Unfortunately when I lived in Michigan the only Board of Regents election that really seemed to get people motivated was over whether or not George Perles would get the A.D. job.
Michigan is very fortunate. Here in Pennsylvania we have NO recourse at the ballot box against things like the Jerry Sandusky tragedy. Or against “state related” private institutions like Pitt flushing taxpayer money down ratholes.
If the people who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 had voted for conservatives for university administration ans state board of education positions, we would have run the table on all of them.
Unfortunately, only a fraction of those people even bothered to vote in those races at all and most went to hard left union activists.
Its also important to note that if you vote straight ticket in Michigan and there are multiple people from 1 party, those races will be left blank. You can still vote straight ticket but you have to specifically vote for candidates in those races for them to be counted.