Regent Farnsworth's Transparency Resolution
[link to original Twitter thread]
[link to original Twitter thread 2]
[link to Regent Farnsworth's original Twitter thread]
Under "new business" at the June 2022 Board of Regents meeting, Regent James Farnsworth proposed an amendment calling for a regularly occurring public comment period in front of the Board.
His reasoning in doing so is to open up the Board to insights and concerns of the constituents they were elected to represent. Throughout his resolution, Regent Farnsworth cited the University's standing as a public land grant, R1, research institution- the flag ship of the state of Minnesota. Additionally, he cites precedent from other Big Ten institutions and research institutions that have incorporated regularly occurring public listening sessions into their operations (University of Illinois, Penn State, Maryland, Florida, UT-Austin, among others).
His resolution called for the referral of this proposition to the Board Governance and Finance Committee for final discussion and planning prior to its implementation.
This resolution received backlash from Regents Verhalen and Huebsch who are the Chair and Vice Chair of the Governance and Policy Committee. Regent Verhalen was quoted in stating that Farnsworth's resolution "presupposes that a regularly occurring public comment period... is necessary and the most effective and meaningful way for this board to receive public comment".
This resolution was tabled and moved to the Governance and Policy Committee for further discussion.
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