Well, it’s time for that annual summer ritual! That’s right, setting tuition rates! Below are the tuition rate increases (in percentages) that I have been able to find so far. Interesting how GVSU went for quite a larger increase compared to other institutions.
Central 6.6
Ferris State 6.3
Grand Valley 13
Michigan Tech 8.2
Michigan State 6.8
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor 5.6
UM Flint - 5.8
UM Dearborn - 5.6
Northern 5.5
Saginaw Valley State - 3.7
It’s assumed that we’ll know EMU’s rate increase at the July 30 regents meeting, although I have not yet heard any figures through the rumor mill as of yet.
Figures from Detroit Channel 7 News (WXYZ), mlive.com newspapers, Michigan Daily
I finally got around to watching the latest Harry Potter movie - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I’m not a huge fan of the series, and I have only read the first book. However while watching this movie I noticed a particular section of the movie that paralleled our public educational system, especially here in Michigan.
Early in the movie (about 35 minutes in), the new professor (brought in from the government - the “ministry of magic”) announces that everyone will be taking the “Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations”, aka the OWLs. The format of the course that Harry and his classmates undertake is explained as a “carefully structured, ministy (government) approved” curriculum. When the students question this new method of learning their defense of the dark arts spells and whatnot, the professor replies that “it is the view of the ministry (government) that a theoretical understanding of the material is sufficient enough to get you through your examinations, (and here comes my favorite part) which is what school is all about!”
Harry argues, “but how is theory supposed to prepare us for what’s out there?” BINGO.
I can’t help but see this segment as a direct observation of our own school systems. The Michigan Merit Exam (formerly the MEAP test) has determined the material that is taught in the classroom and even the method it is taught. Teachers are required to cover the MME material first before discussing anything else, but because of the strong ties state funding has with the students’ exam results, most of the time only exam material is being taught - all theoretical and basic information. Like Harry points out in the movie, there is very little practical knowlege bestowed as a result of “teaching the tests”, nothing about finding a job, getting into college, managing finances, and other ‘real-world’ abilities.
There is even talk of moving to a national standardized test, similar to the ACT, in order to “determine” what students should know before graduation. *SPOILER ALERT* The OWLs didn’t work out at Hogwarts, and they don’t seem to be here in Michigan.
I’ve narrowed my work to being about three midwestern states that have very different approaches to public higher education:
Wisconsin - what I call the “pure system” approach, with all public universities and colleges falling under one board of trustees
Ohio - the opposite, “pure autonomy” approach, with all universities and colleges operating with their own board of governance
Michigan - the “hybrid” state, with a system (UMich - AA, Dearborn, and Flint) and autonomy (the other 11 institutions)
In researching the Ohio public universities, I discovered that all of the 13 Ohio institutions have 2 nonvoting student trustee members, which is mandated by Ohio law for each school. There have been efforts by students to push for voting members, but I need to do more research on the status of those.
It’s that time of the career - time to write my Senior Thesis.
I’ve been thinking about writing one since I first heard about having the option to do so, but I’ve had trouble settling on a topic until the last few months. I’ve decided to write about university systems and governance, and specifically how students fit into that picture.
In my 4-5 years of student involvement, especially in student government-type endeavors, I have become quite supportive of the idea of having students on our board of regents. I’m curious to see how this plays out in other states, as there are no student regents in the state of Michigan. I know that the larger public higher education systems are more welcoming to the idea of students on the board of governance, such as the University of Wisconsin system having at least one voting student, and the same for the UCal and Oregon systems.
So I’m going to research this idea and the history behind efforts to establish positions for students on university governance boards. At least that’s the focus for now, but everyone knows you don’t always end up where you intend to go. Wish me luck!
In another example of student activism in the high school arena, the Ann Arbor News has an article about a petition of more than 650 Pioneer High School students(led by the Student Council) standing against the proposed installation of more than 50 video cameras into the schools, recommended by the Ann Arbor Public Schools administration. The A2PS Board of Ed was set to vote on the issue last night (Wed.) but it seems the petition prodded them to move the vote to the next meeting at the end of January.
According to the article, the students plan to collect more than two-thirds of the student body population(3,000 - wow that’s a lot of students in one building) before the January 23rd vote, and they have the support of parents and the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Public access channels are about to get a little less publicly accessible. In flipping through the channels this morning, I noticed that on the five cable public access channels (15-19) there was a banner along the lower part of the screen telling us about another one of Comcast’s brilliant moves.
