A survey conducted by The
Michigan Daily last month found
74 percent of student respondents
at the University of Michigan
think tuition is too high, and 54
percent believe the University
doesn’t
give
out
enough
scholarship money.
LSA junior Kim Truong, a
second-generation immigrant and
first-generation college student,
said despite receiving a full need-
based scholarship, she believes
tuition at the University is too
high.
“From my perspective, I think
it’s very high-priced,” Truong said.
“Although, I have the privilege of
a full-ride scholarship — a need-
based scholarship — which covers
my tuition and housing, (without
it) I definitely wouldn’t have been
able to bear the costs at all. I think
(the
University)
should
start
looking at structural changes to
their policies. They’re doing well
in the grand scheme of things, but
they should try to fix these issues.”
Rising Tuition
Last June, the Board of Regents
approved a 3.9-percent tuition
increase for in-state students and
a 4.4-percent increase for out-of-
state students for the fiscal year
of 2017. This translates to in-state
students paying $546 more per
year and out-of-state students to
paying $1,934 more per year.
At that time, several regents
opposed the tuition increase, as
they believed it failed to address
the overarching issue of rising
higher-education costs. One vocal
critic at the time was Regent
Andrea Fischer Newman (R), who
said the increase in financial aid
did not offset the overall rising
cost of higher education.
“Whether it comes from the
University of Michigan’s general
fund or from the government,
more financial aid does not solve
the underlying problem of rising
college costs,” she said. “It only
makes the University of Michigan
less affordable, especially for
middle-class students and their
families, who are least likely to
qualify for financial aid.”
Pamela
Fowler,
executive
director of the Office of Financial
Aid, said there is a proportionate
amount of aid given to students,
but recognized it does not cover
the cost of books, housing and
other expenses.
“In the 20 years I have been
here, for every chance there was
an increase in tuition students
on financial aid got an increase
in their need-based grant equal
to the increase in tuition,” Fowler
said. “So they were held harmless
on the tuition increase. Now that
doesn’t mean they were held
harmless on everything else —
you have to pay for books, housing
and you have other expenses.”
Last school year, the University
also gave out the most financial
aid in the state of Michigan,
totaling
$907,915,059
for
the
2015-16 school year, according
to the Office of Financial Aid all-
aid chart Fowler provided. More
specifically, $32,033,083 of it
was need-based, $20,173,919 was
merit-based and $15,691,139 was
loans.
“We give out more financial
aid than anybody in the state,
probably more than anybody in
the Midwest,” Fowler said. “But I
can’t make it free for everybody.”
Truong, who is also on the
executive board of the First
Generation
College
Student
Group, noted tuition could be
cheaper if students were not
required to pay for services not
all use, like intramural building
renovations, which cost students
$130 a year.
“Little things like that add up,”
Truong said. “It’s the difference
between
having
the
service
available for you, and you not
going to it because you don’t want
to pay for it.”
Fowler said despite increasing
what students have to pay, many
of the smaller costs are necessary
for giving students the services
and resources they want.
“This is what students want,”
Fowler said. “And now somebody
who couldn’t pay for tuition in the
first place now has to pay an extra
$130 because this is what students
want. So you have to think about
these things. When you expect
more and demand more, someone
has to pay for it.”
Sociology Prof. Dwight Lang,
who
also
advises
the
First
Generation
Student
Group,
doesn’t expect tuition to go down
in the future without a resurgence
in the economy and higher taxes to
support education.
More than 100 people marched
Wednesday afternoon through
downtown Ann Arbor as part of
the International Women’s Strike,
one of many demonstrations
occurring throughout the day
locally and nationwide. The strike
encouraged women to take the
day off from work and buy only
from female- or minority-owned
businesses.
Though similar in nature, the
International
Women’s
Strike
is not affiliated with the “A Day
Without a Woman” event, which
was organized by the Women’s
March on Washington.
Liz Ratzloff, an organizer of
the strike in Ann Arbor, spoke
about the need for sustained
activism, stating the current
political moment was an ideal
time to create new activists.
“The Women’s March was a
pretty incredible event,” she said.
“Millions of people marched
around the country and around
the world, so this has been a great
opportunity to have sustained
involvement and to not just have
that be a one-time event. There
are a ton of people who are getting
involved, who haven’t ever been
involved in activism or felt a strong
need to resist in the past, and this
is just another opportunity for
that.”
