i"
The Michigan Daily- Friday, October 16,1992 - Page 5
Nothing
funny about
today 's
young guns
Bang! Bang! You're dead!
Fifty bullets in your head!
It's a kid's saying. Most of us
yelled it when we were younger,
running around the yard playing
another game
of cops and
robbers. I M~i
Out-of-state students are shut out by the U-M' residency requirements
'
by Shelley Morrison
Daily Higher Education Reporter
When Yanni Kouskoulas arrived at the
U-M last fall, he had just applied for in-state
residency on the grounds that, because he
had been born in Michigan and lived here
most of his life that he should be declared a
Michigan resident.
Yanni Kouskoulas' request was denied.
Kouskoulas has since reapplied for resi-
dency at the outset of each term, each time
adding more proof of his residency - in-
cluding tax receipts, proof of home and
business ownership, abirth certificate and an
American passport, which together are con-
sidered acceptable forms of proof under
residency regulations.
Despite the documentation, the univer-
sity declared that Kouskoulas was still not a
resident, and was subject to non-resident
tuition.
"After all the documentation I gave them,
I don't understand why I was denied,"
Kouskoulas said, "my residency file is the
size of a phone book. I am a Michigan
resident."
InMay 1992, "after desperately trying all
the normal channels," the Kouskoulas fam-
ily filed a suit against the university. On Oct.
7,1992, Kouskoulas was once again denied
Michigan residency status.
"I really hate this. I feel like I'm being
singled out and given alotmore trouble than
everyone else," Kouskoulas said. "I'm re-
ally disgusted by the whole business."
UnderResidence Regulations of theUni-
versity of Michigan, which have been
effective since 1974, a student is considered
a resident only if "she/he is in continuous
physical presence within the state of Michi-
gan and intends to make Michigan her/his
permanent home, not only while in atten-
dance at the university, but indefinitely
thereafter."
Despite other factors of his residency,
Kouskoulas was absent from Michigan for
more than two years.
Virginia Nordby, chair of the residence
appeals committee - a committee that was
created along with the residency regulations
in 1974 - said that although clarifying
documentation can be key to a successful
appeal, no amount of documentation will
automatically gain a student residence sta-
tus.
"Every student who appliesfor in-state
residency has a story, and that story has to be
documented," Nordby said. "Sometimes the
story may be well-documented but it just
may be that the story doesn't fit."
If students apply for in-state residency
through the Office of the Registrar, they
must submitmaterial along with the applica-
tion that is considered evidence of residency
under the designated regulations.
There are nine factors that are said to be
given "probative value" in consideration of
a residency
claim. These
factors include
continuous
presence in
Michigan Stateswith n e
when not 100 studentse
taking at the U-M
classes,
financial
reliance '
0 n
The committee makes
its decisions through a
vote of approval, denial
or further discussion. The
appeals committee makes
all the final decisions on
residency claims.
Nordby said claims
run "roughly a 50/50
chance" of being ap-
proved.
Of the 1,190 applica-
tions submitted last year,
544, or 46 percent, were
denied at the Residence
Office. Of 197 appeals,
187 were denied - a 95
percent denial rate.
Paul Wright, an em-
ployee in the Residence
Office in the Office of the
Registrar, refused to com-
ment after repeated
requests for a statement
aboutresidency proceed-j
ings.
What it meansj
to be a Non-
Resident at the
U-M
In the fall of 1991,
there were 22.665, shi-
. f-
6 66
I ,, o
1.
remember
my friends
arguing over
who got to be
the cop,
because the
cop was
always going
to win.
The
Rennie
dents enrolled in
undergraduate programs
at the university, of which
about 16,000 were con-
sidered Michigan
residents, and more than
6,000 were deemed non-
residents.
The largest numbers of out-of-state stu-
dents came from the states of New York
(1,357), Illinois (764) and Ohio (757).
Donald Swain, associate director of ad-
missions, said this number correlates to the
70-30 ratio of in-state students to out-of-
state students set by the state in the mid-'80s.
"Several years ago, the university was
close to 40 percent out-of-state, and because
of concern expressed by the Michigan legis-
lature that that number was too high, we set
a goal of 30 percent in the fall of 1991, and
we hit it," Swain said.
"Our intention is to maintain that figure,
there are no plans to increase or decrease it as
of this moment," Swain added.
According to the fee rate schedule for
Fall 1992, non-resident lower division stu-
dents are chargedan average of $4,852 more
per term than residents. Upper division stu-
dents are charged an average of S5,100rmore
per term, making the U-M one of the most
expensive public universities in the country.
Robert Holbrook, associate vice presi-
dent foracademic affairs, said the university's
huge expenses and lack of state funding
earned it this reputation.
v 6
y '
4
V.pN b
deal," Swain added.
Holbrook agreed.
"There's no doubt that Michigan, com-
pared to institutions like ,Princeton and
Harvard, offers a marvelous opportunity for
less," Holbrook said.
Some students agreed.
LSA first-year student Jill Cozinn, from
Connecticut, said she came here despite the
cost of tuition because of the U-M's high
academic standards.
"I would like to pay less tuition, but it's
really just as much to go here as to many Ivy
League schools," Cozinn said. "U-M has
good academics and a lot of opportunities."
Alexis Payne, .also an LSA first-year
student, said that although she likes the U-
M's diverse studentpopulation, she does not
understand the strictness with which stu-
dents are determined residents or
non-residents.
