University President George Ross said Central Michigan University “can’t be everything to everybody” Monday to members of the Student Government Association.

Ross began by discussing Academic Prioritization, the process in which Provost Gary Shapiro ranked every academic program on a scale of 1 to 5, with input from college deans and faculty.

“We are legally obligated to make sure you will complete your major,” he said. "But we need to be objective about our future."

Most of the topics Ross discussed had to do with the financial health of the university and how students are going to be affected in the future.

Ross had no answer to Farmington Hills sophomore Hannah Keshishian’s question on why some students have lost their Pell grants and scholarships that came through the office of Financial Aid.

“I feel bad because he didn’t know how to respond to my question,” Keshishian said. “I think it threw him for a loop, but a lot of the questions he was asked threw him for a loop.”

After being questioned about a possible raise in tuition, Ross responded by pointing out that CMU had the lowest tuition increase in the state this year at 3.47 percent.

“About three decades ago, public universities like CMU got around three-quarters of their funding from the government, now they get around 16 percent,” Ross said. “We are becoming much more tuition-dependent.”

Ross also explained why this year’s freshmen class is smaller than the previous classes.

“After fall 2010, we decided to restrict the GPA and standardized ACT/SAT test score requirements for students applying to Central,” Ross said. “By doing this, we have a smaller freshmen class this year that has a higher GPA.”

Ross discussed the increase in government regulation for universities and the increasing need to hire additional administrators over the past few years.

Ross said he is trying to avoid having more than four vice presidents.

“Steven Johnson, a graduate of Howard University, will be the vice president for enrollment and student services,” Ross said. “This is a new position that combined two previous ones.”

When Ross was asked what the Academic Senate’s vote to halt action on CMED will do, he advised the student to ask the A-Senate. The last major topic Ross discussed was online classes.

“I think we need both, and there are no plans to replace face-to-face classes with online ones,” Ross said. “A quarter of our students are non-traditional students who can’t make it to Mount Pleasant to sit in a classroom. Many of them are adults who have to work, and online courses are very beneficial to them.”

Vince Cavataio, Shelby Township senior and Student Government Association president, said he believed students benefited from the question and answer session.

“This was very informative for students — they were able to ask questions about the things that they care about,” Cavataio said. “We are hoping to have President Ross back again in the near future.”