Through a series of e-mails and letters, university officials are encouraging MSU community members to contact state legislators, urging them to keep looming higher education cuts to a minimum.
The campaign is geared toward educating students, parents of students and alumni on the connection between state appropriations and tuition costs. It also comes in the midst of a $920 million state budget shortfall.
"This is the most comprehensive education campaign we've ever had," said Steve Webster, MSU's vice president of governmental affairs. "The Michigan economy is so frail. At this point, it is not clear that without a concerted effort the Legislature will be restoring any and all of these cuts."
Webster said the initiative was spearheaded by MSU President M. Peter McPherson and the campaign began taking form in October.
About 60,000 MSU alumni who live in Michigan received an e-mail Nov. 7 describing the severity of Michigan's budget. A similar e-mail was sent to about 35,000 students on Friday.
All e-mails sent out by university officials provide a link to a Web site about how to contact Michigan lawmakers, Webster said.
"The student involvement is probably more broad and deep because of the seriousness of the situation," university spokesman Terry Denbow said. "Students are excellent advocates, especially when they have the right information."
Some MSU students say they're planning to act on the message.
"We do need to contact our legislators," said Kara Smith, a James Madison freshman. "You can't complain if you don't do anything about it."
State lawmakers could not be reached to comment on how the efforts would be received by the Michigan Legislature.
Webster said letters also will be distributed with tuition bills. The letters won't directly ask tuition payers to contact Michigan legislators but instead will outline how MSU was able to keep tuition at the level of inflation for seven of the past 10 years. The recent statewide economic downturn resulted in higher tuition increases in the past few years.
MSU had $21 million sliced from its $693 million budget this year. As a result, university officials cut $31 million from its budget and raised tuition 9.9 percent.
About half of MSU's total budget comes from state appropriations, Webster said.
He added that more e-mails and letters might be sent out when university officials have a clearer understanding of the state's budget.
Julie Peterson, spokeswoman for the University of Michigan, said there isn't an aggressive campaign at U-M, but the university has made attempts to inform students of the state's budget woes.
She said an e-mail was sent to leaders of the Michigan Student Assembly, U-M's student government, inviting them to view the inaugural State of the Public Universities Address broadcast at the campus' Michigan Union.
The address, which was held Wednesday in Lansing, was attended by the 15 state public university presidents attempting to convince legislators of the importance of funding higher education.
McPherson said he shared MSU's education strategy with the other university presidents at the state of the public university address, and he expects other universities to follow suit.
"This is something that directly impacts the students," he said. "This is not a theoretical issue. This is real dollars and cents."
Antonio Planas can be reached at planasan@msu.edu.
