SGA, students to lobby for higher education funding with President George Ross
Members of the Student Government Association and student body will travel to Lansing on Feb. 25 to lobby for higher education funding with Central Michigan University President George Ross.
SGA will pay for the cost of members attending the trip, including tours of the Capitol Building, Hall of Justice and Historical Museum. Of the 24 students attending the trip, only two are non-SGA members, said SGA President Chuck Mahone.
"(SGA) wanted to take the opportunity to support our university while at the same time giving our students experience in the process," he said.
Lobbying is done to attempt to influence decisions made by officials in government, usually legislators. Ross, Mahone and others attending the trip will meet with members of the Michigan House of Representatives and Senate to speak with them about the benefits of giving more funding to higher education.
On Feb. 10, Gov. Rick Snyder announced plans to restore higher education funding to the level it was at in 2011, the year before he took office. That year, Snyder cut higher education funding by 15 percent.
In his 2017 budget proposal, Snyder proposed investing $61.2 million in state university operations. CMU would receive $81.1 million in operations funding and $4.2 million in performance based funding, a 5.2 increase from last year.
"If the governor is able to get us back to (what appropriations were before he took office), I am happy," Ross said. "But, our state appropriations are around $80 million. Our state appropriations in 1991 were $91 million. Not accounting for inflation, we are way behind."
State budget reductions happened predominantly from 2002-03 through 2011-12, causing Michigan universities to substantially increase tuition.
Barrie Wilkes, vice president of finance and administrative services, said if CMU received the same amount of appropriations as in 2001, adjusted for inflation, it would reduce tuition by $100 per credit hour.
