Flint, Dearborn campuses also to increase tuition, aid

Updated 10:00 AM July 29, 2005

Flint, Dearborn campuses also to increase tuition, aid

By Laurel Thomas Gnagey

The U-M campuses at Dearborn and Flint will raise tuition and increase financial aid in response to continued reductions in state support. Both campuses will increase tuition by 11.9 percent—totaling $325 per full-time undergraduate each semester at U-M-Dearborn and $340 per semester at U-M-Flint.

Financial aid at U-M-Dearborn will increase by nearly 25 percent, more than twice the percentage increase in tuition. In Flint the aid will be 13.9 percent, two percentage points higher than the tuition increase.

Flint Chancellor Juan Mestas told regents the state has cut more than $4 million from the University's budget during the past four years, saying Lansing once provided two-thirds of U-M-Flint's funding and now is projected to contribute slightly more than one-third. Mestas said repeated cutbacks have shifted the burden to students and their parents, forcing universities to increase tuition in order to maintain high quality.

"The extent of the state's disengagement from public higher education has been dramatic and highly disappointing. We are moving at an accelerated pace toward the privatization of public higher education in Michigan," Mestas told regents.

"We have a moral responsibility to provide high-quality education to current and future students and not to devalue the U-M-Flint diploma."

The Flint budget plan takes into account the rising costs for utilities and benefits, and includes a 3 percent salary increase for faculty and staff, Mestas told regents.

U-M-Dearborn's state appropriation is down $3.8 million, or 13.6 percent, over the past four-year years. Chancellor Daniel Little told the board the cut equates to $873 per student. With the uncertainty of the coming fiscal year funding levels that likely will include another cut, Little said the University had to move forward with an increase which would cover increased costs of health care and utilities, offer a modest 2 percent faculty and staff salary increase, and maintain the quality of academic programs.

"Among the promises that we make to our students, U-M-Dearborn has been committed for many years to providing them with high-quality courses relevant to their goals and ambitions, with faculty members who are committed to their students' success, and with support programs designed to generate both academic achievement and rich campus life," Little said. "The budget that was approved by the regents will allow us to continue to fulfill the great mission of this campus."

Flint, Dearborn campuses also to increase tuition, aid

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