CMU lagging in per-student funding, Higher-education funding reform halted by economy

Central Michigan University is out-funded per student by 11 other public universities despite having the fourth largest enrollment in Michigan.

Though K-12 public schools are funded on a per-student basis, institutions such as CMU are not. But with spiking enrollment statewide, university officials lawmakers have in recent years lobbied for higher education funding reform.

Kathy Wilbur, vice president of government relations and public affairs, said officials “very loudly” made the case for per-student funding under former university president Michael Rao.

“If you have a higher level of your population with a bachelor’s degree, you will have a stronger economy,” she said. “We made some success with that argument under past leadership in the state Senate … but, now, we’re fighting for our lives.”

State funding to CMU has decreased 26.8 percent since 2000. To equal the same per-student funding levels received a decade ago, the state would have to give CMU $121 million in the next fiscal year, or $41 million more than what was given for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Western Michigan University and Wayne State University — Michigan’s fifth and third largest universities — are getting about $5,000 and $8,700 per student, whereas CMU has allocated $3,916 per student in 2009-10.

‘Not the time’

When the state’s economy began its struggle, Toby Roth, CMU director of government relations, said higher education funding reform took a back seat to other financing priorities. He said, in addition to the $1.8 billion cut last year, the state budget needs to be cut by an added $1.6 billion this year.

Early estimates, Roth said, call for another $1 billion cut for next year.

“It’s just not the time right now to talk about changing the format for how we fund higher education,” he said.

State Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, reforming the system to a per-student based model could certainly be something further looked into in the future.

“You’d have to just lay some of those things out and then actually see how they affect each of the universities,” he said. “I just think that in this climate right now, with the resources the way they are, it would be a real challenge to get to a formula like that.”

Lobbying for more

Brittany Mouzourakis, Student Government Association vice president, lobbied with Wilbur in 2007 for the per-student-funding initiative.

The Garden City senior said the universities that receive higher amounts of state funding argue that they are research hubs and need additional grants and funding to finance their projects.

But she said their reasoning, and the willingness of legislators to accommodate their requests, perpetuates a “vicious cycle” of bias and sends the wrong message.

“There’s a huge economic disparity where the state is telling us that a student at Wayne State and a student at U-M and at MSU is worth more than a student at CMU because we’re getting paid less per capita student,” Mouzourakis said.

Though the shift in budget arguments, Wilbur said CMU still lobbies for per-student funding in some way.

University President George Ross, among some of his first presidential duties, will testify at a state senate sub-committee on higher education hearing March 8 at Ferris State University. Then, in mid-April, Wilbur said there has been talk of a hearing on CMU’s campus.

-University Editor Eric Dresden contributed to this report.