In order to gather information about the candidates, we sent them e-mails inviting them to respond about various topics. This is the response given by Ellis Boal.
I will make some general comments first and then answer your specific questions the best I can. Think of the following paragraph as my answer to your # 6. I am the Green Party candidate for U-M regent. I have had no relation to the university since I left after my first year of law school in 1969-70. I was an active supporter of the 1970 BAM strike which forced the regents to implement affirmative action, and was brought up on student disciplinary charges for my role in (peacefully with about 15 others) disrupting my torts class taught by Marcus Plant. I beat it with a due process defense. Later I decided to leave anyway, along with 35 others in the SDS chapter. We felt the only way to achieve revolutionary social change was through energizing working class movements. You can't do that in Ann Arbor, so we moved en masse to Detroit. Shortly later the group splintered. I went to work for an underground newspaper, but didn't feel I was accomplishing anything. I returned to school, but in Detroit at Wayne State. I practiced labor and employment law working for myself for 25 years representing unions and dissidents, mostly dissidents. I have never represented an employer. I published legal rights manuals for Teamster and UAW rank-and-filers. Two of my cases are used as teaching devices in law schools today (see the pictures and associated stories on the biography page of my site). I have been quoted in the NY Times, WS Journal (page one), USA Today, and the Detroit News and Free Press, usually on labor issues. The Times once ran a lead editorial favoring my position in one of my cases. The BAM strike taught me that the only way to make significant social change is by mass action. Having the right theory or the right candidate is way less important. In 2000 I moved to Charlevoix next door to my mother, who is now widowed, 92, and in failing health. Here, I continue to be involved in a variety of citizen's groups. I spent many many hours on the picket line of a failed Teamster two-year nurses' strike in Petoskey, which is near Charlevoix. I was active in a group which kept a Wal-Mart store out of Charlevoix. I was a local leader in the successful effort to keep the Coast Guard from using the Great Lakes for target practice using toxic lead ammunition. I am the most active leader in the so-far successful effort to keep Sovereign Deed out of a nearby airport; the company proposes to insure the wealthy around the country and bring them here in the event of a terrorist attacks. I have helped organize several large rallies and workshops (large for northern Michigan) to stop the war in Iraq. I have become knowledgeable in Native American law. I have travelled to the West Bank a couple of times with pro-Palestinian lawyer delegations. I design the monthly music page on a labor site, http://labornotes.org . I decided to stand for the regent office at a state Green Party meeting this summer when no one else wanted to do it. As my record shows, if elected my approach to problems will be unique among the regents. One position which will probably lose me votes is that I would advocate selling Michigan Stadium and getting out of bigtime sports. I am influenced in this by my brief experience as a math graduate student at the University of Chicago. I had a full ride to a Ph.D. on an NSF fellowship, but resigned after a year. Anyway, Chicago used to be a power in the Big Ten in the early 20th century. But it got out of football in the 30s and 40s. Despite the loss of revenue, students keep their eye on the ball and it continues as a great school. Finally, one experience which sets me apart from many students, or most students, was the financing of my own education. My parents paid my way through college, at which point I walked away financially. I worked as a teacher and other odd jobs a couple of years, living low and saving practically everything, and put myself through law school debt-free. Other than my BAM-support activities described above, I have no past record on any of issues ## 1-5 below. You'll just have to take my word for it.
1. Voting Rights: Michigan voting laws place unnecessary burdens on college students because they require that you re-register to vote each time you change residence, and they also make absentee voting extremely difficult for first-time voters. A significant number of students have been disenfranchised for these reasons, contributing to the marginalization of students by government because they "don't vote." We want to maker sure students take part in the political process. How have you supported student enfranchisement in the past, and if elected, what will you do to make voting more accessible to students?
1. In general I oppose rigorous voter-registration requirements. Everyone should be registered automatically on the day they are born to be able to vote when they come of age.
2. Education/Student Finances: Michigan schools, K-12 as well as public higher education institutions, are under funded, and Michigan is ranked as the worst state for funding higher education in the country. How have you supported education in the past, in terms of state/federal funding, loans,scholarships and grants, and making higher education affordable and attainable for all students, and how will you do so if elected? Please be specific.
2. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the recent big bailout for financiers mean there is less funding available for education issues. Other than that I cannot be (and I don't think any candidate should be) more specific in light of the unfolding financial crisis. Astonishing changes are happening so quickly that it is impossible to stake out long-term funding plans.
3. Diversity/Affirmative Action: In 2006, Proposal 2 banned the use of affirmative action by public institutions in Michigan. Diversity is a crucial part of the University of Michigan experience. How have you supported diversity in public institutions in the past, and if elected, what will you do to ensure continued diversity in the future?
3. See above.
4. Health Care: During college and just after graduation, health insurance becomes a major issue of concern for many young adults who are no longer covered by their parents' plans and may not be able to afford it themselves. As a result, 18-24 year-olds account for one-third of the uninsured U.S. population. What have you done to promote access to health care in the past, and how will you do so in the future, in general and especially for the student population?
4. Haven't studied it. Don't know.
5. Cost of Contraceptives: As a result of the Deficit Reduction Act, costs of contraceptives have seen an enormous price hike. This significantly impacts the college-aged population, and deters them from being proactive in their reproductive health care. What are your concerns with regards to providing access to affordable contraceptives, and what do you support as a solution to make sure college-aged people are protected? (should we add in abortion? should this fall under health care?)
5. Haven't studied it. Don't know. I thought schools give out free condoms.
6. Miscellaneous: This could include anything to do with file sharing, drinking age/MIPs/drug policy (punishments), creating jobs in Michigan, abortion etc.
6. See above.