Legislators elect five people to University of Minnesota Board of Regents

The Legislature filled five seats on the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents. Three of those spots went to individuals who have been there before.

Richard Beeson and Patricia Simmons were re-elected Wednesday night for their second and third consecutive terms, respectively.

Darrin Rosha of Maple Plain will return to the board for the first time since 1995, when he served as a student regent. While the typical term for a regent is six years, Rosha will serve out the remaining two years of former Regent David Larson, who died in October.

Michael Hsu of Blaine and Thomas Anderson of Alexandria will round out the 12-member board which governs the state’s land grant university. The only governmental body in the state whose members are elected by the Legislature oversees a $3.5 billion budget. More than 63,000 students are enrolled university’s five campuses.

The joint convention, required by the Minnesota Constitution, was the final step in a complicated application and nomination process that began last fall. The board is made up of members from each of the state’s eight Congressional districts and four members who serve in at-large seats. No at-large seats were up for appointment this year. Regents serve six-year terms without pay.

Last month, a joint committee of the House and Senate higher education committees voted to recommend nominees for each of the five open seats. But one of the races featured multiple nominations from the floor, which is allowed per statutory rules that govern the election.

Here’s the rundown in how each new (or returning) regent was elected. Vote totals were not announced in four of the five races:

First District

Simmons will return to her third consecutive term on the board after she eliminated fellow nominee Randy Simonson.

Both Simmons and Simonson, CEO of an animal health science company, were nominated last month by a joint meeting of the House and Senate higher education committees. The move was unprecedented, as the committee typically nominates one individual to recommend to the joint convention.

Also noteworthy was Simmons’ late addition to the process. The Rochester resident announced last fall that she would not be seeking a third term on the board. But she re-entered the race with the help of a group of DFL legislators after another Rochester resident, Dr. Claire Bender, dropped out shortly before the joint committee was to select a nominee.

Third District

Rosha was nominated on the floor Wednesday along with former DFL Congressman Bill Luther. The two challenged Michael Belzer and Paula Prahl, whose names had been forwarded by the joint committee.

Rosha, a military veteran and a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, was elected after three rounds of voting.

Per convention rules, a regent must be selected with a majority of the votes cast. However, the person with the lowest vote total in a given round is removed from consideration. Prahl was eliminated after the first round and Belzer was eliminated after the second round. Rosha received 98 votes in the third round; Luther 96.

Fourth District

Beeson, a banking executive from St. Paul, who was first elected to the board in 2009, was unopposed.

Sixth District

Hsu, executive director of Twin Cities-based Teemaster Corp., was challenged by a nomination on the floor for Steve Laraway, a financial adviser from St. Cloud. Laraway was a finalist for the seat earlier last month before Hsu received the joint committee nomination.

Seventh District

Anderson, a funeral home director, beat out farmer Michael Yost of Murdock. Yost was nominated from the joint convention floor, but Anderson received a majority of votes in a single round of voting.