our families and the population this country in the world is one of the biggest challenges we face and so one of the things we can do to solve this problem is to invest here in the University and.
Research and focus on research that will determine ways that this problem can be solved i'm not quite sure what divesting from fossil fuels mean does that mean that we sell ask that we asked the if they have it if we ask the endowment to sell the Detroit Edison stock who is burning fossil fuels but also creating windmills at the same time is that what we do so they don't have the capital to clean up their fossil fuel facilities until substitutes can be found so I'm not quite sure what the purpose of that is and it hit doing these things on across the board basis is never a good solution i think the university has to make wise investments but on the other hand to make thing to to do things across the board when the real goal is to find solutions is not the best way to accomplish that goal this way well I do believe climate change is a real problem and I think that it's very important that we tackle it as a nation as well as having universities to research to improve the way we get energy so it doesn't harm the environment as substantial as fossil fuels do i do not think it divesting from fossil fuels in the endowment at this point makes sense university of michigan has divested into situations one was against south africa to protest the devastating and degrading segregation policies of south africa and the other was in tobacco products which uniformly everyone agrees is a very unhealthy and it has created a lot of health problems in our society there's no doubt that climate change is a real problem and that eventually you know we've got to do something because it's really going to affect us the question is does divesting our portfolio makes sense at that at this point and i have the same issue that in the Ambassador wiser has which is what does it mean because a lot of the same companies that are.
Doing a lot of the fossil fuel problems are also investing in green energy also the other problem is our entire global economy is tied up in fossil fuels and it just is not something that we are all as a global community settled on whereas I think we were all settled that segregation and slavery was bad thank you dr. Steele you will be first to get the next question and it has to do with the city of Detroit with growing national and international attention given to the city of Detroit and the University proximity 45 minutes west and routes originally founded in the city what expanded role cannon should the University play in the city of Detroit well the university should play a large role you know one of the main things the university needs to do is get a better return on investment to this taxpayers in the state of Michigan whether that's through healthy detroit or helping get our kids into school and then staying in the state and helping create a vibrant future economy because as region white was just mentioning as regards energy is the way to solve poverty keeping the young motivated people here with a good education is the way that we're going to solve all the problems we've seen in detroit right now a real renaissance with rapidly escalating rents in certain pockets of the city where the highly educated young people are actually going there and doing incubation that startup companies and so the university right now the key thing they can do to help it in the university is through the k-12 educational process it's completely broken there it's out of control and you know they haven't had as a college ready student come from hundreds 200 think it's 180 different high schools in the state of Michigan have not had a college ready student in over 20 years and so the University of Michigan can do a great deal by helping to foster both the technology that the technological and economic startup things through the business school with the public policy school here but then also through the education school and making sure that the k-12 problems fixed there with creative solutions that aren't tied to you know old ways that have proven not to work and been broken and that's one of the key things on the border regions as we need to make sure we're answering to the solution of the problem and not constituencies Thank You mr. wiser Detroit's an important part of our state and trying to help you try is important it's convenient because their closest it was pointed out but do we tell the the citizens in the people of Pontiac and flint and thus Keegan and Marquette mean people have been suffering the upper peninsula for a long time also do we tell them that the university does cares more about Detroit then about them yes I think it's a good opportunity for our students because it's close and our students can go there and interact in the kinds of organizations that are helping it in it in helping him Detroit begins birth center has a number of people who interact with it with it right kids with Detroit problems but Detroit is not the only place we have problems in this state and we do have it duty and responsibility not only to the rest of the country in the world but especially to the state because we are state institution so yes we should get to the extent that we can and the extent we have the resources and extent that students have the have the willingness and the focus to be able to be involved in this bitch right it's a great opportunity for us but let's not forget the rest of the state thank you his way with Detroit is not only an important city in the state of Michigan it's an important city for the nation in the world because it was basically the birth of how we were going to do in middle class in this country and so university Michigan should be very committed to the city of Detroit the k-12 situation is probably the best way in which we can have some effect the important thing though is that the university when we engage we engage invited in areas in which we are welcome we we can work in partnership there has been some concern that University Michigan is taking over the city of Detroit and we have to be very careful that we don't do that actually work at Wayne State University and so it's important that we realize there are other institutions as well that are involved in the city of Detroit but we should definitely use our expertise in ways that especially our ability to a lot of research in areas that maybe some of the other institutions in the state are not able to do or not currently choosing to do we should be involved in the city of Detroit.
