Grand Valley's Board of Trustees adopted the university's FY 2014 budget on July 12 and set tuition rates for the coming academic year. The action, which is in compliance with the state's tuition cap, keeps Grand Valley's tuition in the lower half of all Michigan universities.
Click here for a chart detailing tuition rates at Michigan universities.
Trustees voted to increase tuition by $188 per semester. This is one
of the smallest tuition increases in the last 20 years and brings
annual tuition to $10,454 for a full-time undergraduate Michigan
resident. (Today’s action follows release earlier this week of a U.S.
Department of Education study showing that the net cost of attendance
at Grand Valley has actually dropped by 3 percent).
University leaders said Grand Valley has held the increase in its
cost of operations to the rate of inflation for at least the past 20
years. However, Grand Valley’s appropriation from the state in the
coming year will be $503 per student below the amount the university
received just five years ago, equating to a drop in state support of
$11 million.
Despite the state’s disinvestment, Grand Valley’s below-average
tuition continues, while at the same time the university receives high
praise for its performance*. The university is expected to receive
state funding of $55.4 million plus a one-time state grant of $2.3
million based on Grand Valley’s best-in-class performance. Trustees
earmarked the entire state allocation for student financial aid, debt
service, maintenance, and utilities for classroom buildings.
“The quality of the education students receive at Grand Valley is
remarkable,” said Shelley Padnos, chair of the Board of Trustees.
“Michigan employers know that. Our graduates are finding work in
Michigan and contributing to our region’s economic stability. We have
increased financial aid, enabling students to borrow less, and while
we had to raise tuition, we kept the dollar amount manageable. When
comparing Grand Valley’s costs to those at other schools, it’s
important for students and their families to look at the bill in
dollars, not the percentage increase in tuition. Michigan has 15
public universities. None receive the same appropriation per student,
and none charge the same tuition. That’s why dollars matter, not percentages.”
President Thomas J. Haas briefed board members about how the
conversation in Lansing has shifted to universities’ performances, but
noted the challenges of crafting the university budget when changes in
enrollment are not a factor in state appropriations.
“I am grateful to Gov. Snyder and lawmakers for rewarding
universities that perform well. Grand Valley and our students benefit
from this,” Haas said. “But a one-time performance allocation does not
fix what is fundamentally flawed in higher education funding – changes
in enrollment don’t count. Grand Valley’s performance metrics place us
among the top of our peer institutions, yet we receive the lowest
appropriation per-student in Michigan and nearly the lowest
per-student funding in the nation. Even with such challenges, we
continue to serve Michigan by producing outstanding graduates who are
leading businesses and communities across this great state. I will
continue to make our students and their families my priority as I work
with the leadership in Lansing to make sure that both students and
performance count.”
Haas also noted that nearly 30 percent
of the increase in undergraduate degrees awarded in Michigan during
the last decade comes from just one school – Grand Valley State. Of
Grand Valley’s most recent graduates, nearly 90 percent are employed
or in graduate school, or both. Of those working, 84 percent are
employed in Michigan.
The budget adopted today by the board
includes $35 million for student financial aid, an increase of $1.4
million, and a modest 2 percent wage increase for faculty and staff members.
The board also heard an update on the Grand Finish grant, another
opportunity for Grand Valley students to reduce the cost of
attendance. The Grand Finish, now concluding its second year, is
awarded to students entering their senior year who are on track to
finish their degree in four years. In the 2012/2013 academic year,
2,745 students received Grand Finish grants of up to $1,000. In the
first year of the program, approximately 1,000 students received the grant.
