After officially winning a tight election for positions on the
University’s Board of Regents, Democrats Olivia Maynard and
S. Martin Taylor are already presenting specific ideas to handle
pressing issues for the University’s future, including
keeping tuition down and fighting the gay marriage ban
proposal.
Maynard and Taylor, both incumbents who held off Republican
challengers Patrick Anderson and Carl Meyers in Tuesday’s
election, said they were honored to be chosen by the residents of
Michigan to serve another eight-year term as regents.
Maynard and Taylor received 25 and 23 percent of the vote,
respectively, while Anderson and Meyers claimed 23 and 22 percent.
Taylor’s lead remained too small to declare him winner until
yesterday.
Maynard and Taylor’s victories mean that the Democrats
will retain a six-to-three majority on the board.
Taylor of Grosse Pointe Farms, executive vice president of DTE
Energy Co., said one of the main problems the University faces is
that its budget is in “real crisis.” He advocated
engaging with other universities across the state in an aggressive
lobbying effort to draw more funding from the state government.
“We can’t continue to suffer from these declining
state revenues. We’ve just got to turn that ship
around,” he said. “We need to go there, show our books,
show what we’re doing to reduce costs.”
Maynard emphasized that the University must continue to defend
the benefits it grants to same-sex couples. She said attorneys have
told the University that the election-night passage of Proposal 2,
which amends the state constitution to ban gay marriage and similar
unions, will not affect these benefits.
“I want to make sure we go on the record as a
policy-making board that our policy is a policy we honor,”
said Maynard, who is from Ann Arbor and is president of Planned
Parenthood in Michigan. “I think it’s helpful for the
regents to make a public statement.”
University President Mary Sue Coleman has said the University
will defend its policy of granting same-sex benefits in court if
necessary.
Numerous third party candidates, including Green Party candidate
and LSA senior Nathaniel Damren, ran in the election, receiving
between 1 and 2 percent of the vote.
— Daily News Editor Tomislav Ladika contributed to this
report.