Lena Epstein

Strongly Agree

A university should make it possible for a student to continue her education and carry her pregnancy to term. In practice that means accessible support: student health and counseling services, academic accommodations and flexible scheduling, information on housing and childcare, and the Title IX protections pregnant students are entitled to but often do not know exist. No student should believe she has to choose between her degree and her child. The university's role is to support, not to pressure. Staff should connect students to resources and let students decide with their own families. Too many students in that position feel isolated on a campus of 50,000. That is a failure of accountability, and a Regent can fix it.

Strongly Disagree

Government's job is to create the conditions for opportunity, not to guarantee an income. In higher education that means keeping a degree affordable, opening more seats to Michigan students, and building real pathways from Michigan classrooms into Michigan jobs. A degree that leads to a career does more for a family's income than any government program.

Agree

I am Jewish, and the Ten Commandments are the foundation of my own faith tradition. They are also part of the shared moral and legal inheritance this country was built on, which is why Moses appears in the frieze of the U.S. Supreme Court. Communities should be free to recognize that history without anyone's faith being coerced or excluded. That balance, respecting religious heritage while protecting religious liberty for everyone, is the standard I would apply.

Agree

Universities exist for the free exchange of ideas, and that has to include faith. Students should be able to speak about their beliefs openly and civilly, whether they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or of no faith at all, without fear of penalty or intimidation. At Michigan today, Jewish students in particular have had to weigh whether it is safe to be visible about who they are. That is unacceptable, and the Board is responsible for fixing it.

Strongly Disagree

I oppose BDS without qualification, and this is not theoretical at the University of Michigan. Divestment resolutions come directly to the Board of Regents, and I will vote no every time. Singling out the world's only Jewish state for economic punishment is not a policy position, it is discrimination, and it has made Jewish students on this campus less safe. I also support expanding U of M's research partnerships with Israeli institutions.

Strongly Agree

Peace comes from strength, and American universities are part of that. The University of Michigan conducts significant defense and national security research, and that work should be protected and expanded, not apologized for.

Agree

Education decisions belong closer to students, families, and the states. My one caveat is practical: federal student aid and federal research funding matter enormously to Michigan students and to this university, and any restructuring has to preserve them. The goal is less bureaucracy in Washington, not less opportunity for a Michigan kid trying to pay for college.

Neutral

I support Michigan's public investment in K-12 and in its public universities. I do not support free college for all, which shifts cost rather than controlling it. The real problem is that costs have outrun both families and taxpayers. The answer is budget discipline, lower administrative overhead, more seats for in-state students, and full transparency on where tuition dollars go.

Strongly Disagree

This question is about K-12 schools, where outside medical providers should not be delivering instruction or services without parents at the table. Parents, not a school and not a third-party provider, should be making these decisions for their children.

Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, American History, Civics, Information Technology, Vocational Learning, Personal Finances, Foreign Language, Art & Music, Physical Fitness. Omitted: Critical Race Theory, Gender Identity, Political Activism, Sexuality, Social Emotional Learning. A school's job is academic. Questions of identity, activism, and sexuality belong with families, and time spent on them is time taken from reading, math, and science.

Equality of opportunity. Every student should get a fair shot and the support to use it, and results should reflect the work they put in. Equity of outcomes means setting the result in advance and adjusting standards to reach it, which devalues the achievement. The honest way to widen opportunity at Michigan is to open more seats to in-state students, build pathways from our high schools and community colleges, keep the degree affordable, and support students through to graduation.

Strongly Agree

Children should not be exposed to sexually explicit material, and parents, not institutions, decide what is appropriate for their own children. That principle does not change because the setting is a school, a library, or a public event.

Agree

My understanding of marriage comes from my faith. I would also say plainly that the definition of marriage is not a question that comes before the University of Michigan Board of Regents, and it is not something I am running to change. My job would be tuition, access, oversight, and student safety.

Strongly Agree

Parents are the first authority in a child's life, not the last resort. Institutions should work with them, keep them informed, and respect that the decisions belong to the family.

I am Jewish, and my faith is the center of how I was raised and how I am raising my daughter. My family has been part of Michigan's Jewish community for four generations. The values I carry come from that tradition: that every person is created in God's image and owed dignity, that we are obligated to care for the stranger and the vulnerable, that we are commanded to pursue justice, and that we are expected to leave what we are given better than we found it. Those commitments are why I am running. They are why I believe a university owes an accounting to the families who fund it, and why I will not accept a campus where any student, Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, is made to feel unsafe for practicing their faith openly.

Abstinence, consent, human anatomy and the reproductive system, physical and emotional health outcomes, and the stages of pregnancy and fetal development. Contraceptive methods at the high school level, with parental notice and the ability to opt out. I would not include abortion methods, sex acts, or sexual orientation and gender identity. Curriculum should be age-appropriate, medically accurate, and visible to parents before it is taught.

Strongly Disagree

I support requiring photo identification to vote. It is a basic safeguard that voters across both parties support, and states that require it should also make sure a free ID is genuinely available to anyone who needs one.

Strongly Agree

This one is squarely within the job I am running for. Michigan fields women's teams, houses students, and operates locker rooms and athletic facilities, and those decisions come to the Board. Women's sports were created so that women could compete fairly against women, and Title IX exists to protect that. Every student deserves to be treated with dignity, and protecting women's competition and private spaces is part of that, not opposed to it.

No

No

Conservative

I am a conservative, and I am running for a job that should not be partisan. A Regent's work is budgets, oversight, and student safety. I intend to work with anyone on this board who wants a university that is affordable, accessible, and accountable.

I support the 2nd Amendment and the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. The restrictions that matter most are the ones already on the books and often unenforced: keeping firearms from people with a documented history of violence or adjudicated dangerous, and prosecuting straw purchases and trafficking seriously. Michigan has learned hard lessons about campus safety. Enforcement and mental health investment do more good than new restrictions on people who already follow the law.