For Board of Regents, vote Diggs, no one else

Editor’s note: The Michigan Daily has also provided endorsements for other races on the Ann Arbor ballot this November. You can find them all here.

Shauna Ryder-Diggs, a former member of the University of Michigan Board of Regents from 2012 to 2020, offers voters the administrative experience necessary to the role of University regent, while avoiding the current board’s misguided decision making. In her prior regency, she helped found the Go Blue Guarantee program, which provides free tuition to Michigan families with household incomes below $75,000. She has also firmly established herself as a tuition hawk, voting twice against a 1.9% tuition hike in 2020. In a recent interview with The Daily’s Editorial Board, Diggs underscored her intention to make a U-M education more accessible by establishing more scholarship and grant opportunities while keeping tuition affordable. 

Diggs offers a unique perspective to the board. She is a certified dermatologist with more than 20 years of experience running her own practice. While the board has plenty of members with legal and business experience, it distinctly lacks a regent with any health care experience — a crucial pitfall, given that almost 20% of the University’s $17.9 billion endowment is allocated toward Michigan Medicine. Electing an MD-holding alum of the University’s Medical School would provide Michigan Medicine with effective representation in the University’s decision-making process and put health care equity on the map as a leading policy issue. 

Diggs is deeply involved in the Michigan community. She is currently on the Board of Directors of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and has previously served on the Boards of Directors at the Detroit Institute of the Arts and at Forgotten Harvest, which works to combat food waste and insecurity. Her decades of engagement with her local community reveal a genuine dedication to improving this state. This editorial board has no doubt that this dedication would only be supported by the role of a University regent. 

On a more fundamental level, Diggs deals with people, not ideas. Her day-to-day life revolves around talking to patients, listening to what they have to say and providing real care to solve their problems. In the context of an administration that has been all but completely neglectful of the opinions of those opposed to them, Diggs’ humanist approach is desperately needed. This editorial board hopes that, if elected, Diggs may persuade the current board to adopt a similar approach. 

Of the candidates on the ballot, only Diggs has the distinction of experience paired with a holistic understanding of our community and the issues it faces. Without reluctance, The Michigan Daily Editorial Board endorses Shauna Ryder-Diggs for the University Board of Regents. 

While this editorial board is aware that there are two open seats for the Board of Regents, we cannot earnestly endorse a second candidate.

One of the Republican candidates for the board, Sevag Vartanian, did not respond to an interview request with the editorial board within the ample amount of time provided to him. His four-sentence public platform and decision to not talk with us demonstrates a negligence to meet students where they are. We are, therefore, unwilling to support his candidacy.

In contrast to Vartanian, the other Republican candidate, Carl Meyers, did respond to our request for an interview. His openness to dialogue with students is commendable and his planned tuition freeze and financial experience could very well benefit the University in the future. However, his platform points regarding free speech and trans identities in sports are alarming. If we want to create a more inclusive and responsive university, a candidate who refuses to publicly acknowledge rampant Islamophobia in his platform and who utilizes transphobic talking points to garner political support should not be elected. 

For the past six months, we have witnessed a vast erosion of our rights as students to speak freely, be treated with due process and for our concerns to be addressed by the University — an erosion that the current board complied with, if not facilitated. Denise Ilitch — who is seeking reelection — has been complicit in this degradation of student rights, from her involvement in suppressing student resolutions to her vote in favor of institutional neutrality.While Ilitch deserves praise for her work in other areas — most notably her efforts to improve the University’s handling of sexual misconduct cases — she has continued to fall short when it comes to protecting student liberties. In a rejection of the status quo, this editorial board cannot, in good faith, endorse any incumbent candidate for the University Board of Regents. 

Our decision to not endorse a second candidate is not motivated by cynicism or vitriol — in fact, this editorial board knows and believes that this University can and will rise above its current rut. However, that will never happen if the regents do not feel the need to heed student voices. Nov. 5 is a chance to make them listen. 

This editorial represents the opinion of The Michigan Daily’s Editorial Board. If you are interested in submitting an Op-Ed or Letter to the Editor, please send your submission to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

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