Good Morning, EMU! It’s bright (not so bright) and early on a Monday morning and you have a new Interim President! His name is Dr. Donald Loppnow and from early accounts, he’s a pretty swell guy. That’s not the problem. On Friday, the 18th, the campus community was notified via brief email that there would be a “Special” Board of Regents meeting on Monday the 21st (today) at 9 in the morning. If you’re a student, professor, campus worker, or anyone involved with Eastern, you are well aware that the semester ended yesterday. Yesterday. Who, in the midst of finals and everything else that accompanies the end of another chaotic semester, is going to register that a potentially very important Board of Regents meeting would be happening this Monday? This morning, Action League Now!, a group of four women and one trans-spectrum gender queer*, stood in front of Welch Hall in protest. We ask you this, why were there only five? We’ll let you answer that. My friends, it is not the man, Donald Loppnow, with whom we take issue. It is the process. Despite a facade of student participation (i.e. a single student) within the largely internal Presidential search process, the campus community has little voice in it. The campus has NO voice whatsoever within the final vote. Dr. Loppnow may be swell but this remains to be seen. When this interim period is over and EMU has a new President without the modifier, who will it be? Will we see another neo-liberal like Susan Martin, lauded for her (laughable) handlings on race relations and corporatization of the university then given power elsewhere? The Faculty Senate of EMU openly rejected the Board of Regents by pulling all representation from the Presidential Advisory Search Committee and has stated its lack of confidence in the Board of Regents after the latest debacle regarding the Education Achievement Authority. The Department of Teacher Education at EMU has passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in Regent Mike Morris. Meeting after meeting, students and faculty have spoken in protest against EMU’s shady corporate and political actions. Be it withholding pay, hiding information regarding EMU’s former logo, questionable property acquisition, the horror show known as the Education Achievement Authority, the closed Presidential search process, or an overall lack of responsiveness towards an incredibly diverse campus, they have been a consistent disappointment. Who are these Regents? Why are they making decisions that affect our lives dramatically? When will they give marginalized groups on campus more than a glassy eyed stare or the exasperated sigh of the privileged? The campus community is comprised of many traditionally underserved populations and the university is an educational grinding machine whose tokenized media appeal for students draws them in only to spit them back out again without taking their needs into consideration or listening to their voices. We deserve more than this. Share this open letter. Sign and share the petition to amend Michigan’s state constitution to allow Eastern, Western, Central, and Northern Michigan Universities to democratically elect their governing Board of Regents, rather than be appointed by the governor. *NOTE: Our original intention was to add trans-spectrum gender queer within this asterisk but we do not want anyone to feel as if they are an asterisk. EMU Action League Now! is an all inclusive group and we welcome anyone who gives a damn about EMU. Sincerely, EMU Action League Now! Sources: https://www.change.org/p/the-eastern-michigan-university-board-of-regents-should-be-democratically-elected http://www.easternecho.com/article/2015/11/faculty-senate-pulls-all-representation-from-psac https://www.emich.edu/presidential-search/regent-messages/index.php http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/12/15/emus-education-faculty-have-no-confidence-board/77367104/ http://www.emich.edu/regents/meetings/2014/meeting061014/tab_d.pdf http://www.eclectablog.com/2015/12/emu-college-of-education-faculty-vote-to-censure-regent-mike-morris.html