Questions for Luke Hellier...

Questions students, faculty, and the Office of Higher Education ought to be asking Luke Hellier as he moves his way through the vetting process to be the next MnSCU Board of Trustee member for 4 year public college students.

1. Who recruited you for the MnSCU Board of Trustee position? Was it someone in the Governor's office or someone else?

2. How does a background in partisan politics and private college life qualify you for service to public college students on the highest collegiate governing board in the State of Minnesota?

3. Your resume read that you would be going to Mankato to pursue a Master's in Public Administration. It then said "Bloomington" in the line below that reference. Are you participating in a distance learning program? Will you ever set foot on the Mankato campus? As a part time student, how many credits are you going to take per semester?

4. A speaker you brought to St Johns, David Horowitz, said this about "liberal" programs on our campuses. "Peace studies programs are probably the leading example of campus support for terrorism." Do you support that sentiment?

5. As a trustee, you will be the voice of all 4 year public students, regardless of their political perspective. You wrote at the Young America Foundation "putting the liberal students and professors on the defensive and introducing our classmates to conservative ideas!" Will you continue to put professors and students who do not agree with your ideological views on the defensive?

6. Your history indicates work against Statewide Student Associations, such as the Minnesota Association of Private College Students. Will you work with the students you would represent at the Minnesota State University Student Association (MSUSA) and their coalition partner, the Minnesota State College Student Association (MSCSA)? Or will you continue to fight to degrade their efforts?

7. With student debt continuing to climb and putting the cost of affordable higher education beyond the reach of more and more students, do you still support cuts in aid programs that took $7.8 billion from student loan and aid programs?

8. Is discriminatory language commonplace in your life? Did you say those harsh words about the LGBT community at the Johnnie Hockey game? At first you said you didn't, then you said you may have. Which is it?

9. Being a student in Mankato, and if you are not distance learning from Bloomington, are you being put in place in the 1st CD to assist Dick Day in a race against Congressman Walz? You have experience on other Congressional campaigns...it's plausible.

10. Will you be able to hold Congresswoman Bachmann accountable for her lackluster higher education views? As a Board member, you will have the opportunity to travel to Washington to lobby elected officials on the MnSCU system objectives. Are you able to be non-partisan enough to persuade a member of Congress to support the MnSCU mission and the lives of public college students. Can you support that?

11. Describe how you envision your working relationship would be with MnSCU partners like the Inter Faculty Organization, MSCF, MAPE, AFSCME and other union partners. Will you continue to work against unions? Will you be a "union buster"?

We'll post more questions later...back to the phones and more research!