Though the Women’s March,
an activist group that grew out of
the worldwide marches protesting
President Trump’s inauguration,
received
flak
for
being
exclusionary of trans women, the
International
Women’s
Strike
explicitly included trans women
in its platform.
Ratzloff lauded the inclusion
of the International Women’s
Strike, emphasizing it was just
as important to advocate on
issues that she wasn’t personally
affected by.
“First of all, trans women
are women,” she said. “And
trans women also experience
an increased rate of violence
and discrimination, and part of
solidarity is standing up for issues
that affect all of us. Injustice
somewhere
is
an
injustice
everywhere.”
LSA junior Lakyrra Magee said
every movement struggles with
inclusion, and she criticized the
signs and attire of some protesters
in attendance.
“When I was first invited
to speak at this event, I was
hesitant,” Magee said. “As a queer
Black woman, it is easy to end up
being the diversity ticket for white
activism. While we see an attempt
with inclusivity in the platform,
popular slogans and rhetoric
express the severe need for better
understanding of how we fight for
all women. Your pussy hats are
not inclusive to all women.”
Rackham
student
Rachel
Miller, a member of the Graduate
Employees’
Organization,
spoke
about
the
importance
of
unionization,
specifically
referencing
the
University
President
Mark
Schlissel’s
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
plan and the fact that all of the
work necessary for the plan’s
success is voluntary. GEO is
currently
bargaining
a
new
contract with the University.
“One of the key components
of our platform, something our
membership has demanded and
created, is University support
and compensation for diversity
labor, the kind of work that has
long been unrecognized and
undervalued, and ends up falling
on the shoulders of those it is
intended to benefit,” she said.
After several other women
spoke to the crowd at Liberty
Plaza, organizers led a march
through downtown with chants
of “No justice, no peace,” and
“the people united can never be
divided,” momentarily blocking
traffic on some streets. Ann Arbor
Police Department officers were
also present, directing both traffic
and protesters away from each
other.
On Feb. 1, the Office of National
Scholarships
and
Fellowships
opened as a centralized office to
provide information and advising
on application processes for all
University of Michigan students
interested
in
postgraduate
fellowship opportunities.
The office’s staff now provides
information about opportunities
such as the Rhodes Scholarship
to Oxford University, the Truman
Scholarship for graduate studies
with a public service focus and the
Marshall Scholarship for graduate
studies in the United Kingdom.
The staff will also provide advising
through the application process,
including
putting
students
in
contact with faculty who have won
these scholarships in the past.
ONSF Director Henry Dyson
said this office is a resource many
of the University’s peer institutions
already provide their students.
“This is something that most
other universities have, and we
didn’t have a central office that
was doing it,” he said. “We had at
that time as many as 10 different
offices that were doing different
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, March 9, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 41
©2016 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Students work
to navigate costs
of tuition, look to
‘U’ for assistance
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Close to 75 percent of students think tuition
is too high, struggle to secure adequate aid
KEVIN BIGLIN
Daily Staff Reporter
See OFFICE, Page 2A
New office
to provide
increased
aid options
ACADEMICS
In first month, Office of
National Scholarships,
Fellowships successful
EMILY MIILLER
Daily Staff Reporter
ANDREW HIYAMA, DAILY STAFF REPORTER/Daily
More than 100 people march through downtown Ann Arbor Wednesday afternoon to participate in the International
Women’s Strike.
Local Women’s Day protest draws over
one hundred in support of female rights
Students, community members partake in International Women’s Strike
ANDREW HIYAMA
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
Close to 40 people filed into
the Matthaei Botanical Gardens
Auditorium Wednesday evening
for a presentation on the effects
deer have had on the parks of Ann
Arbor, and in turn, the deer cull’s
impact on local populations. The
talk was hosted by Wild Ones, an
organization aiming to protect
native species of plants and
animals.
The deer cull has been a
controversial topic in Ann Arbor,
with calls for the University of
Michigan to cease its support of
the cull, and for the city to stop
funding the program entirely.
Presenter
Jacqueline
Courteau,
a
professional
biologist who has studied the
local
environment
for
the
past 20 years, acknowledged
the
program
comes
with
considerable emotional baggage,
and proceeded to outline policy
and management implications
from her research.
Botanical
Gardens
hosts talk
about cull
CITY
Meeting analyzes effects
of latest Ann Arbor deer
cull, research behind it
NIKOLA JAKSIC
Daily Staff Reporter
ART as a
SOCIALGESTURE
b-side
The Daily Arts writers
looked into the ways art is
being utilized by local artists
and organizations to benefit
communities
» B-section
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com