Starting in January Comcast is moving all of the public access channels to the 900 section on its digital cable offerings. That means that in order to watch the local meetings (often only Ann Arbor city council and boards, but still good tv) and the quite good local shows (like my favorite with the guy who reviews records with a talking plastic lobster) one must purchase digital cable and their digital cable box. I’m not sure about the numbers, but I’m guessing that a majority of the people who watch the public access channels are just getting the basic $12 cable package, and aren’t interested in the $50-75 increase a month for the bells and whistles of digital cable and the ‘on-demand’ stuff.
Comcast is offering to supply the digital box for free for the first year, but after 2008 everyone would have to shell out the big bucks just to watch their local meetings and community shows.
For those of you who are keeping track, this is Comcast’s third massive consumer piss-off maneuver, with the first being the change of “customer service” locations to include bulletproof glass and tighter security than banks, and the second screwup being the whole fiasco with not including the Big Ten Network (I’m surprised Ann Arbor hasn’t just started their own cable services, with all the crap they’ve had to put up with).
Just another reasons to support public television and radio - so that Comcast won’t control it.
I was seeking through radio stations this morning on my way to work, and I eventually found one that was playing some decent classic rock. After a few songs the usual redundant block of commercials began to air. Typically my ears zone out away from listening to the radio when the ads play, but one special 30-second spot caught my attention. The voice on the radio was telling me to do something that I had never heard before….Vote. Not to vote for a specific candidate or against a certain ballot initiative, but rather just going to the polls and voting. It told me how to register to vote, how to find something called an “advanced polling location”, and then blamed me for a decline in society for not voting. Then it said something else…Canada. This was an advertisement from Elections Ontario, a “nonpartisan agency of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.” That’s right, this is Ontario’s version of the Secretary of State!
When was the last time you saw the Michigan Secretary of State’s office advertise to us, the general public, about voting? Now I understand why Canada has higher voter turnout rates that the United States. Their elections officers reach out to citizens instead of pushing them away and creating barriers for them to get to the polls. Canada averages 65-70% on major governmental elections while here we go to the polls at a rate of 50-55% (although the percentage is rising as major election reform begins to take place throughout the country). They also offer polls that are open weeks before the actual election day for those citizens who will be out of town and prefer not to hassle with mail-in ballots (concept we call “early voting” in the election-reform business), and require employers to provide threeconsecutive hours of polling time versus the United States’ one.
However, all things are not great in Canada, as youth (18-24) voter turnout is slightly lower than the United States, and is actually in decline while here it is rising. I guess there aren’t as many great student-led organizations such as the United States Student Association, Rock the Vote, and the Eastern Votes Coalition, in Canada as there are here. Oh well, at least Elections Ontario has a sweet slogan: VOTING: Every Day It Matters.
I’ve uploaded the video taken from the Student Association of Michigan rally held on Sept. 26. It is divided into seven clips that are hosted on YouTube, each a little less than 10 minutes each (YouTube only allows 10 minutes clips and I don’t have the personal webspace to put a few hundred MBs up) .
I was just watching “Power of 10″, Drew Carey’s game show (before Price is Right), and one of the questions was about the percentage of Americans (according to their poll with an unknown case number) who support higher taxes to pay for universal health care. Their answer was 51%, so at least based on the game show’s simple observations it seems that this country is finally moving in the right (well I mean left) direction.
Note: please don’t submit comments that call me an idiot for believing statistics from a game show on television, I know they are not reliable - it’s just a fun thought.
On Wednesday, September 26, the Student Association of Michigan (SAM) will be hosting a rally outside of the Capitol building in Lansing. The time is TBD, but should be sometime in the afternoon, most likely 2:30ish. The goal of this rally is to bring more awareness to the burden that students are being forced to carry as the Michigan Legislature cuts funding (at minimum does not give inflationary raises) to the state’s public higher education system.
Students are organizing on all of Michigan’s university campuses and on several community college campuses to have students present at the rally, and a minimum goal of 1,000 students present at the rally has been set. Lobbying of legislators will also take place in the morning before the event in order to have students personally give testimony of the financial (and other types) drain the state legislature has dealt them as they bear the burden of budget cutting.
Professors, staff members, and general supporter are invited to attend the rally as well, and at minimum some sort of extra-credit (or no penalties) be given to students who must miss class to be at this event so imperative to the student voice.
For more information about the rally and/or how to participate, contact me at mhaynes@emich.edu, Greg Jones (EMU Student Body President) at gjones5@emich.edu, or Mohammad Dar (UM-AA Student Body VP and Rally Lead Planner) at jehuty@umich.edu.
