Education

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Joel Ferguson has been re-elected to a fourth two-year term as chairman of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees.

At a special meeting Friday, the board also elected Brian Breslin of Williamston to a two-year term as vice chairman.

Ferguson first was elected to the MSU board in 1986. The Lansing resident was elected again in 1996, 2004 and 2012. He was elected board chairman in 1992, 2007 and 2010.

Ferguson is the co-founder of F & S Development Company.

The University of Michigan’s Board of Regents is skipping its normally scheduled public meeting this month to travel to Los Angeles to meet in private with major donors and higher education leaders.

The eight member board, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, and a handful of other administrators will meet Thursday and Friday in L.A. UM spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the trip will cost up to $50,000 with the funds coming from donors, not from tuition payments or state money.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette continues his effort to remove some Detroit school board members.

A Wayne County judge heard oral arguments Thursday about Schuette’s lawsuit to throw out seven board members elected by district.

Schuette says state law only allows so-called “first class” school districts to elect board members that way. He says Detroit hasn’t met that threshold since 2008.

School board attorney George Washington insists his clients followed the law "as the legislature wrote it."

Washington also noted the lawsuit was only filed in 2012, after Michigan’s emergency manager law was suspended.

“They were happy with the way the school board was elected, until they thought they might not have a financial manager," Washington said. "And then they said, ‘Well, we gotta get rid of the board. No matter what the law says, or what we’ve allowed to happen.'"