Saturday, January 11, 2025

Take a peek behind the curtain and test drive the NEW StateNews.com today!

Changing of the guard

November 17, 2006
Faylene Owen, who was recently elected to the MSU Board of Trustees, talks with law students Andrew Pouget, middle, and Jared Repp on Wednesday at the Beaner's Gourmet Coffee inside the Union. Owen met with the students to hear their concerns about the university. Her term begins in January.

George Perles and Faylene Owen will have a lot on their plates in January.

After their term on the MSU Board of Trustees begins, they will help determine how the university should handle the affirmative action ban and decide whether or not to participate in closed work sessions.

Right now, they don't know what to do — but they do know they want input from students. l On Nov. 7, Democratic candidates Perles and Owen were elected to the board, ousting Republican incumbents David Porteous and Dee Cook.

Both Owen and Perles said it will be a priority to meet and work with students.

But time will tell if students' concerns are actually heard by the new trustees.

Alternative action

Some students are hoping with a different board makeup, the reaction to the controversial affirmative action ban will be different as well.

"The amount of respect trustees give students is not what it should be," English senior Molly Benningfield said, referring to what she heard of the board members' reactions to students who had confronted the administrators at the Nov. 10 board meeting.

During the meeting, more than 125 students packed into the board room and expressed their concerns about Michigan's affirmative action ban — Proposal 2 on November's ballot.

Michigan voters passed the proposal, which changed the state Constitution to make race- or gender-based preferences in university admissions and government hiring and contracting illegal.

Perles said it's important for everyone to have a chance to attend MSU.

"I owe the school quite a bit," he said. "I wouldn't have the life, I have now if I hadn't gone to school here, and I want other people to have the same advantage."

However, Perles doesn't know what would need to be done in response to Proposal 2 and is waiting until his term begins to find out.

"We certainly want to make sure everyone has an opportunity, but it will work its way out," Perles said. "There's no need to panic now."

He said he can't promise continued funding for programs that end up being affected or that he would be willing to participate in potential lawsuits, but he will start looking for solutions once he's on the board.

"I would be willing to pass on what students' concerns are to other people who are also responsible and make sure their concerns get attention," Perles said.

Owen said she's proud of the level of diversity at MSU and added the passing of Proposal 2 was a "tragedy."

But she also said she's not sure how to find a way to keep programs or policies that could be affected.

"Somehow, some way — we have to find another way," Owen said.

Reaching out

The new board members need to not only reach out to students at meetings, but outside the board room and across campus as well, students said.

"It would be nice — since they make decisions that have a serious impact on us — to put more effort into making it a two-way street," said first-year law student Jared Rapp.

Students would feel like the trustees cared about their concerns if they sat down with them outside monthly board meetings, Benningfield said.

"It seems like there's too big of a generation gap between students and trustees," Benningfield said.

Owen said she plans to set aside time to listen to students' concerns and wants to make sure the board does the same.

Perles has spent much of his life working with students and said he's looking forward to doing it again.

He said his experiences with the university at many different levels — from undergraduate student to football head coach (1983-94) — give him a good variety of perspectives on which to base his decisions.

He has felt like a "father figure" to students he coached on the football team through the 1980s, and said his responsibility as a board member is to make sure the students are taken care of.

"I've been around young people my whole life and I'm interested in their thoughts," Perles said. "That's the future of our country."

Behind closed doors

Closed meetings have become commonplace for university officials, including the MSU Board of Trustees, and neither Owen nor Perles have strong plans to change that.

Board members meet the day before public meetings for closed work sessions followed by dinner with MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and other administrators.

Some trustees have maintained no decisions are made at the meetings, which would violate the Open Meetings Act that requires all publicly elected groups to conduct business in meetings open to the public. However, the board has come under scrutiny for its closed sessions and quick, unanimous decisions during meetings.

Perles said anything the board discusses should be open to the public, adding he's "used to doing work in front of 77,000 people" from his experiences as football head coach.

"I certainly think we don't need any secrets, and people should know what we're discussing and talking about," Perles said.

Although Perles thinks the meetings should be open, he said he'll have to wait and see if he can persuade the board to allow the public into the closed sessions.

"I'm all for it, but I can't speak for the board," he said. "We'll see what they say."

Owen also is hesitant about taking a stand against the closed sessions.

She said she'll determine if the meetings could be open to the public after she experiences one. She plans to check with the university attorney to see if the meetings are illegal.

"It would seem to me you need a chance to be able to sit and chat and feel free to give your opinions amongst your colleagues," Owen said.

Once the new trustees find out how the board operates, they could change their minds about opening the meetings, said Trustee Joel Ferguson, but added the board would consider any concerns pertaining to the sessions.

"Some things they say we should do, we will do and some things they say we should do, we're not going to do," Ferguson said. "We make decisions based on how the majority feels."

Ferguson and other members of the board interpret a 1999 Michigan Supreme Court decision as exempting them from opening all of their sessions. The case dealt specifically with presidential searches. He added public participation could compromise issues being discussed at the meetings.

"When it really comes in front of us, we can have an in-depth discussion," Ferguson said. "Right now it's closed — that's how it is, and some people don't like it."

Perles and Owen are both anxious to begin their terms, but right now, they're unsure of how to handle the decisions that will be set before them in January.

However, they do know they want students involved.

"The university is here for the students," Perles said. "It's very important for us to know what their thinking is."

Discussion

Share and discuss “Changing of the guard” on social media.