Sviggum: Last year's Humphrey-conflict decision was wrong

Here's what University of Minnesota regent Steve Sviggum told me yesterday about a university committee's decision last year to not allow him to be both a regent and a Humphrey School of Public Affairs fellow:

"I think it was wrong. I think if you would have pressed it, there was no prohibition to being a legislative fellow. There was no prohibition to being a university employee. I had already been elected regent. I think if I’d pressed it through a court of law or a process … I think the rulings would have come my direction. Having said that, when you enter a team or a board, relationships are very, very important. It’s very, very important to the university and state that the board operate as a team in the best interest of the university. And I think that calling, that intent, was a higher calling than the wrong that was trying to be forced upon me."

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