LANSING – Community colleges and universities have for many years been separated into individual budgets to recognize the differences in their missions. But now officials at Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State want the same lines drawn between them and the state’s 12 other four-year schools – a distinction not shared by all legislative leaders.
Though officials at the three universities argue they are not seeking additional funds beyond the increases proposed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, they are asking that their funding be moved to at least a separate section of the current budget bills if not to an entirely separate bill.
“It’s a simple restructuring of the appropriations process,” said Steven Webster, vice president of government affairs for Michigan State University.
Of particular concern for the schools is that a funding formula for universities would not take into account the added costs, and benefits, of the medical schools and research the three schools operate.
The proposal is not far from what Granholm had proposed in her initial budget, said Greg Bird, spokesperson for the State Budget Office.
“If you take a look at the governor’s proposal, that’s exactly the type of reasons we did give the three main research universities that 2 percent across the board,” Bird said of the arguments the research universities are making for the split budget.
The budget as approved by the Senate provides floor per-student funding for all 15 universities. The House is exploring a formula similar to that proposed for the current budget year.
Sen. Mike Goschka (R-Brant) said he has not seen a reason to vary from the floor funding proposal.
“I’ve always been open to looking at those schools with medical schools separately,” he said. “I haven’t been convinced to do that so far. I am open to looking at the prospect of giving greater consideration that U of M, MSU and Wayne State have medical schools and do research … But to come right out with two separate formulas, I would not support that.”
Though they were not able in the Senate, officials from the three research universities are hoping to convince Goschka, and others, including the 12 other universities, of the need for change. An amendment to separate the three schools was narrowly defeated as Goschka argued its passage would say to the other schools that they were not as good.
Harvey Hollins, vice president of government and community affairs for Wayne State University, said the trend in the Legislature is to do funding by formula.
“When you have a formula, you’ve got to have the comparisons right,” he said.
Research university officials said there are both costs and benefits of the big schools that have not been addressed by either legislative proposal. As they have in prior budget rounds, officials from the schools said the programs they offer are inherently more expensive than those offered at the other 12.
“It costs more to produce a doctor than to produce a political science student,” Hollins said.
Hollins said Wayne State also has costs for being an urban research university that are not reflected in the formula. He noted, for instance, that Ferris State University recently expanded its campus by some 30 acres for $1 million. “We can’t acquire 1 acre for that,” he said.
Wayne State would also be penalized for its higher proportion of part-time students, also a characteristic of urban universities, Hollins said. Speaking shortly after Delphi Corporation’s announcement of planned layoffs. “After what Delphi did today, we’re going to have a lot of underskilled students going back,” he said. “They’re going to be part-time during that entire experience.”
But the formulas also do not allow the state to concentrate on the benefits the schools bring, Webster said.
“If you want the benefits that come from having three world-class research universities in your state, you need to focus on that and measure the benefit,” he said. “Now in the annual appropriations process those questions tend to get blurred.”
Instead, Webster said, the appropriations are based more on tuition increase questions.
“What Michigan needs more of is company creation and job creation,” Webster said. And he said the three research universities contribute to that by housing 95 percent of the research and development done in the state and all of the university medical research. He pointed to several studies that showed the economic development rates around large research universities are higher than the rest of the state.
The three schools also account for 55 percent of the science and engineering degrees from among the 15 state universities, Webster said. “If we can produce more engineers, then we’re a magnet for other states to send their students here to become engineers.”
Webster said the schools also attract foreign students, many of whom opt either to remain in the state after they graduate to start new businesses or return home to start those businesses but with plans to expand to plants in the United States, often in Michigan.
The state’s health care industry also rests heavily on the shoulders of those three schools, the officials said. “The whole life sciences corridor rests on the three universities,” Hollins said. “Eliminate Wayne State, U of M and Michigan State from the corridor and Western and Van Andel couldn’t sustain it.”
“So if you want to speed up the transition of the state economy, you need to track the output of those three schools,” Webster said.
Officials of the three research universities have suggested some ways of tracking that output. Among the items in a proposed boilerplate submitted to legislators are annual reports on:
The schools’ efforts to respond to the “looming, crippling” medical professional shortage;
Efforts to improve graduation rates as compared to similar universities nationally;
Development of programs to assist communities with economic development efforts in a variety of areas;
Attraction of new private and federal research funding and projects; and
Work with international alumni to develop trade missions and economic development leads.
Those types of goals would again separate the three research universities from the rest of the state universities.
Mr. Webster said analysis of those reports would then play into the appropriations for those three schools. But again he said success on any of the goals would not be used as a means of taking funds from the other 12 schools.
If the Legislature does insist on a formula that includes all 15 schools, Hollins offered the assistance of the big three universities to develop it.
“Have our economists get together and do the formula the right way,” he said.
This story was written by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
