Page 10-Saturday, August 1, 1981-The Michigan Daily
Budget woes trigger cooperation
4
Continued from Page > universities were closed, many studen-
eventually have to close. But no ts would be forced to move elsewhere to
legislator will vote to cut back the complete their educations.
pipeline in another (colleague's) area," Every state school began with a
Peterson said, because that lawmaker specific goal and mission, but most
might then turn around and vote again- have strayed from that original plan.
st the first legislator. The University's Flint and Dearborn
PROBLEMS ARISE with the appoin- campuses are prime examples, accor-
ted members because of obvious ding. to Richard Kennedy, University
allegations of favoritism against vice president for state relations.
whoever does the appointing. Voters WHEN THE FLINT campus opened,
are often unfamiliar with these people its primary purpose was to serve as an
who would run for the board, so politics "urban liberal arts college, paired with
might again enter the picture with elec- Mott Community College" in Flint,
tions. x Kennedy said. Originally, it was inten-
Repetitions exist because there is no ded that students would attend Mott for
central plan for Michigan's education the first two years and then transfer to
system. Each school determines its U-Mr Flint. A similar plan was
own goal or mission independent of the developed for the Dearborn campus
others. "There is no overall plan," said and Henry Ford Community College.
Rick Bossard of the House Fiscal Agen- But as the number of university
cy. "It (academic planning) is the students increased during the 1960s,
responsibility of each institution." both the Flint and Dearborn campuses
This lack of coordination is due . developed into full four-year . in-
largely to the way in which the state stitutions, and the original plan fell
system has run in the past. Admitting apart.
schools to the system has always been Other colleges across the state began
random, according to Smith. Colleges as extensions. These include Lake
were admitted "as they matured," he Superior State College in Sault Ste.
said. For instance, Eastern, Central, Marie, which began as a branch of
Western, and Northern Michigai Michigan Tech, and Oakland Univer-
universities began as teachers' colleges sity in - Rochester, which started as a
and later expanded to their present branch of Michigan State University.
status. But during this expansionary period,
Other schools were built in isolated, they, too, developed on their own.
cities as the only nearby higher THE STATE COLLEGES- and
education outlet. If smaller, scattered universities went through changes from
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teachers' colleges and began to in-
crease their offerings," Kennedy said.
"The 1970s taught us a lesson that that
sort of thing maybe wasn't in the cards.
"What institutions will do is rethink
their role and mission, concentrating in
areas where they are strongest," he
said.
Milliken's assistant, Smith, said he
strongly favors a state advisory gob-
vernment body, but still considers
decentralization inportant.
"Autonomy has served us well and will
continue to serve us well," he said.
For the first time since the
Depression, state support for univer-
sities has declined in Michigan-by
more than'$100 million. Hard times for
the auto industry and skyrocketing
unemployment paint bleak expec-
tations for the state's 13 public univer-
sities and colleges avoiding dismissing
faculty members, eliminating
programs, and possibly reducing
enrollment.
UNIVER)ITY PRESDENT Harold
Shapiro is committed to a "smaller but
better" university with a smaller set of
offerings and a more effective attain-
ment of basic goals. "Smaller is
decidedly not to suggest that we aban-
don our commitment to diversity in our
student body and faculty or to our spon-
sorship of diversity of ideas," Shapiro
said in a March 23 open letter to his
university colleagues.
"Rather, it means that all units ought
to examine and order their priorities
and identify at least some activity that,
in the current context, might have a
smaller priority."
Administrators at Michigan State
University, however, have chosen to
deal with the budget cutbacks in a dif-
ferent manner. MSU President M Cecil
Mackey has recommended wholesale
cuts in the school's nursing program
and humanities department, and has
instituted lesser cuts in all other depar-
tments on that campus.
WAYNE STATE University has
faced the budget cuts by instituting 20
percent reductions in next years
budget, staff layoffs, and token pay cuts
by administrators. But Wayne avoided
raising tuition for freshpersons and
sophomores. WSU President Thpmas
Bonner has said, "the crisis is serious
and will continue well into the 1980s ...
We must prepare now for a diminished
university by 1985."
The Universityof Michigan is for-
tunate in that it has substantial en-
dowments and federal grants to fall
back on for most of its programs. The
University's endowments amount to
more than $120 million and its federal
grants and private-gifts for 1979-80
totaled $114 million. MSU received en-
dowments of $15 million, and gifts and
grants of $57 million; WSU has $11
million in endowments, and gifts and
grants of $30 million.
In an effort to deal with shifts in state
support, state officials and education
administrators will have to carry out
significant changes in the state system
of higher education in the next decade,
including redefinition of goals and in-
creased interaction betwen institutions.
MURRAY JACKSON, University
Education professor and a member of
the Wayne State University Board of
Governors, said the retrenchment plan
at the University is a rational way to
preserve the interests of both faculty
and students
,But Jackson, who works at- Univer-
Education, said that each institution
has its own problems, for which com-
mon solutions may not be available.
The University, he said, was not as
strapped for funds as other schools
because of its generous contributors.
Per capita support for higher
education in Michigan has declined
fairly rapidly in the last five years, and
tuition rates are rising at an alarming
rate. But Marvin' Peterson, director of
the Center for the Study of Higher
Education, insisted that the Michigan
situation is not as bad as some other
states. "We started with institutions
which were stronger than'most in the
country," he said.
IN THE PAST, Peterson said, during
periods of high unemployment and i-
flation, education provided workers,
with the option of retooling their skills.
But with the Reagan Administration's
proposed cutbacks, the availability of
guaranteed student loans and other.
grants has dwindled.
"The University can hold its own with
a slight switch in clientele or admission
standards," Peterson said.."Poten-
,tially, community colleges could be hit
because students on the economic
fringe can't afford to attend."
Jackson, however, has designed a
method to ease the crunch on city
students and pressure on various in-
stitutions. He proposes a cooperative
system of urban institutions of higher
learning-such as WSU, University of
Detroit, and Oakland University-that
pool resources and funnel money into
programs in which'they are par-
ticularly strong. Each student would be
admitted to a particular college which
would serve as his home base. He then
could take classes at any institution in
the cooperativethus providing a
strong education without duplicating
many programs. Each urban univer-
sity would be free to concentrate on its
specialty.
JACKSON SAID that too many in-
stitutions suffer from what he calls an
"edifice" complex-the belief that 15
buildings mean a better university than
10 buildings. Universities must be
selective in how they make changes, he
said.
The evolution of higher education in
the next 10 years may involve more
professional or employable tracks of
study in four-year colleges, he said
Many instituions desire law,
engineering, dental, and 'medical
schools because they believe "those
determine the prestige of a university
and they want one," Jackson said.
"That mentality has been going on for
years."
The next decade, Jackson said, may
bring fewer institutions, but increased
roles for community colleges.
Ultimately, the future of higher
education in Michigan depends on
whether the economy takes an upswing
and how carefully measures are taken
now to insure the highquality of an
education. Thus far, the state
legislature seems committed to finan-
cing higher education.
4
4
Beth Rosenberg 'nd Kevin Tottis
.conducted, the interviewf for this
.
-