Category Archives: Budgets

EMU-Flint to close?

Posted on February 3, 2012 by | 9 Comments

An alert reader emailed me to let me know that EMU-Flint is set to close at the end of this semester.  I don’t know this person’s sources, so maybe someone else can confirm that.  And I frankly didn’t know there was an EMU-Flint, but it apparently operates through continuing education on the campus of Mott Community College.

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Posted in Academics, Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, Student Life

A few “after Obama’s visit” reactions

Posted on January 28, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Now that the dust of Airforce One and a slice of Zingerman’s pecan pie has settled, the reactions to Obama’s speech and visit are in.  I really appreciate Decky’s comment, which is in the previous post too, because she was there and she’s expressing a sentiment I personally agree with whole-heartedly:  while I too am a big supporter of Obama, his administration doesn’t really have an education policy, and it certainly doesn’t have a policy for higher education.  So go read that if you haven’t already.

A couple articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education are useful here.  First, there’s “Obama Calls for Control of College Costs and Renewed Support for Higher Education,” which more or less reports on the event.  But even more important is the “Tenured Radical” blog/editorial “What a Real Education Policy Would Look Like.”  Go read the whole thing, but to quote:

This [meaning the Obama's federal policies on how we ought to finance higher education] is all based on a discussion that Obama and Duncan had back in December with “a dozen college presidents, mostly from public institutions, and leaders of two nonprofit education organizations, about how to curb the rising cost of college and improve graduation rates.” The nonprofits were the Delta Project that does cost-benefit analysis and the Lumina Foundation whose focus is on access and affordability.  Note the groups that were not invited to the table:  the American Association of University Women, theAmerican Association of University Professors, the major educational foundations or any presidents of the major professional organizations. In other words, the Obama administration did not invite anyone to the table who actually does research on education — only nonprofits who specialize in assessing what bang corporate America is getting for the student buck.

I realize that Obama needs to appeal to the population at large here both in his policies and in his speeches, but you’d think that he’d be smart enough to explain that a higher education simply is not a product, students are not simply customers, etc.

I also thought the Michigan Daily’s Andrew Weiner had a pretty good commentary here, “When the President Came to Town.”  He mostly critiques the substance of Obama’s speech, but I did want to share this quote here:

Aside from telling Denard Robinson, who was seated in the box reserved for members of Congress and other dignitaries, that he in fact could not run for president, the speech could have been delivered at any college in any state.

You mean, like, oh, I don’t know, another large Michigan university actually closer to the airport with easier parking and that has made a big deal about keeping college affordable and offering hands-on educational opportunities for Michigan students who tend to stay in Michigan to help our state?  Hmm, where would that be, where or where….

Anyway, at the end of the day, I have a very hard time believing that any of the potential Republican nominees are going to have a more progressive policy toward higher education and affordability.  My prediction both parties will continue to beat up on universities for raising tuition while simultaneously cutting funding to them, and I also predict that this election will be decided on different issues anyway.  Oh, and I also continue to predict on a state level we will continue to get jack squat for our 0/0/0% marketing gimmick.

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Posted in Ann Arbor, Budgets, College Fun, EMUtalk.org News, In the media..., University of Michigan

Obama to give speech at Michigan’s most expensive public university about “college affordability”

Posted on January 26, 2012 by | 7 Comments

Look, I’m definitely going to vote for Obama in this election and I am definitely a supporter.  But I have to say that I would have had a different headline to the story as it was posted on annarbor.com, “Roughly 3,000 tickets for Obama speech up for grabs today at 9 am.”  I realize that U of M is the big draw, but you would think this might be an opportunity for a more affordable university– say, one that had a 0/0/0% campaign– to have the chance to be on the national stage as a model for keeping costs down.

Just goes to show you what incentives places like EMU really have to be the cheapest game in town….

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Posted in Ann Arbor, Budgets, In the media..., University of Michigan

“Michigan’s public universities see 24% increase in ‘unrestricted’ net assets”

Posted on January 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

From the freep.com comes “Michigan’s public universities see 24% increase in ‘unrestricted’ net assets.”  Maybe it’s just me, but this seems to be a pretty muddled and confusing article to me.  It seems to be saying that public universities in Michigan have a lot of extra cash on hand, but then it points out that this extra “unrestricted” money is being used for one-time expenses.  In fact, the picture leading this story is of the renovated Pray-Harrold.

So maybe it’s my simplistic sense of money, but I am not completely seeing what the point is here.

I will say two things though.  First, remodeling/renovating Pray-Harrold has been in the work for years and years, certainly over more than one budget cycle.  And I also don’t think you’re going to find anyone on campus who thinks that the work that was done was somehow frivolous, as I think the article is implying.  Second, I suspect that this argument will come back this year in contract negotiations, as well it should.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, In the media..., Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool, State Government

“‘College Tax’ Burdens Students, State”

Posted on January 11, 2012 by | Leave a comment

I actually saw this on Facebook via Geoffrey “Geoff” Larcom but certainly thought it worth a read here:  “‘College Tax’ Burdens Students, State,” via Bridge.  The “college tax” is a little confusing to me.  If I am understanding it correctly, it is the amount more students pay in Michigan to comparable instituions.  I suspect there are a lot of problems with those calculations, but what it boils down to is that the steady decrease in state funding means that Michiganders spend a lot more money on college which amounts to an extra tax, one that is paid by students.

