Two Democrats running for University of Michigan Board of Regents seats said Tuesday, Sept. 15, they would push to reinstate gender-affirming care for minors at Michigan Medicine.

Incumbent Regent Paul Brown and challenger Amir Makled, a Dearborn civil rights attorney, appeared at a town hall hosted by the American Federation of Teachers of Michigan and the Service Employees International Union of Michigan. Both candidates will face Republicans Michael Schostak and Lena Epstein in the Nov. 3 general election, when two regent seats are on the ballot.

Makled called gender-affirming care "a civil right" and said the university should not override physicians and families. Brown, who is seeking a second term and has publicly opposed the decision, agreed the board should act quickly to restore the care, The Michigan Daily reported. Michigan Medicine discontinued gender-affirming care for minors after receiving a federal subpoena. The Faculty Senate passed a resolution in October 2025 asking the hospital to reconsider.

Data center opposition

Both candidates also called on the university to slow or halt its planned $1.2 billion computing center, according to Planet Detroit, on a 144-acre Textile Road site in Ypsilanti Township, a collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Township residents have organized against the project.

"I don't care if they're building a rainbow factory that has only great things," Brown said at the town hall. "If the community doesn't want it, then you can't put it there."

At a Sept. 9 community meeting in Ypsilanti Township, U-M interim Vice President for Research Patricia Hurn acknowledged "enormous anger" and "enormous distrust" from attendees, according to Planet Detroit. Hurn said the Board of Regents has the authority to stop the project. The regents were scheduled to meet Thursday, Sept. 17.

When the university selected the Textile Road site in August, President Domenico Grasso said the institution was "equally committed to listening to our neighbors, answering their questions and working with the community to ensure we develop this site responsibly."

Budget and labor

Brown proposed redirecting state funding from the Ann Arbor campus to the university's Flint and Dearborn branches. He said Ann Arbor receives the highest per-student state contribution and that shifting "several hundreds of millions of dollars" would "absolutely transform those campuses."

He also called for eliminating the university's Work Connections program, which manages sick leave and workers' compensation. Brown said the program is "unfixable" and that staff should "be fired and replaced."

Makled proposed creating a labor advisory committee to give union workers a formal role in university governance. Both candidates said the university should increase investment in its International Center and programs supporting international students and researchers. A representative of the Postdoctoral Researchers Organization raised concerns about ICE enforcement actions against noncitizens.

The audience was heavy with union members, including from the Lecturers' Employee Organization (LEO). Cindee Giffen, LEO president, said after the event that the candidates' positions have been consistent throughout the campaign. A November win for both Democrats would give the board a Democratic majority when a new university president takes office in January.