Gov. Rick Snyder offered a slight funding kickback for MSU in his budget proposal released Thursday, while other universities received more in a proposed system to tie additional money to university performance rates.
The governor proposed a 1.4 percent increase in additional funding for MSU during the 2012-13 fiscal year, one of the lowest amounts of restored funding among all the state’s public universities.
State universities overall received a 3 percent restoration in funds after last year’s budget cut of 15 percent from higher education.
Wayne State University and the University of Michigan — which together with MSU make up the state’s three largest universities — also received some of the lowest proposed funding. U-M was allotted a 1.4 percent increase, while Wayne State was given 0.9 percent.
To take effect, the proposal must be passed by the legislature — which has a Republican majority in both chambers — and signed by Snyder.
“While we need to review the details of his proposal for performance metrics, we are encouraged to see higher education funding finally growing again,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said in a statement, urging the Legislature also to increase funding for agriculture research.
The recommendations were part of the governor’s plan in the budget proposal that would tie additional university funding to four performance rates: overall graduation rates, the number of students graduating with degrees in “critical skill areas,” the number of Pell Grants and compliance with state-imposed tuition restraints.
Snyder’s proposal mandates universities not raise tuition above 4 percent to maintain full funding, down from last year’s 7.1 percent ceiling.
An unusually solemn-toned Snyder gave a subtle message to universities: There won’t be conflicts between the state government and colleges regarding tuition this year.
“I’m quite sure that working through the process with the legislature that there won’t be as much ambiguity, and there will be greater clarity this year,” Snyder said in a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Last year, representatives in the House Subcommittee on Higher Education called MSU administrators to testify, claiming they changed the definition of the academic year in an attempt to raise tuition above the ceiling and still maintain full funding.
This year’s proposal defines the academic year at each university as the two semesters with the highest level of student enrollment, preventing administrators from calculating cost using cheaper summer rates.
Additional money for universities has yet to be distributed until all the universities release next year’s tuition rates.
The plan so far has received mixed reviews from MSU students.
“Why would you hurt schools that have lower graduation rates by not giving them as much money?” James Madison freshman Brad Hinkson said.
Partial funding for the multimillion dollar Bio Engineering Facility also was recommended to be given to MSU in Snyder’s budget, said Kurt Weiss, spokesman for the State Budget Office.
State officials have moved forward to contribute $30 million in funding, with $10 million slated to come from the university’s general fund if legislators sign off on the final budget.
“We’re very pleased that (the facility) is moving forward in the process,” said Marsha Rappley, dean of the College of Human Medicine. “We’re cautiously optimistic.”
Staff writers Katie Harrington and Andrew Krietz contributed to this report.
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