According to the article, “Michigan has slashed about 20 percent of the dollars (adjusted for inflation) for four-year colleges between 2005 and 2010; only Rhode Island and New Mexico cut more.”  With the Snyder administration’s cuts, Michigan is now  in the bottom 10 states for per-capita student funding.  And to simply get “the middle of the pack in per-capita spending on universities, Michigan would need to increase higher education funding by 56 percent.”  But at least the football teams have done better.

Incidentally, the “college tax” at EMU is $9,220 over four years of school.  That means when compared to universities in its peer group (and no, I don’t have any idea how that’s figured out), students at EMU paid just over nine grand more over four years of school compared to other institutions.

 

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Posted in Academics, Budgets, In the media..., Student Life

The year that was 2011

Posted on January 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Happy New Year, everybody!  I’ve made it back from undisclosed locations and the new year in one piece.  I have a whole series of chores and resolutions to attend to, but I thought I’d start my day looking over the most commented on pieces here at EMUTalk in 2011.  In brief, last year was the year of budget cuts and layoffs.

From February, “Snyder to EMU (and other state supported universities): Drop Dead.”

From April, “Did the Provost quit? Was he fired? What?”

Also from April, “Meanwhile in budget news: think scenarios and not cuts,” which actually turned into a “discussion” about the Bowen parking lot and the expense of sabbaticals and the like.

Then the end of May was pretty busy/popular, with three heavily commented posts right in a row: “Perhaps we can chant “Education First!” at the games…,” Administration asking for unions to give money back during a “fluid” situation,” and “Martin’s budget update, “givebacks,” tuition, and athletics.”

At the end of June there was “Thoughts as the dust settles on lay-offs.” That turned out to be the most commented on post of the year, by the way.

“Glad Ron English is having “fun” with the increased budget,” back in July. It seems to me that the Emus break-even season will save English for another few seasons, though I still don’t think the “fun” he had with the increased budget was worth it.

“EMU planning 9/11 memorial after receiving steel column from World Trade Center” back in early August.

“Pray-Harrold open–sort of,” which wasn’t necessarily the most commented on post of the year but it sure seemed like a big event for me.

“‘Which Core Matters More?’ (featuring Mark Higbee), an October debate on general education.

“Emus beat horses, 14-10″ in November, which kind of turned into a “discussion” about attendance at games.

“Kwame Kilpatrick is coming to EMU, causing controversy already” back in November, though it was pretty much a non-story in the end.

And then sadly (now), there was this post,“Greg O’Dell returns to Eastern Michigan University as executive director of public safety and chief of police.”

Okay, enough with last year and into this year– even though it doesn’t really feel like the new year to me because it’s really just the beginning of the next semester… you get the idea.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Blogosphere, Budgets, EMU Events, EMUtalk.org News, Faculty Life, In the media..., Staff Life, Student Life

“State aid to universities soon could hinge on performance goals”

Posted on November 21, 2011 by | 7 Comments

I heard this one this morning on WEMU, but here’s the Freep article on it:  ”State aid to universities soon could hinge on performance goals.”  To quote:

Michigan is one of 17 states implementing or studying performance funding. The goal is to push universities to focus more on producing graduates, which in turn drives state economies with more highly skilled employees. Lawmakers also see it as a move toward greater accountability in education.

Michigan’s universities say it’s an attempt by lawmakers to wrangle control, and stress that after this year’s 15% budget cut, it’s time to increase and not potentially cut state funding.

It’s a good article with lots of details and perspectives– definitely worth a read.  Personally, I think that some kind of performance-based funding is probably not a bad idea, though there are a lot of details to work out, even about the definition of students making progress toward graduating.  We have lots of students at EMU who take a long time to graduate because they simply can’t afford to go to school full or even half-time.  And if you can only take six or nine credits a term, well, it’s going to take a while.

The other thing that I think would be interesting about this is the people of the state ought to be careful what they wish for.  If places like EMU (and WMU, CMU, WSU, etc.) had a significant amount of its funding tied to graduation rates, then it seems likely to me that these schools would raise their admission standards.  And if a lot of these schools raised their admission standards, a lot of Michiganders would not have access to a college education.

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Posted in Budgets, In the media..., State Government

“Hrabowski: An educator focused on math and science”

Posted on November 18, 2011 by | Leave a comment

To take folks into the weekend, I thought I’d share this video from a story about Freeman Hrabowski that was on 60 Minutes last weekend.  Here’s a link to it if the embedded video doesn’t work.