Thank You mr. bean i agree with what many of us have said so far in this issue i think it comes down to outreach I and i would add this to the same extent with the branch campuses in flint and dearborn i think many of the students here on campus can serve as mentors the young students when you see when young students see someone who has made at the collagen is successful in college.
It provides a huge boost to that young student many students that have never seen anyone that's gone that you know that is in college or has been to college they don't see as it being a possible goal so I think there's a lot of potential there but I think in issues like region White said that it needs to be in area where we are invited to pursue but things like urban planning revitalization the school of education here without reach programs to the students in Detroit makes a huge difference and I think there are many voids right now where we would not be stepping on toes so to speak but would provide a lot of great people skills to these young students in the K through 12 areas right Thank You mr. wiser you'll be first this time in this question has to do with shared services as a way of reducing costs what is your opinion on shared services.
What other possible methods of cost control can the university employ should the University attempting to lower-cost all that inevitably compromise educational.
Quality university of michigan is I one time had the opportunity to win improved to work in a much bigger bureaucracy than the University of Michigan was called the State Department and bureaucracies are not much different anyplace in the world they are not inherently efficient there is opportunities for changing the cost and the without reducing the quality that can involve a lot of things i have an accounting background I have a business background in finance background i took every accounting course the university had graduate and undergraduate I was here and it certainly well but that process is a long-term process because its cultural change and changes in the way that we budget which is essentially stovepipe budgeting top-down and bottom-up budgeting there are a lot of things that have to be changed but it takes change that changes the cultural change that takes the leadership of the university to and the people who are going to be affected by that change to all be a part of so it's not easy it's slow but it can be accomplished can you save three percent of bureaucracy you say five percent those things are all possible so there are a lot of techniques as I said there are a lot of it and there are a lot of of different ways to approach these problems but yes you can cut costs without without reducing excellence in fact you can cut costs and use that money to increase excellence Thank You is white well the University of Michigan maybe the most decentralized organization on the planet but the centralization has brought the academic excellence to this institution because people are able to control on a little bit better how to pursue their research with a raise money and funds they can keep it in their departments where their expertise 'as.
And it doesn't go out to do to other places and so decentralisation has increased the excellence of the academic mission.
The key is really to be able to leverage the size of the institution to get economies of scale to have shared services that make sense but the only way to do that effectively as you really have to have robust conversations with the faculty about how to do the shared services and we had a mishap I think we all acknowledge that that that did not happen and I my understanding is it's happening better now and if it's not I want people to tell me that it's not because what we have to do is find ways to save save money where redundancy redundancies do not make sense but sometimes we don't only make business decisions we make decisions that will enhance the academic quality and that is the important part of our mission as well thank you mr. white mr. beam I think this is an area where there can be a lot of improvement i served on a cultural center board with much smaller budget of 50 million dollar budget but there were a music school in art institute which were next door in proximity and they of course all thought that they didn't share any services with one another until it was brought to their attention that many things from their healthcare plan to everything that they purchased in those were examples of shared services i think this takes a lot of communication between the different parts of the University and when you have the communication than you you can find where there is duplication and redundancies that can be fixed you also mentioned just cost reductions in general just with attending school a close friend of mine his daughter is a sophomore here last year took sociology bottom text when the class the first thing the professor said is I'm sorry if you bought the text you won't be needing that this term I and he was going to teach with technology I think when you look at it's a sixth of the price of tuition the cost of books to attend the University per semester if you have a tablet and we get out in front when it comes to licensing text material on your tablet we could save millions.
