More Pie For The Bigger Schools? Just Say No!
It recently came to my attention that there is a bill being considered in the State of Michigan that would send MORE state funding to the 3 largest universities (the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University). As I understand it, right now each university gets a certain amount of state funding based on enrollment. Everyone gets the same amount per student.
The three largest universities which already get more funding by virtue of being larger, would like to get *MORE* per student than the other 9 state universities.
This strikes me as a bad idea. These three universities already have an advantage in their ability to raise funds for themselves because of their larger alumni base, and in the case of Michigan and MSU, prominent athletic programs that build alumni loyalty and even bring in money from non-alumni (my friend Steve is a supporter of UofM athletics, and he never attended Michigan).
I work in the fundraising office of a major university, and you can be sure that the smaller schools have no hope of raising the kind of cash that Michigan and Michigan State can bring in.
Here is an interesting article in the WMU News. WMU's President Deither Haenicke (whom some of us referred to as "Detour" Haenicke in the early 90s because of the amount of construction on campus) recently spoke at a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcomittee on the topic. It's worth a read.