Hrabowski is the President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which is a university sorta/kinda like EMU in some ways– both are regional institutions with a history of working with “at risk” and otherwise non-traditional students, commuters, etc.  It’s an inspiring piece about the ways that he’s leading innovation there.  Anyway, one of the things he talks about in this interview (albeit briefly) is football.  From the transcript:

Hrabowski: We need hands on experiences. We need to be encouraging that curiosity. And people cannot– should not be allowed simply to sit back and be bored.

Students can also get jobs and internships at one of 76 companies located on campus. Most are technology startups. They get help growing their businesses and tax credits, along with access to students and faculty. One thing you won’t find at UMBC…

Pitts: You had a chance to get a football team at UMBC, right? And you said no?

Hrabowski: People talk about that. Right. I mean, well– well, first of all, it takes a lot of money for a football team to win.

Hrabowski prefers to win on different playing fields. Incoming freshman Francois Rice noticed right away.

Francois Rice: It seems like everything’s flipped. Where, you might go to another university and the football team might be top dog. Here, it’s the chess team that’s top dog. And it’s–

Pitts: The chess team?

Rice: Yeah, it’s cool to be smart.

Rice is part of the 23rd incoming class of Meyerhoff Scholars – a program that recruits high achievers in math, science and engineering who are aiming for graduate degrees and careers in research.

Oh, if we had only put our money into the chess team.  Or academics, or something.

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Posted in Academics, Budgets, EMU President, In the media..., Sports

Analysis: College costs shift to families

Posted on October 28, 2011 by | 11 Comments

I’m not sure if this is the article that Cheryl is referring to in her comment, but it’s a pretty good one anyway:  “Analysis:  College costs shift to families,” which I found on some kind of CBS news web site but which I think has appeared a number of places since it’s a AP wire story.  I think.  Anyway, I think it argues pretty effectively that over the last couple of decades, Americans have come to believe in increasing numbers that college was “essential” to be successful, and at the same time, states have defunded higher education.  Increased demand combined with lower public support equals higher costs.

The EMU connection comes at the end where we learn about Leah Shutes, “a third-year student working toward a degree in journalism,” who is already $60,000 in debt.  I’m not sure what Shutes situation is and I don’t want to make too many judgements, but that seems like way too much borrowing to me.  I do think this passage at the end sums up things fairly well:

The Eastern Michigan campus, serving a region where the economy struggled throughout the 2000s, may not appear at first glance much different than a decade ago.

But roughly twice as many students, and about half of all enrollees, now receive Pell Grants. That’s indicative of more federal aid but also more struggling students; most Pell recipients come from families earning less than $50,000.

A recent college health survey showed increased student stress. More students are trying to make do without purchasing textbooks. Administrators say students are now working two and three jobs instead of one, which affects their work.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” said Bernice Lindke, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management.

Ten years ago, EMU enrolled 24,300 students and received $90 million from the state of Michigan. Last year it had slightly fewer students and got roughly $65 million. Meanwhile, tuition has doubled. The university used to get one-quarter of its budget directly from students; now it depends on them for three-quarters.

 

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Posted in Budgets, In the media..., Student Life

“Obama Unveils Plan for Student Loan Borrowers”

Posted on October 27, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I heard this story on NPR yesterday, though this text is from the associated press.  And of course, it’s been reported elsewhere.  Here’s a snippet:

Obama’s plan will accelerate a measure passed by Congress that reduces the maximum required payment on student loans from 15 percent of discretionary income annually to 10 percent. He will put it into effect in 2012, instead of 2014. In addition, the White House says the remaining debt would be forgiven after 20 years, instead of 25. About 1.6 million borrowers could be affected.

He will also allow borrowers who have a loan from the Federal Family Education Loan Program and a direct loan from the government to consolidate them into one. The consolidated loan would carry an interest rate of up to a half percentage point less than before. This could affect 5.8 million borrowers.

Student loan debt keeps becoming a bigger deal–according to the radio version of the story reported  the other day, student loan debt is now larger than credit card debt, and it is one of the frequently mentioned complaints by the Occupy Wall Street movement.  So this might help, at least some students.  Though student loans are complicated.

When I was in graduate school, I borrowed money a couple of times (my undergraduate degree was cheap enough that with my parental support and work, I didn’t need to go into debt).  Some of that borrowing was money I really did need to live, but I will freely admit (with a couple decades of hindsight) that some of that money really was frivolous and was the kind of borrowing made by a 20-something who was thinking of the “here and now” and not of the interest rates and the future.  I am pretty sure that the same is true for our current students:  that is, while a lot of (most?) the borrowing is completely legitimate, I suspect that some of it is about supporting a lifestyle rather than an education.

And when I was borrowing money, there weren’t any of these private lenders giving out money in the form of student loans with crazy-high interest rates.  It seems to me that this is another example of bankers gone wild in the last 20 years.

By the way, I finished my PhD in 1996 and I am still paying off the last trickle of student loans.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Budgets, In the media..., Student Life