"My high school was very small, and I
wanted to go to Michigan because I knew it
was so diverse," Payne said.
"But I find it frustrating because I know
people that live 12 hours away and pay in-
state tuition, and Ilive only 3or4hours away
and I'm out-of-state," Payne added.
Payne said she does not think she will
try to gain in-state residency.
Other students say
that whether
or not the
my grades, it's not anything else. It all boils
down to money."
Alternatives to U-M's
Residency, Non-residency
Determination
While the U-M works to confine resident
tuition to Michigan students only, other
schools around the country are expanding
their residency policies to include students
from neighboring states in what is called a
reciprocity agreement.
Among the universities with such an
agreement are the University of Wisconsin,
the University of Minnesota and Eastern
Michigan University.
Wisconsin and Minnesota's agreement
allows students from either state to enroll at
either university for in-state tuition cost.
Eastern Michigan University's policy is ex-
tended to all prospective students in Ohio.
D.J. Loch, an EMU first-year student,
said the policy is a "good deal."
"I chose Eastern because I wanted to go
to an intermediate-sized school out-of-state,
and because I knew they had an agreement
with Ohio," Loch said.
"It's a good idea because it gives kids
in both states better choices of schools
they can afford," Loch added.
The University of California
school system also offers a unique
residency program to its students.
-Mass. Sinceits founding in 1896, the Uni-
' ME versity of California has been
Conn. prohibited from charging in-statestu-
dents tuition.
"All non-residents have tuition to
pay, but everyone else pays only registra-
tion fees, and it has never changed," said
Donna DeAngelis-Blaine, residence deputy
of the University of California at San Diego
(UCSD).
Rick Malastina, assistant director in the
University of California's central news of-
fice, said the difference between tuition and
fees is that fees are not applied to salaries.
Robin Perez, ajunior at UCSD, said that
although he thinks the system is fair, he
regrets that costs are increasing.
"I think what I'm paying is fair, but a lot
of schools are having budgetary problems,"
Perez said.
"This is a public system. You want to
make higher education affordable for most
everyone," Perez added.
California resident and LSA first-year
student Julie Elins said that next to UC's
system, the U-M's tuition seems excessive.
"I understand the thought behind out-of-
state tuition, but to me it still seems
games are different today. The
cops don't always win.
Elaine Itoney was driving in
metro Detroit two weeks ago
when two men, one with a gun,
demanded her car. The conflict
continued until one pulled the
trigger, shooting Itoney's two-
year-old son, Kenneth, in the
head.
The suspected gunman is 16
years old.
Kenneth is now in Mott's
children's hospital. He's being
fitted for a prosthesis for the eye
he lost. Doctors are calling him
lucky because the bullet missed
his brain.
He takes a car ride with mom,
and now, he'll never see again out
of his left eye. And he's one of the
lucky ones.
Zelzora Person wouldn't argue
with that statement. Her 12-year-
old son, Joseph Riley, was playing
guns earlier this week with his 14-
year-old friend, nicknamed "Poo."
Ice Cube and Scarface, they called
themselves.
"We wanted to be just like the
movies," Poo said.
So they went upstairs and
grabbed two guns. They knew
where they were kept. Then, they
played their game. Just like the
movies. One aimed at the other
and pulled the trigger.
But this wasn't the movies.
The guns were real. And so was
the bullet that pierced Eric's skull
and killed him.
Twelve and fourteen years
old. One's dead. The other's the
killer.
Bang! Bang!
Maybe you remember reading
these stories in the newspapers.
Maybe you just skipped over the
story about "some other kid
getting shot." Maybe you're
saying, "That wasn't last week.
That was a couple months ago."
You would be right. It did
happen a couple of months ago.
You would also be wrong. It
happened last week, too.
Pick any week-long stretch.
Kids were killed by other kids that
week. The stories above are not
unique. They are indicative of
nation-wide epidemic of children
getting their hands on guns and
using them to kill, either acciden-
tally or intentionally.
Tighter gun restrictions would
help, but the problem is deeper
than that. Twelve-year-olds are
not buying weapons from gun
dealers. They're buying them
from other kids, maybe an older
brother or maybe somebody in the
neighborhood.
They don't need a lot of
money. Guns are cheap. And
because they are, life is becoming
cheap, too. Sure, people are killed
in other ways. Guns are not the
lone source of violence in our
society. But pulling a trigger is too
easy. And once it's done, there's
no way to take it back.
All this destructive, deadly
power is contained in a gun. And
today, that power is being gripped
in hands which should be holding
Crayolas.
Meanwhile, Zelzora Person
r.',n Ati nnthmn o Ni twpmn
Factors such as having a Michigan voter's
registration, being married to a Michigan
resident, holding a job normally filled by a
student, and living in leased living quarters
are not considered "sufficient evidence of
domicile" alone.
Nordby said any student that is denied a
residency claim may file for an appeal.
"The (U-M Board of) Regents set up a
system where the Office of the Registrar
makes the first decision of residency, and if
expense of
this university
is a combination
of two factors,"
Holbrook said. "First is the small amount of
state support we receive, and second is our
increasing costs every year."
The increase in tuition for non-residents,
Holbrook said, is part of an effort by the
tu-
ition is
compa-
rable to
many private
universities, it
is still out of
F.. m o s t
people's fi-
nancial
league.
Danny
Yang, an
LSA sophomore from New York City, said
that if the university does not give him some
kind of financial assistance, he will be forced
to leave.
"I applied to Michigan because itis known