The Minnesota State Legislature will elect four new University of Minnesota Board of Regents this spring to fill the four open seats — one student at-large, two statewide at-large and one fifth district seat.

The Regent Candidate Advisory Committee interviewed 22 candidates for all four open Board seats and released their recommendations for 12 candidates in January.

Benjie Kaplan and Kowsar Mohammed are running for the fifth district seat. Ann Sheldon, Dan Wolters and John Gibbs are running for the two at-large seats. The Minnesota Daily was unable to get in touch with Jamal Adams or Ellen Luger, both running for the At-Large seats, prior to publication.

Meet Benjie

Benjie Kaplan, a fifth district candidate, was executive director of the University Hillel Center for 10 years. He is currently the campus support director for Hillel International, serving Hillel centers across the country.

Kaplan said his work at the Hillel center is similar to the board, just on a far smaller scale.

Hillel serves anywhere from 600 to 800 Jewish students through programming and partnerships, Kaplan said.

Kaplan said his work at Hillel is important in helping him plan out what he would do on the Board.

“Throughout my work with Hillel, one of our go-tos is starting with one-on-one relationships with people and you branch out from there,” Kaplan said. “Building a relationship with the campus community is important because when things pop up on campus, you need to have a relationship to be able to have a good dialogue.”

Kaplan wants to focus on student success in the classroom. He said that there needs to be a bigger focus on student support.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure in the world for everyone under the sun to take sides on many different topics,” Kaplan said. “I think by being out there and hearing, listening and building relations, the Board of Regents can try to do what’s best for all students.”

Meet Kowsar

Kowsar Mohamed, another fifth district candidate, grew up in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis and earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University. She is currently a doctoral student studying natural resources science and management.

Mohamed has worked in community development, working for the city of St. Paul as a project manager.

“I’ve worked in the public sector,” Mohamed said. “I’ve done community organizing and activism, and I know how to get to the root issues of problems, but I’m also not scared of talking to people.”

Her biggest priority is building trust between the Board and the University community, as she wants the board to focus on being stewards of the public and using the budget to benefit students.

Mohamed said she wants to focus on sustained communication.

“You can’t really ever over-communicate, right?” Mohamed said. “I think we can always be in the space of under-communicating. So for me, it looks like really being boots on the ground in those communities where there may be significant challenges around how they are interfacing with their ecosystems.”

A big priority for Mohamed is sustained and preserved mental health and wellbeing resources. She also wants the University to work with local public entities, like city governments and the municipalities that surround the five schools.

“My biggest thing is we don’t have to recreate the wheel,” Mohamed said. “We’re a really large system. We have more than enough resources in the wherewithal to connect more deeply with one another and stack up our resources in a way that’s sustainable.”

Meet Ann

Ann Sheldon, an at-large seat candidate, graduated from the University in 1988 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Sheldon worked for Medtronic in Minnesota since and worked for the Alumni Association as a board member for eight years and was the chair in 2022-23.

Sheldon served on the search committee for the University’s current president and attended various campus forums to hear from students.

“There’s an equation that students talk about,” Sheldon said. “It’s not just the coursework, it’s the experience. Do I feel welcome on campus? Do I have help when I need help? Is this an affordable education?”

Sheldon is focused on student success and the teaching hospital.

“The University of Minnesota educates 70% of the physicians in the state,” Sheldon said. “We need to make sure that we have access to health care in the state of Minnesota, not just in the big cities, but all the way from the top to the bottom. So, how the University navigates what’s going to happen with MN Fairview, all of that is really important.”

Sheldon said it is essential that universities make a college education worth it for students. She thinks the curriculum needs to keep up with industry and teach students successfully.

Meet Dan

Dan Wolter, a statewide at-large seat candidate, is currently a Lakeville City council member. He was initially hired as director of the University News Services, now University Relations, in 2005 and worked there until 2011, working in public relations since.

Wolter served as the lead of communications for former University President Robert Bruininks and the Board. He also served on the Board of Regents candidate advisory council from 2012 to 2023 and personally interviewed every current board member.

Tuition prices are a major concern for Wolter.

“Tuition is of concern to me, and I feel like that’s gotten a little bit out of control,” Wolter said. “Broadly in higher education, tuition is of concern because we’re pricing so many people out of higher education.”

Wolter said public comment is critical to public meetings and wants to spend time listening to the public directly. He said that when an average person reaches out to the board, a staff member typically responds.

“The fundamental part of being a public official is that level of access,” Wolter said. “I’ve talked to parents who are involved in public safety issues, and I think they legitimately were looking for people on the Board of Regents to listen to them.”

Meet John

John Gibbs, a statewide at-large seat candidate, is a fifth-generation University graduate. He said that being a U student is “sorta in his blood.”

Gibbs was a lawyer at Comcast for over 20 years and said working with an international company gave him a sense of the national scale. He said the University should focus on improving as an institution and should not get too comfortable.

Gibbs thinks the University needs to focus on listening and communicating with the community in an engaging way.

“I want to respectfully engage in the debate, don’t shy away from any of it, but do it in a way that embraces all issues,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs said accountability is a key to earning students’ trust, which is essential for the Board.

“I’ve been hearing a lot about the lack of transparency going into a meeting and a decision made, but clearly a whole bunch of things happen leading up,” Gibbs said. “Nobody saw the process that went through to get to that decision.”

Gibbs said he used to hear stories from the University about times of unrest from family members when he was younger. Gibbs thinks having context is incredibly helpful when looking at current political tensions.

He also said academic health is a key issue and wants talks with Fairview to be made more clear.

“It’s (the board) is no place for somebody who’s gonna be intimidated by these challenges,” Gibbs said. “But I’m excited.”

The Board will make its decision before the end of the session, before May 19.