MOONWALKING IN MEMORIAM Unaffordable, unacceptable The Board of Regents's yearly tuition hike is one tradition students would be better off without SEE PAGE 4 "Secret Life" can't get real ABC Family sitcom is grossly implausible SEE PAGE 9 SPORTS Palushaj's Path to Peoria Former Wolverine hockey player Aaron Palushaj is willing his way to the NHL SEE PAGE 11 - Vo.CIN.142 C' 2oo9 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com N EW S ................................. 2 O PINIO N ............................ 4 CLASSIFIED ....................... 6 A RTS ................................ ... 9 SPORTS ............................ 11 Brian Woolridge, known as the "Liberty Street Dancer," performs a tribute dance to the late pop icon Michael Jackson in Graffiti Alley on Liberty Street on Sunday. Woolridge, who has been dancing to Jackson Sand Michael Jackson songs since 1995, said Jackson's recent death has been difficult to handle, but that he plans to continue performing. "It's been rough, but he's such an inspiration of mine," Woolridge said. "I don't plan on ever stopping." For more coverage, go to MichiganDaily.com. Titiono terise veekly Summer iEditon SCH OLA RSHIP FUNDS Student aid In danger State may erase Promise Scholarship By STEPHANIE STEINBERG Daily News Editor Michigan college students could be forced into an even more difficult financial situation - one that already includes increasing tuition rates for the state's pub- lic universities and an economic recession - if the government passes a bill to eliminate the Michigan Promise Scholarship. The state House of Represen- tatives is currently reviewing the hill, which would eliminate funding for the Promise Schol- arship - a $t40,000 merit-hosed scholarship distributed to more than 96,000 college students in Michigan. The Promise Scholarship was created in December 2006 when Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed it into law. By passing a certain level on the Michigan Merit Exam or successfully completing two years of postsecondary edu- cation, students attending college in Michigan could receive up to $4,000 in tuition aid from the grant. But, in an attempt to cut down the state's estimated $1.7 bil- lion budget deficit for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education passed a bill that calls for an end to the schol- See SCHOLARSHIP, Page 2 Students will pay additional $622 in annual tuition By LARA ZADE Managing NewsEditor In a rare 6-2 vote, the University Board of Regents passed a 5.6-per- cent tuition rate increase for both in-state and out-of-state University undergraduates for the 2009-2010 academic year at its June 18 meet- ing. The rate increase will bring the annual cost of tuition to $11,659 for in-state undergraduates in the Col- lege of Literature, Science and the Arts and $34,937 for out-of-state undergraduates. The tuition rate figure repre- sents a $622 increase in annual tuition for an in-state undergradu- ate and an additional $1,868 for an out-of-state undergraduate. The regents also approved a 5.6- percent increase for students in the Rackham School of Graduate Stud- ies, a 6.7-percent increase for stu- dents attending the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a 6.5-per- cent increase for the Flint campus. University Provost Teresa Sul- livan described the increase - which is the same as last year's rate increase for in-state and out-of- state undergraduate students - as modest compared to other public institutions in the Big Ten. "This represents an average rate of growth and tuition that's been among the lowest of public univer- sities in Michigan and also in the Big Ten," Sullivan said. Not all public institutions have approved tuition rates for under- graduatestudentsforthe2009-2010 academic year. But, Michigan State University approved a rare two- year budget plan, which includes a 5.2-percent tuition increase for the upcoming academic year and a 4.9-percent increase for the next academic year. If MSU receives federal stimulus dollars, the tuition rate increase for this fall could be reduced to about 2.5 percent. Additionally, Ohio State Univer- See TUITION HIKE, Page 8