Michigan House Approves Budget Cuts Targeting U-M and MSU, Citing Ideological Concerns

The initial proposal, which left the House Appropriations Committee on June 11, was a call for an extremely low amount of money- $ 335 million from U-M and $237.4 million from MSU. This would have represented a massive reduction of 92% in the case of U-M’s state support and almost 73% in the case of MSU’s.

Despite the heavy backlash from all sides and the negotiations that followed, the June 12 version that was eventually passed has cut those figures only slightly. Nevertheless, the reduction is still significant. If it goes through the new plan, U-M will have to get along with only $234.4 million cut (around 65%) and MSU would lose up to a $56.6 million reduction (nearly 18%).

The Reasoning Behind the Cuts

Republican lawmakers call the reallocation a move for equity and fair distribution. According to State Rep. Greg Markkanen, “Michigan’s biggest universities have been the only ones that have been given a disproportionate amount for a significant amount of time, much to other schools’ detriment.” He also said that the distribution of resources would be done in such a way that all the state’s 13 public universities would benefit.

However, there has been no holding back from others about the political interests that shadowed the act of making the choices. State Rep. Matt Maddock referred to the issue in a straightforward way: “We’ve cut the bodies of those universities which were previously asleep and switched to the other institutions”.

What Is Behind the Increase of Socially aware People?

The accusations of ideological bias at U-M and MSU are due to various initiatives of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that have been adopted mainly by the left and most of the conservatives are not happy with that. For instance, the following were issues among the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that have led the conservative legislators to misunderstand the claims of ideological bias towards the right and to announce “the liberal campuses” as broken.

• U-M scholarship program was designed specifically based on the race of the candidate so that more opportunities could be given to the African American, Latino, and Native American students.
• The university’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance organized an event that was televised as “The Arts and Anti-Racism,” whose purpose was to stimulate the cultural and social relations of the campus regarding the issue of race.
• As stated by Mary Chartier, a Lansing-based lawyer who serves as a campus DEI officer, each campus has a DEI officer that is a resource on campus, a responsive person, available to educate, share and report to the administration, and a trainer that identifies, communicates, and assures the execution of interdisciplinarit//multidisciplinarity of the institute, he/she reportedly shared a toolkit “Protecting Immigrant Students Action Kit” with faculty and staff. The toolkit was described as a step-by-step guide to help vulnerable students understand their rights and provide services for the proper authorities in emergency cases.

On the other side, Republican legislators state that these stands are part of what they consider a movement towards liberal “activism” in public institutions.

Response of University Leading Staff

The representatives of the university have expressed loud criticism in response to the existing suggestions of state legislature cuts. In a post addressed to all, Chris Kolb, the Vice President for Government Relations at U-M was full of energy by calling the cuts “a missed opportunity” and predicted that they would have a detrimental effect on the university’s ability to educate students and meet the needs of the Michigan community at large.

Kolb raised the wealth myth challenge as an example and debunked this popular misunderstanding by stressing that although the university’s endowment is quite substantial, these funds are only for specific purposes as it is the donors that decide what happens with the money; the university only acts as the recipient. The different spheres in which U-M invests the fund are scholarships, healthcare, and research. “It does not have the meaning of a rainy-day fund,” Kolb added.

More significantly, he also made a connection between U-M’s key role and the state’s future workforce development and his words were: This proposal limits our ability to train the next generation of doctors, nurses, engineers, and teachers — all professions that are in high demand across Michigan.”

What Is the Following Step?

Michigan’s both chambers in the legislature should come to an agreement on a higher education budget by July 1. Changes may still be made in the meantime but with the cuts proposed the table, a strong message is being sent to the public education political circle of the state.

Currently, such prominent universities remain not only in the middle of financial cuts quibbles but are also seen as the centers of disagreement over values. With the final vote due to take place and negotiations already underway, the next few weeks are crucial in the shaping of the future of the Michigan higher education system.