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Thejesus
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Username: Thejesus

Post Number: 683
Registered: 06-2006
Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 4:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

February 28, 2007

By KRISTEN JORDAN SHAMUS

FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

The presidents of the state's three largest universities asked lawmakers today to fund them separately from the other 12 public universities in Michigan, seeking a boost that they say could turn the state’s economy around.

Later, in an exclusive interview with the Free Press editorial board, President Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan, Lou Anna Simon of Michigan State University and Irvin Reid of Wayne State University said the state should count their share of the pot separately.

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“Here we are bringing $1.3 billion to the state,” said Wayne State University President Irvin Reid of the federal and state grants the research universities produce each year. “We’re spending that here in the state. We’re not only creating jobs, we’re creating knowledge.”

Reid said 40% of Michigan's students are enrolled at MSU, U-M or Wayne. The three schools also are home to 69% of the international students studying in the state and produce all of the medical degrees in Michigan.

Whether lawmakers will agree to increase funding the state's public universities, as recommended in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's budget plan, remains to be seen.

Granholm has recommended separating the three research universities from the other 12 public universities, however all 15 would get the same 2.5 % increase. But to get that money, the schools must agree to defer about 4.5% of their total 2007 budgets -- about $69.4 billion -- from August until October.
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Lilpup
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Username: Lilpup

Post Number: 1747
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 4:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It would be nice if U-M would bring more of the services they use in state. It's rather annoying that U-M has outsourced overseas. I know the hospital's transcription service is in India. It would be interesting to see how much these schools send elsewhere that could be done here.
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Kevdog
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Username: Kevdog

Post Number: 154
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 5:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The purpose of funding these universities is to diversify our economy to create more jobs that are knowledge-based and competitive in the new economy. It's not to protect unskilled jobs that can be done more cheaply overseas. To require that universities use higher-priced transcription services locally would just be delaying the inevitable--that eventually, all those people would have to be laid off and the work sent to India. It doesn't help to try to overprice labor, because eventually you just have to buy people out and/or lay them off.
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Gertrude
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Username: Gertrude

Post Number: 27
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2007 - 2:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Since the mission of UM,MSU, and WSU is fundamentally different than the other state schools, it would make sense that their funding be consistent with their output. The other schools' main output is teaching while the 3 R1s output is split between teaching and research.

For some reason the fecks on the Freep site don't understand that.
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Emu_steve
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Username: Emu_steve

Post Number: 164
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2007 - 2:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I want to put in a plug (shamelessly) for my undergrad school.

Not only does it produce Ph.D. in many disciplines, medical doctors, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, etc. etc. but about 75% of Wayne grads remain in Michigan.

In a sense, it does the State of Michigan little good to education a Ph.D. computer engineer if he (or she) is going to move to Silicon Valley or some other out of state location.

Where is the payoff to the Michigan taxpayers who helped fund the education?

In a sense, I can understand now why students are expected to bear a greater portion of their higher educational costs.

Today's graduates are much more mobile and the state where they get their college degrees may not stand to benefit from their education.

(Message edited by emu_steve on March 01, 2007)

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