The Michigan legislature will restore some funding to the higher education budget, but only if universities meet several demands. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education:
The increased money will vary by institution based on improvements in graduation rates and research spending, or by granting more degrees in certain high-need areas.
And in order to qualify for that money—a tiny sliver of the $1.4-billion appropriation—institutions also will have to limit tuition increases to 4 percent or less.
On top of that, state legislators added language about social issues, including that Michigan State University will not qualify for an increase if it follows through on a requirement that incoming students have health insurance.
The budget also requires universities to file extra reports with the Legislature on the number of stem-cell lines being used in research at the institutions, and to detail their efforts to accommodate students’ religious beliefs in counseling programs (a requirement that stems from a pending lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University).
The most far-reaching restriction bars the institutions from having a relationship with nonprofit “worker centers” that protest against a Michigan business, a provision supported by the Michigan Restaurant Association, after the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan picketed and sued a restaurant it accused of mistreating workers. At the time, a graduate student in social work at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor was completing a field assignment with the group.
Many of these qualifications–limiting tuition increases, expecting focus on certain degrees–make sense. Others–the specificity of the ban on the restaurant protest group–might be overreaching.
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