Professors from nine public universities in Michigan traveled to Lansing this week to meet with lawmakers about higher education funding and academic freedom.
The April 23 meeting is believed to be the first of its kind, at least in recent memory.
Such meetings typically are handled by the government relations staffs and paid lobbyists of the schools. These professors are leaders in faculty governance at the schools, chosen by their teaching colleagues. They wanted legislators to hear from them directly about life in the classroom.
“Islanding off lobbying to professional, paid, bureaucrats and administrators isn’t, as it turns out, really good for our universities because they’re not in classrooms,” said Derek Peterson, chair of the Faculty Senate at the University of Michigan, where he teaches history. “We’ve got the kind of first-person stories to tell about what budgetary shortfalls mean for the institution and for our students.”
How declining state funding affects universities and students
Peterson said that in 1979 about 70% of university budgets were covered by state money. Today, that number is down to about 22%. Michigan ranks 43rd in the nation in terms of funding for higher education on a per-capita basis.
Schools rely on fundraising to make up the difference but much of that financial burden has fallen on students and their families through higher tuition, fees and debt. One professor told stories of students who spend much of their school week working low-wage jobs as they try to minimize their debt load.
“The absence of financial support, the relative lack of financial support for students, particularly for less well-off students, means that they find themselves behind their colleagues who have got more resources and who can spend their time studying and reading and pursuing the life of the mind,” Peterson said.
Lawmakers’ response to the faculty outreach
The professors met with state Rep. Nancy DeBoer, R-Holland, who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, and state Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. The pair were receptive to the outreach, Peterson said.
“We all have some sort of legitimacy and representativeness,” said John Aerni-Flessner, chair of the Faculty Senate at Michigan State University, where he teaches history. “This isn’t just a random collection of folks with an axe to grind. It’s folks who are invested in building their institutions from the inside.”
Academic freedom concerns — and why Michigan is different
While the educators made their case for increased funding for higher education, they also told the lawmakers that they were grateful that they haven’t tried to micromanage classroom teaching as other states have done.
“Here in Michigan, we are happy that there are not significant pushes to limit academic freedom,” Aerni-Flessner said. “Academic freedom is the bedrock of the best higher education system in the world, which is the American system.”
What faculty hope happens next
Peterson said that although this gathering was informal, he hopes to see it continue. Other states, including Ohio, have university faculty members meeting annually with lawmakers.
“They come to the state capitol every year in numbers and the state legislators host them and there’s a whole conversation over the space of the day about higher ed,” Peterson said. “We need something more like that in Michigan, too.”
Contact John Wisely: jwisely@freepress.com. On X: @jwisely
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan university faculty take funding concerns straight to Lansing lawmakers
Reporting by John Wisely, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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