CMU should hold its academic programs to major standards if it is to cost as much as major university
Annual tuition at CMU is $2,775 above the national average for public 4-year institutions, according to research by the Chronicle of Higher Education, and asking the question “Why?” is imperative.
CMU’s annual tuition of $10,380 is $1,457 less than University of Michigan and only $800 less than Michigan State University.
In years past, CMU has been considered an inexpensive alternative to these more expensive universities for in-state students considering where to go to college.
The question then becomes whether CMU’s quality of education comes as close to these other schools as its price-tag does.
If CMU can hardly, if at all, market itself as an inexpensive alternative to larger in-state universities, what is the draw for students to enroll here, instead of one of the comparable but cheaper schools such as Eastern Michigan University or Grand Valley State University?
With a hefty tuition cost compared to the national average, EMU’s $8,378 or even GVSU’s $9,088, CMU’s money is being funneled into novelty rather than improving the quality of education.
While opening the College of Medicine, building the new Events Center and the Education and Human Services building, the university has made clear they are trying to attract potential students with what is flashy and new, rather than strengthen and support the programs and facilities that are already there.
While the university is focusing on expansion, growth and novelty, how much expansion and support have the core programs of the university gotten? When was the last time a major addition was made to the English department? How much effort has been put into improving the education program, instead of just the building it is taught in?
Quite simply, if CMU wants to be priced like a major state university, it should be a major state university. It should focus on strengthening the curricula of the programs that are in place and making them the best they could possibly be.
As CMU is one of three universities currently building a medical school, along with Oakland University and Western Michigan University, and the Detroit Free Press’s Nov. 21 editorial blasting the medical-school trend in the state with an appeal to Gov.-elect Rick Snyder to consider stopping it, this direction may not work out for CMU.
Even as dedicated to the College of Medicine as they are, they need to focus on strengthening the rest of the university’s programs to the quality of a $10,000-a-year school or decrease the cost of tuition.
Otherwise, CMU may be a large cluster of very nice, very empty buildings within several decades.
