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NEWS
Monday, August 30, 2010
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increase brought in $80 million in revenue. Kate Pew Wolters, chair of the Board of Trustees, defended the budget. “A college degree remains an essential tool for individuals and our entire region,” Wolters said in a
press release. “We approved this budget with confidence that the university is attentive to students’ academic and financial needs. Helping young people graduate and assume leadership roles in our state is vital to our future.” Haas said although the university has had to make some sacrifices in the budget,
the cuts have not come at the cost of the student experience at GVSU. “What we have here is an ethos, a culture that’s student-centered and people will say ‘I’m just gonna have to work a little bit harder so that students are successful,’ and that’s the magic of this place, I think,” he said. This year, 22 percent of
Grand Valley Lanthorn
State Appropriations Per Student
2004-05 2005-06 Wayne State 9,015 8,507 U of M-Ann Arbo 8,407 7,901 Michigan Tech 8,466 7,841 Michigan State 7,083 6,687 State Average 5,886 5,612 Lake Superior 4,970 4,883 Northern 5,517 5,267 Western 4,759 4,710 Ferris 4,785 4,396 Eastern 4,204 4,055 U of M-Dearborn 4,086 3,963 U of M-Flint 4,428 4,090 Central 3,843 3,710 Saginaw Valley 3,522 3,534 Oakland 3,584 3,558 Grand Valley 3,076 3,059 Source: HEIDI State grants to private colleges: $2,100 per student
2006-07 8,510 7,938 8,073 6,683 5,673 5,410 5,340 4,979 4,437 4,177 4,151 4,021 3,793 3,564 3,511 3,020
2007-08 8,875 7,871 7,838 6,702 5,719 5,538 5,478 5,098 4,365 4,322 4,159 3,885 3,876 3,543 3,492 3,026
the university’s budget came from state aid according to the Office of Institutional Analysis, compared to 47 percent in 1991. But long-term planning has helped the university cushion the blow of decreasing state aid, Bachmeier said. “We’ve been more aggressive and we got aggressive earlier in the game than some of the other universities,” he said. “When there are fewer dollars to go around, necessity is the mother of invention. The fact is that we have been somewhat limited and constrained. We’ve made some decisions that have been hard ones but
good ones, and they made us better.” One key element of GVSU’s plan to keep costs down in the future is to increase four-year graduation rates. Currently GVSU is ranked third among the 15 public universities in Michigan, but Haas said he believes the university can do better. This year, he introduced the Grand Finish scholarship for incoming freshmen, which gives any student who completes 90 credits by the end of their junior year a $1,000 grant. Haas said he believes the incentive will not only decrease costs for students but also for the university, as higher four-year graduation
rates would create more stable enrollment levels. “This is a promise that I’m making, and I think it’s a very critical one,” he said. In spite of the higher tuition cost, GVSU slipped from ninth to 10th in the costs of Michigan’s 15 public universities, making the university less expensive in relation to other schools. Financial aid also increased by 6.3 percent, helping to cushion the tuition increase. According to Marcus Wood, the Financial Aid Systems Manager, the average gift aid award this year is $5,649, with almost $64 million in total gift aid distributed thus far. sbutcher@lanthorn.com
Haas
to be hiring a few additional faculty members to make sure that the courses that are so important to our students are going to be offered. I don’t want to delay a student’s ability to graduate because we didn’t look ahead and provide the resources to offer those classes. So the strategic plan is going to help us and guide us this next year with all the uncertainties with the state budget. We also have new leadership coming in with the new governor, Senate and House leadership. That provides an opportunity actually. I don’t call it a challenge, I call it an opportunity for us to educate and highlight the contributions that Grand Valley’s making to West Michigan and the rest of the state. That, to me, is going to be very, very positive. So I’m going to spend some time, along with some of my staff, highlighting the successes that we’ve had and the potential that we yet have for our obligations to the state in producing people
who are going to either go to grad school or who are going to join the workforce here in Michigan. That, to me, is an opportunity. Part of the challenge is, of course, making sure we offer the educational programs that are important to the state, which we will continue to focus in on. >> Lanthorn: GVSU is still receiving less state aid than other universities and continues be successful. Do you think the state government will continue to ignore GVSU because it’s doing fine on its own? >> Haas: Actually, we’ve factored that in to our own strategic planning and I think we have to look that we will not continue to grow as fast as what we have. We’ll basically be topping off with what we have right now at 24,000 to 25,000 students. So, we know that the certain revenues come from tuition and some from the state. We also have the philanthropic community coming forward to help with scholarships and other types of aid for our students, which again I’m very, very thrilled with. >> Lanthorn: You said you think Grand Valley is getting better and better every day. What is the biggest change you’ve seen in your time here? >> Haas: I think one of the areas I am most proud of is in terms of the climate and culture that I found here, and that has definitely improved through the leadership of Jeanne Arnold and others in the Office of Inclusion and Equity. I know that we spent significant time listening and gathering people’s perspectives across the entire university- students, faculty and staff. Looking back over these past four years, that has been very satisfying ... I see that as a very, very positive change, but we’re not going to rest at all. This area is so important to the success of Grand Valley and the success of our students to create the atmosphere and environment so that people can learn and bring more inclusivity and tolerance. I’m very pleased to see that evolve and mature.
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vestments are made the right way with the right priority. For instance, we are going
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