Editorial: Limit politics in U regent selection

Star Tribune

Amid howls from DFLers that Republicans were injecting an unprecedented measure of partisan politics into the process, the Minnesota Legislature elected one incumbent and three newcomers to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents on Monday.

The reasons for the outcry: Two of the newcomers are former Republican legislators, longtime House Speaker Steve Sviggum and Laura Brod.

In selecting them, legislators dumped an incumbent regent, Steven Hunter, secretary-treasurer of the DFL-allied AFL-CIO, and rejected a small-business owner and lifelong university volunteer from Chanhassen, Tom Devine.

The move was partisan, to be sure. But unprecedented? Not in the context of the regents' selections of the past eight years.

That history indicates that reforms enacted in the late 1990s that were intended to minimize partisan considerations in the selection of regents have not been as successful as hoped.

Now it appears a set limit on the number of former elected officials who can contend for regents' seats in a given year is in order, to ensure that politicians do not come to dominate the governance of this important state institution.

A partisan tit-for-tat has developed in regents selection at least since 2003, when defeated DFL gubernatorial candidate and former Senate DFL Majority Leader Roger Moe was rejected by a joint convention of the Legislature in which Republicans held the advantage.

Moe's 22 years in Senate leadership and his imprint on higher education (he was the chief legislative proponent of the merger that created the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system) more than qualified him for the job.

Unhappy DFLers bided their time until 2007, when their numbers were large enough to have their way in regents selection. The beneficiary was recently defeated DFL majority leader Dean Johnson, who was chosen for an at-large seat over a GOP-backed incumbent, business executive Cynthia Lesher.

Control of the Legislature is back in GOP hands this year, and an attitude of "turnabout is fair play" was palpable as Republican legislators bent the selection process to make room for two of their former colleagues.

Brod was shifted from the Second District contest to the at-large seat to make room for both her and Sviggum.

Hunter's ouster galled DFLers. Incumbents who perform well - and Hunter has been exceptional - are generally granted two terms as regents.

And Hunter is in a long line of executives of the state's largest labor organization to serve on the board - a line that goes back to 1933, with only one five-year interruption.

That interruption, ironically, occurred because a divided Legislature failed to elect regents at all in 2001, when Sviggum was speaker.

The notion that a "labor seat" should be reserved on the Board of Regents seems outdated. But the idea that someone on the board should have a background in advocacy for working-class Minnesotans is not. Hunter filled that bill well.

The critics of Monday's election cannot fairly claim that the university will be ill-served by either Sviggum or Brod, or the two businessmen also elected, David McMillan of Duluth and incumbent David Larson of the Third Congressional District.

All are people of ability, experience and dedication to this state.

The former legislators will be well positioned to help bridge a credibility gap that has opened between GOP lawmakers and the state's educational flagship. GOP legislators are quick to accuse university administrators of overspending and inattention to faculty productivity.

The new regents can function both as internal watchdogs and ambassadors on the university's behalf to their fellow Republicans.

But selecting regents on the basis of their partisan pedigree isn't good for the university in the long run, especially if one party's loyalists are allowed to dominate the board.

Ideally, the board ought to be composed of people with experiences in leading a variety of complex organizations, public, not-for-profit and private. Overrepresentation of one occupation or segment of society ought to be avoided.

When Brod and Sviggum take their seats, three of the 12 regents' seats will be occupied by former legislators.

The 2013 Regent Candidate Advisory Council, which screens candidates for the board, should be advised not to send legislators more names of their former colleagues.

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