Thank you dr. Steele clearly the recent attempt at at the centralization process didn't work well and i think it's it's part of the culture problem we have here in the lack of openness transparency and accountability that it needs to be improved dramatically between all the various stakeholders in this process and clearly that's you know one of my main goals and issues here regarding public office hours all those sorts of things but we we we know that something like that has to happen but it's truly a cultural problem places like the University which are under the purview of the Regents and not under any other organization courting the state constitution in higher and higher education academics in general leave they've been up used to operating in a certain way kind of thing like medicine what they're wrapping up he'll that's going on I can tell you as a practicing physician there's lots of things happening that I don't think are helpful are good but they're happening and but there are some things that are happening that are good and I think here in higher education we have to realize that there will be some changes coming here and they will be a huge culture shift and it will be a big change in the environment in which we all operate and and there's no question that it as a physician I see a lot of patients who work here at the University and i'll tell you I hear the stories from all the subcontractors and how much they overcharged university relative to any other job i can tell you that our students shouldn't be going into debt to have sushi chefs and wood-burning pizza ovens that's not necessary when you have 50,000 applications for six or seven thousand acceptances so open checkbook online budget online zero-based balanced budget thank you and miss might you'll be the first to answer our next question which will be our last watch question following the candidates responses to this last question they will should be given an opportunity to make a closing statement have two minutes to make that state right so this way you will be first on this question what is your opinion and what the recent controversy involving Brady Hoke and Dave Brandon reveals about accountability in our athletic programs how would you approach such a controversy as a region well as you can imagine i actually can't I can't answer that question as easily as the other candidates because i'm actually currently the chair of the board and i can't speak without sounding like I'm speaking for the board on what i can say is on it is very important that our student-athletes arm are safe and that we have policies in place to ensure their safety also is very important that you know that all the entire board we are all very concerned about this issue and are listening to everything we're hearing from many constituents and the president of the university actually is the one who makes the personnel decisions and we are as part of our role individually we consult with the president but I feel it would be difficult for me to answer this in a way that doesn't trigger New York Times headlines.
Fun it would be more fun mr. beam i-i-i-ice i meant to be funny the other day when I said to someone who asked me this question I think you could raise tuition 25-percent and receive less out dry then as to regarding the concussion issue with regard to Shane Morris he looked at me he didn't laugh and he sort of had to look like so what's your point.
So he was very involved in this issue it this is something that apparent any of us when you send your child to school if your child's on the football team the field hockey team or just your average student your number one concern is your child safety and that out for many parents this is the first time their child's left the home is to go to school and so this is something that is of the utmost importance of not being a regent and not being at the meetings sometimes people ask us financial questions and you you have to preface transfer by saying i don't have access to the books but here i can tell you as a fan and as an alum I was incredibly disappointed with how it was handled and I would look for a thorough investigation so something like this does not happen again.
Thank you dr. Steele yeah i agree with some of the comments of mr. being made at you know in medicine you don't you know you don't come to a diagnosis and treatment until you have all the data and I certainly don't have all the data regarding the specifics inside that perhaps you know region white has available.
Certainly the medical side is it of grave concern and I think we've heard from the athletic department of institute many new new policies to help overcome the challenge they had which was was pretty disappointing you know as regards you know football I mean wewe gotta understand here at the University of Michigan we are first and foremost a fantastic highly honored research institution with a fantastic history and athletics clearly is not the primary focus of this university and I have a little different view on that many my grandfather started 3 years for fielding Yost who played on and started on a national championship team and after his long career and public education actually is a member of the national collegiate athletic directors hall of fame.
So when we look at some of these issues a the kind of things that that i have great passion for but let's also look at the athletic department if we want to look and evaluate let's keep in mind that there is 30 31 sports they're doing extremely well and all the others the facilities have had tremendous up great and so far the the athletic department has challenges with fees and in with this medical decision but let's not forget where you research university here to help the future of the state and not an athletic program Thank You mr. wiser well first of all what region whites it is important it's the president universities responsibility together with the executive officers to determine whether what the problem is if there is one and what the proper action is to take university regions have a responsibility to give their input and after they've given their input.
They also have a responsibility to support the actions of the President and quite frankly after time if they don't support the actions of presidents that's why presence or executive officers get replaced so this is not just about one incident this is about policies it's about traditions about the direction of the athletic department but more importantly about the interaction between the athletic department in the university community and looking at all those things together i thought i was a region i certainly would give my input i would certainly give my opinions but they would be given to the president university and from there to support of that presence decisions i think it's important for the region's to to do right there concludes our questions we're now going to have the closing statements from each of the candidates again the order in which they give the most determined prior to the forum so we will be starting with mr. wiser your closing statement please sir why am i running for region because i think i can make a difference I've had that opportunity throughout my life my background is his first as a businessman starting at a small company when I was in school with three hundred dollars and growing it into a larger company having the opportunity then to go into public service 25 years ago in to go into full-time public service 15 years ago and having the opportunity during that time to make a difference this university is a leader in research it is a leader in educational excellence it has two and has a duty to continue to impact on the quality of life for the human existence and it can do those things and it can do them better and it can do those through its faculty through its research was most importantly through its students so there's many many things that interact and i believe i have a set of characteristics and background that can help with that whether it's being a diplomat and working within the bureaucracy and understanding how that process works to get people to work together to solve problems i was in Eastern Europe right after nine eleven whether it is my background and nonprofits had shared multiple nonprofits over the years from Michigan Theater to united negro college fund to NewsCenter and on and on and on and I will.
