Public university investment is vital

Updated 4:30 AM April 28, 2007

Public university investment is vital

By Joe Serwach
News Service

Days after the state House approved "devastating cuts" to higher education in the current budget, President Mary Sue Coleman called on a Senate panel to remember "a robust investment by the Legislature in all 15 of Michigan's public universities is vital to the state's future economic stability."

Coleman, testifying with Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon and Wayne State University President Irvin Reid before the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee on Friday, also discussed the unique role of research universities to stimulating new jobs and industries.

"A century ago, industries grew up around natural resources such as water, timber and minerals," she said. "In the 21st century, industry wants to be near intellectual resources—the faculty, graduates and spin-offs of research universities. Experts across the country agree that major research universities such as ours are necessary to spark economic growth in meta-region economies such as the Great Lakes region."

As an example, she noted Expansion Management magazine named Ann Arbor the top metro region in the country for knowledge workers. The magazine's editors said the communities that will thrive in America are those with the presence of a major research university. The Lansing/East Lansing area, home to MSU, also made the list.

The April 20 testimony came just days after the state House voted to reduce state appropriations to higher education to 2005-06 levels.

The three presidents of the research universities, speaking together as a team, described the University Research Corridor (URC), an alliance between the institutions, as a magnet for new jobs and industries.

Simon noted the URC institutions bring in more than $1.3 billion in research every year, 95 percent of all academic research and development grants to universities in the state.

She compared Michigan's University Research Corridor with the three universities in North Carolina's Research Triangle. Michigan's corridor generated $831. 5 million in federal research grants in 2005 while the three Research Triangle universities generated $806 million.

However, North Carolina invests $11 per resident in higher education while the state of Michigan only invests $6 per resident.

Nationally, states have increased their appropriations for higher education by 55 percent over the past decade, Reid noted. Michigan has increased its state appropriations for higher education by just 18 percent over the same 10 years, fourth from the bottom of all states.

With the state facing continuing deficits, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has proposed what she has called "an inflationary 2.5 percent budget increase" for higher education, saying, "Economists and experts across the country agree that education is the single most effective strategy for stoking a state's economic growth. That means we all must create a culture of learning that is unprecedented in Michigan's history."

Public university investment is vital

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