My primary goal is to reprioritize the voices and needs of our academic community. This means:

• Empowering Faculty: Investing in our world-class faculty by ensuring competitive compensation, fostering a supportive research environment, and respecting their academic freedom.

• Supporting Staff: Recognizing the vital role our staff plays in the daily operations and success of the university, ensuring fair wages, benefits, and professional development opportunities.

• Prioritizing Students: Making education more affordable and accessible, enhancing student support services, and creating an inclusive environment where every student can thrive, regardless of their background.

The University of Michigan was built on the idea that robust debate and free expression are essential for personal growth and the common good. I am committed to:

• Protecting Free Speech: Upholding the rights of all members of our university community to express their views, even when those views are unpopular or challenging.

• Valuing Protest: Recognizing the crucial role of protest in a democratic society and ensuring that students and faculty have the space and ability to peacefully advocate for change without fear of retribution.

• Fostering Dialogue: Encouraging constructive dialogue and debate on critical issues, creating an environment where different perspectives can be heard.

Academic freedom is the cornerstone of any great university. It ensures that faculty, researchers, and students can pursue truth and innovation without fear of censorship or retaliation. I am committed to:

• Defending Intellectual Independence: Safeguarding the right of faculty and researchers to teach, publish, and explore ideas, even when those ideas challenge conventional wisdom or political interests.

• Shielding Researchers from Political Interference: Opposing any attempts by the Trump Administration, outside groups, or political actors to influence curriculum, research funding, or faculty appointments.

• Encouraging Innovation: Supporting cross-disciplinary collaboration and risk-taking in research and teaching, recognizing that academic freedom is essential to solving the most pressing challenges of our time.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are not optional—they are essential to excellence. Our university must reflect the full breadth of our state’s communities and ensure that all students, regardless of background, can succeed.

• Reinstating DEI Offices and Initiatives: Restoring university-level DEI offices with clear mandates to promote inclusive hiring, student support, and cultural awareness across all campuses.

• Expanding Access and Outreach: Expanding investment in recruitment programs, scholarships, and pipeline partnerships with underrepresented high schools and community colleges to ensure students from all backgrounds can access a Michigan education.

• Creating Belonging and Retention Programs: Strengthening mentorship, affinity groups, and academic support for first-generation, low-income, and historically marginalized students to ensure not just access, but success.

Our university’s workforce. faculty, staff, graduate students, student athletes, and healthcare workers deserve respect, fair treatment, and a real voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

• Supporting Collective Bargaining: Protecting and expanding the right to organize across all job classifications, ensuring every worker has access to fair contracts, safe working conditions, and competitive compensation.

• Fair Pay and Benefits: Addressing pay inequities across departments and campuses and ensuring that graduate and temporary workers receive living wages and healthcare coverage.

• Labor-Management Collaboration: Creating formal structures for ongoing dialogue between university leadership and union representatives to promote transparency and problem-solving before conflicts escalate.

Michigan Medicine is a national leader in healthcare, and its reach should extend to every corner of our state. I propose:

• Increased Access to Care: Expanding satellite clinics and partnerships with local hospitals in underserved areas to bring high-quality medical care closer to patients.

• Training More Doctors and Nurses: Increasing enrollment in our medical and nursing programs and creating more residency opportunities across Michigan to address critical healthcare shortages.

• Economic Development: Bringing high-paying jobs and economic growth to local communities through the expansion of healthcare facilities and services.

The University of Michigan is a powerful force with three distinct campuses: Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint, each with their own identity. We need to foster better unity and collaboration across all three to maximize our collective impact. This includes:

• Shared Resources: Exploring opportunities for shared academic programs, research initiatives, and administrative efficiencies that benefit all campuses.

• Invest in Flint, Dearborn, and Ann Arbor: Creating opportunities for capital, infrastructure, and academic investments to elevate educational opportunities across all three campuses.

• Seamless Credit Mobility: Making it easier for students to take courses across campuses and have their credits fully recognized as they transfer, giving them more academic flexibility and opening pathways to graduate on time without unnecessary barriers.