Learned that individual institutions can have an impact here at the university I was one of the founders of the Ginsberg center for service and learning as the person from the outside working with the vice president student affairs and the device pretend and the Provost to help that start.
That was an impact that has had a big impact and many students and others who receive those services under seven wiser center for international Flair certain 40 of europe and eurasia and the wiser center for getting remember my own centers.
I'm sorry we're gonna hurt your hypotheses have to ask you to step is working with the international institute so those are things that I have experience in doing it and i hope i have the opportunity that with the university's all Thank You mr. beam thank you soon thanks for putting this form together today it's been a good discussion we've all talked about things we would want to improve and I think we do need to keep in mind you know the reason publications where u of m is ranked the top public university in the world so there is a great deal to be proud of that being the case you can always improve and I think there are some areas that the university can improve not only improved but continue to lead and lead into the future I believe my background in being a trial attorney and also working on the boards that I have like investor wiser said gives me some great experience in a situation like this when it comes to dealing with people with different opinions i am a firm believer of the more voices the better and so when it comes to making decisions I would regularly meet like i mentioned before with people from all different branches here in the university students faculty I and that tails right into what we're talking about with the Open Meetings Act and that's something i'm incredibly important and worthy to pursue from both an athlete from both academic and athletic standpoint that we need to bring in more voices and hear more voices frankly sometimes decisions seem to be tone deaf.
I get the feeling that those are decisions that are made by few people instead of the receiving the opinions of many people in addition I'm really the only candidate from out state and I would work tirelessly to you know promote and protect the interests of both branch campuses in addition to the main campus in ann arbor thank you mrs. white.
Well as the current chair of the board of regents I have experience and expertise on the board I have a bachelor's of science and engineering Electrical Engineering computer science from Princeton University have a lot agree from university of washington i have a master of law in georgette from george washington university law school and I just graduated from the US Army War College with the master and strategic studies i'm currently a professor of law at Wayne State University specialize in patent law i'm lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve in the Jag Corps which is the lawyers core for the military i teach constitutional military law to the cadets at West Point in the summers and I'm a registered patent attorney Fulbright senior scholar and I was White House Fellow during 911 I have a background that's very different from anyone currently on the board and the only one that's served in the military and the only engineer and I'm the only academic and I think it's important to have academics on the board on the state of Michigan is transforming right we're still dealing with this transformation from manufacturing economy to knowledge economy we have a lot of challenges as a nation and higher education is a big piece of those challenges on my background gives me a solid foundation to leave the university of michigan through these changing times Thank You doctors do.
Thank you everyone for coming great questions you see you've got a lot of qualified candidates up here it's great to be here in the Ford school strangely i grew up in Grand Rapids another outstate guy and when Gerald Ford announce his first race for the house it was in my grandparents living room and that furniture is in the Ford Museum in my mom modeled with Betty bloomer so the Ford family has been a long time with us and and it's just wonderful that the university is recognized his accomplishments and contributions to the University I mentioned my medical background.
Fifty-five percent of the budget at the University of the health center medical education and clinical for NIH research and with all due respect to my flanking members here there are seven attorneys on the board and no research positions so we have some work to do there I i think i have a lot to contribute their as well as to the institutional memory i mentioned my grandfather was a long history here my grandmother was chair of the committee for continuing of educate continuing education for women was the first woman to have an alumni group named after was a national cochair for the first endowment came campaign in 1964 and in the mid-nineteen fifties she was sharing the stage with Harlan Hatcher during an event when some of the question came from the audience is what about our qualified students that aren't getting into the university of michigan in 1955 Harlan dancers answer was we will never turn down a qualified student from the state of Michigan we will always increase enrollment to make sure they're taken care of we need to make sure that the university of michigan is more to contribute to the future of the state of michigan by making sure our highly qualified students are accepted we need to make sure that the qualified students from out-of-state are encouraged to stay here by giving them to issue refunds to stem degrees that they stay in the state for five years and pay tuition we want to recruit the very best students to stay here at the University after they graduate and I'll be happy to take my contributions on the board when it comes to the crazy changes that are happening in medicine research and limited funds coming from both federal and state government thank you for being here i want to thank the candidates for coming this afternoon and participating in this lively discussion I wanted.


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