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Simon poses possibility of staff layoffs, tuition hikes

February 15, 2009

Simon

MSU would have to cut 703 faculty and staff or raise tuition 8.9 percent to overcome Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s proposed $9.1 million cut in state funding, President Lou Anna K. Simon said Friday.

On Thursday, Granholm proposed a 3.1 percent decrease in operating funds for MSU, which means the university would receive about $283 million in 2009-10 as opposed to about $293 million in 2008-09.

By estimating next year’s standard inflation costs for the university — such as faculty salaries, utilities and health care — and taking into account the 3.1 percent reduction in state funding, Simon said during Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting the university would need to lay off more than 700 workers, raise tuition by almost 9 percent or use a combination of both.

“That’s how you would look at it in terms of either reductions of people or tuition,” she said. “Those are two extremes. We’re not going to do either extreme.”

Although Granholm has asked public universities to freeze tuition in exchange for federal stimulus money, MSU officials are hesitant to agree to the deal.

“I’m not throwing down the gauntlet today,” MSU Trustee Joel Ferguson said. “We’ll work very hard to do all the things that are necessary to make things even more efficient.

“… But, if those things don’t give us enough funds, then we’re not adverse to raising tuition.”

In November 2008, the board raised tuition 1.2 percent beginning this summer. Starting this semester, an in-state freshman taking 15 credits will pay about $10,387.17 for two semesters. An 8.9 percent tuition increase for next fall would equate to an additional $462 per semester.

Ferguson said any tuition increase instituted by the board wouldn’t be the university’s fault.

“If there has to be a tuition increase, it’s not going to be because of action this board is taking,” he said. “It’s going to be because the action the state is taking by not giving us the funds that they’re supposed to give us to augment our budget.”

Although Simon said Granholm is in a difficult position, some MSU students said cutting from the university isn’t a smart move.

“The promotion of higher education is integral to job creation and keeping people here,” international relations senior Alex Walker said. “We always see tuition raising. But it’s also terrible that we’d have to lose over 700 jobs. That’s a sticky situation.”

MSU Trustee Faylene Owen, chairperson of the board’s finance committee, said the board will work with students’ interests in mind.

“This is a very difficult time right now,” Owen said. “This just isn’t the right thing to do. We need money, and we haven’t gotten any and we’re not going to get any.”

Simon said the board and MSU officials will continue to pursue cost-cutting strategies to limit financial stress for students.

“I assure that we’re going to go through a very systematic process to prioritize things,” she said. “We will work with … the university community to try to find a pattern that is in the best interest, long-term, for the value of Michigan State and the people of Michigan.”

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