There are four vacant seats on the Board of Regents as of July 1, due to a deadlocked legislative process. These vacancies are now to be filled by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, according to the Board of Regents website.

A year before a new regent is selected, the Regent Candidate Advisory Council, a group made up of legislators and community members, releases a regent candidate application. RCAC interviews a wide variety of candidates, with the average interview process reviewing 20 candidates, according to Regent Robyn Gulley.

After interviews are conducted, RCAC then recommends two to four candidates for each position to the Joint Higher Education Committee of the Minnesota Legislature, according to the University of Minnesota Alumni Association..

From there, the Committee votes in one candidate per vacancy. A regent is selected after a vote from a joint convention of the Minnesota Legislature, according to the University Alumni Association.

The joint convention did not happen this year. Gulley attributed it to the climactic January 14 legislative session.

“It really had to do with the makeup of the House and the Senate,” Gulley said. “It was a really tricky legislative session.”

GOP Rep. and Higher Education Finance and Policy Co-Chair Marion Rarick said the process got stuck when Rep. Dan Wolgamott, DFL, disregarded her after she asked him to sign a letter aiming to spur a joint convention to make regent selections.

The answer was an “‘expletive no’” from Wolgamott, Rarick said.

“He refused to sign and didn’t even answer my questions and my request to sign it,” Rarick said. “He just kind of ghosted me.”

Legislators did not get to vote, so the decision is in the hands of Walz. A law from the University of Minnesota’s Constitution states that governors hold the power to choose temporary board members until the Minnesota Legislature can hold a deliberative session.

Even with these vacancies, important budget decisions are underway without input from the four regent seats. The Board’s culture of a strong leadership model often leaves the other Board members out of the loop, according to Gulley.

“The most pressing and timely things come in front of the leadership team, and the rest of the Board isn’t looped in until later,” Gulley said. “Because those leadership elections took place before our new board members came in, it’s going to really affect the full culture of the Board and what we’re working on for the next two years.”

Through this turmoil, the Board was still functional after a few weeks of vacancies, according to Regent James T. Farnsworth.

Walz and his team will launch a new application process soon, according to Gulley. Gulley said she expects Walz to appoint his interim Board members in August or September. 

With these selections, Gulley said she trusts the governor to make good decisions.

“I have full faith in the governor’s ability to choose strong regent candidates,” Gulley said. “There are some folks from the original process that I would really like to see move forward, but we’ll just have to see what he decides to do when it comes out.”

But not all policymakers have faith in Walz. Rarick said she has little faith in Walz’s future picks, even though they are interim.

“I believe he’s going to do political appointments to probably reward somebody,” Rarick said. “And that’s not how you should choose regents.”