Advisory council forwards finalists for University of Minnesota regent seats after multiple ballots and rule suspensions

The Board of Regents candidate advisory council met to interview candidates and to select finalists to send to the Minnesota Legislature for consideration for several open regent seats. The council confirmed a quorum (22 of 24 members present) and conducted a sequence of ballots and recorded roll-call votes to determine which applicants it would recommend.

The council’s role, explained at the start of the session by the chair, is to recommend between two and four candidates for each open seat to the legislature; the council’s composition is 24 members and a majority of the full membership (13) is required for recommendation. Staff reminded members that first-ballot automatic thresholds and elimination rules are set by the council’s adopted selection procedures and that ballots are public records conducted via SurveyMonkey.

On the student-at-large ballots the council announced the first-round totals (Taio 5; Posar Muhammad 15; Meline Ro 16; Flora Yang 17; Dylan Young 18). The chair said the top two vote-getters on that ballot were selected. After a motion to suspend the rules to advance four student candidates carried on a recorded vote, the council cast a unanimous voice vote to forward the slate to the legislature.

On District 5 the ballot produced these totals: Ellen Luger 17, Benjamin Kaplan 14, Robert Albright 11, Jenna Mitchler 9, Devon Driscoll 8. A motion to advance Luger, Kaplan and Albright was made and carried on a roll-call vote (16 yes, 6 no). Those three names will be forwarded to the legislature as District 5 recommendations.

For the two at-large regent seats the council ran multiple ballots. After debate over whether to advance the top four, top six or reopen the pool, the body temporarily suspended its rules and advanced Jamal Adam, Jeff Edinger, John Gibbs and Anne Sheldon as a first group of at-large finalists. Staff then assembled a second ballot of remaining candidates; none reached the automatic advancement threshold on that round, so members proposed additional motions. After further motions, amendments and roll-call votes, the council voted to advance three more at-large finalists—Josh Lee, Scott Nagel and Dan Walter—bringing the total at-large slate forwarded to the legislature to seven finalists.

Members also handled a housekeeping vote to approve minutes from the council’s Dec. 13 meeting and discussed next steps for notifying candidates and coordinating appearances before the Joint House and Senate higher education committees. Staff said they will draft a report summarizing the council’s work and send it to the committees’ chairs and ranking members by the statutory deadline cited during the meeting.

The council adjourned after completing its selections and arranging notification assignments for the candidates.

Votes at a glance - Student-at-large: first-ballot top vote-getters announced; council suspended rules and advanced four student candidates (unanimous voice vote after recorded suspension). (Ballot totals announced by staff.) - District 5: Motion to advance Ellen Luger, Benjamin Kaplan and Robert Albright carried (recorded vote reported as 16 yes, 6 no). - At-large: Council initially advanced Jamal Adam, Jeff Edinger, John Gibbs and Anne Sheldon after a suspension of the rules (recorded as carried); after a second ballot and subsequent motions the council advanced Josh Lee, Scott Nagel and Dan Walter as additional finalists (recorded votes carried).

What happens next Staff will prepare a written report of the week’s interviews and recommendations and transmit it to legislative higher education committee leaders; members discussed candidate orientation and tentatively expected scheduling of committee meetings in late January or February. The council adjourned and arranged to notify recommended candidates as soon as possible.

Sources and attribution All quotations and vote totals in this article are drawn from the council meeting transcript and from staff roll-call announcements and ballot tallies made during the meeting. Direct attributions in the article refer to the chair, staff members who ran ballots, and council members who made motions and spoke during recorded roll calls.