Michigan’s University Research Corridor presidents call a proposed 3-percent increase in state support for higher education “a good start” but they are concerned that the state remains “dead last” among the 50 states for increases over the past six years.
While the average state has boosted higher education appropriations by 23 percent over the past six years, the state of Michigan has cut higher education support by 11 percent while increasing spending for most areas in the state budget by double digits.
The URC presidents, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon and Wayne State University Irvin Reid, teamed up Feb. 19 to make their case before the state Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education, praising the benefits of collaboration.
“We’ve joined together on the theory that a rising tide lifts all boats,” Simon said.
“Together, the three of us cover every part of the state… We have partnerships with other universities and communities and the purpose of the URC is not to exclude those partnerships but they are more project-based while our alliance is more broad-based.”
Coleman, Simon and Reid said they are leveraging their resources to make collaboration “part of the fabric” of what they do and to help other parts of the nation focus more positive attention on the state as a whole.
Coleman, who was a graduate student and later a vice chancellor at the University of North Carolina, noted the growth of North Carolina’s Research Triangle turned a partnership of three research universities into a magnet for economic growth and new business investment. The three presidents listed a number of companies that have similarly moved to Michigan to be near URC universities.
“The purpose of this partnership is not to be exclusive but to say the state has an asset that has been under-utilized,” Coleman said.
Reid said the URC effort, begun in late 2006, is already focusing new national attention on the state, noting that he was repeatedly asked about the URC during a recent trip to California.
“It has already paid a number of dividends we can’t even quantify for you,” Reid said of the alliance.
The presidents also discussed several upcoming partnerships for 2008 including plans to invest $900,000 of URC resources into seed grants asking their faculty for research proposals for revolutionary but feasible alternative energy research proposals involving two or more of their universities.
They also previewed plans to host a delegation of major Chinese research university leaders in May.
When asked about their growing endowments and calls by the governor and members of Congress to spend more endowment money on decreasing tuition, the presidents said they welcomed the opportunity to explain how endowments work.
Coleman noted U-M’s endowment is comprised of 6,200 separate funds that are used in accordance with donor intent as to how their money is to be used, leaving little of the endowment spending decisions under their direct control.
More than $442 million raised during the Michigan Difference campaign is earmarked for student aid, bringing U-M’s total endowment for student aid to $1.3 billion. Reid added that much of the endowment money URC administrators do have a say over already is directed toward student aid but the presidents said the wishes of the donors must always be respected.
Coleman gave as an example her own gift to the University of Northern Iowa to endow a lectureship in her father’s name.
“I wanted to establish a lectureship in my father’s name and I signed a contract with them,’’ Coleman said. “If they came to me and said we want to take your gift and use the money for paying an electric bill, I would never give them another dollar.”
The presidents are slated to testify before the House committee Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education in April.
In separate testimony, Michael Boulus, executive director of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan, said Michigan has cut state support for higher education by more than $2,600 per pupil when adjusting for inflation.
He said the state’s 15 public universities have made up for those cuts by working together to cut costs in a host of areas, noting that “on the retirement side we’re pretty lean and mean” with every public university employee in a 401k-style retirement plan in contrast to K-12 employees where benefit costs are rising much more rapidly.
To read the complete Senate testimony go to www.urcmich.org.
