I had lunch today with Joe Neguse. He's a 2nd year law student and is running for the 2nd CD C.U. Regent slot. To break with the "2nd" theme so far, he's hoping to place 1st in the election.
Does anyone remember Michael Keaton's character in the movie Night Shift? That's Joe, so much energy he's bouncing off the wall. He's smart, got tons of energy, and has put in the work necessary to effect change. I'm not sure some of the regents are ready for a colleague who will wake them up from their afternoon naps at the board meetings.
Alexander Hamilton, John D. Rockefeller, Joe Neguse. It's the money. Joe spent the first ½ hour discussing the funding crisis C.U. faces. What causes it, what we should try to address it, how to go about doing so. And a lot of that was discussing how up till now the regents haven't done squat (other than the occasional supportive resolution) to bring in more money.
Joe went in to how as a regent he will be out there selling the school, what it does, why it is worthy of support. And in that effort, build up the support of the taxpayers to provide higher ed the funding it needs to keep the state improving.
On the one hand, this is the biggest issue facing C.U. and it is good to see a regent candidate who will actually work to effect change. On the other hand, I'm thinking "oh great, another cheerleader in an oversight position."
And then, without pausing for breath, Joe jumped in to how C.U. is an inefficient bureaucracy and the Regents need to step up and start digging in to how the University is operating and what can be done to improve it.
He sees the need to bring improvement to the school, both to make more effective use of the money the school has and so the taxpayers are more willing to provide additional funds. And as a very active student and ex student body president, he knows where a lot of the bodies are buried. On some questions he will know if Bruce Benson is feeding the regents a load of crap.
On the flip side, he has no experience managing an organization and so he will not be able to bring in the processes by which the Regents can most effectively evaluate the operation of the University. But possibly his initiative and the business experience of 1 or 2 other regents combined may be a powerful combination.
As to academics, research programs, etc., he had very little to say. He speaks of them but his passion clearly is fixing the higher ed funding crisis and improving the operation of the system. That sounds to me like the recipe for a very good regent.
Plus he'll clearly work his ass off.
