Reports: Tuition hike may cost MSU $18 million in state funding

Increased tuition rates at Michigan State University may exceed state-mandated limitations, potentially costing the university millions, according to reports.

July 22, Detroit Free Press: “When Michigan State University students return this fall, they’ll be paying 9.4% more in tuition than the year before, a situation that has irked some state officials.

The increase appears to violate a provision in the state budget, which placed a 7.1% cap on raising tuition. Wayne State University is also under scrutiny by state officials, who say its fall increase is 8.4%.

Some legislators and a state fiscal agency report say the universities failed to factor increases to tuition for the current summer semester, pushing the real increase beyond the cap.”

The Michigan House fiscal Agency earlier this month reported that MSU’s tuition will be 9.4 percent higher this fall than a year ago.

That figure would cost the university $18.3 million in state aid as a penalty for exceeding the 7.1 percent tuition-hike cap, on top of the 15 percent cut in state aid Michigan’s 15 public universities have been budgeted for.

But MSU officials say the state’s math is off.

July 22, Detroit Free Press: “MSU disputes the way the state has calculated the percentages. School officials say a 2.4% increase to the current summer semester shouldn’t count, in part, because it represents the unfreezing of a past summer tuition increase that was already approved. By that logic, tuition is increasing only 6.9% from academic year to academic year, MSU contends.

That argument didn’t win many friends among state lawmakers during a legislative committee hearing Thursday morning about the issue.

‘I think, in my personal opinion, this is a cute play on the definition of the academic year to get a bigger tuition increase,’ said state Rep. Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant.

Not so, said Mark Haas, MSU’s chief financial officer. ‘We’re not trying to be cute. We’re not playing games. We believe we did the right thing.’”

Regardless of whether MSU was consistent with the letter of the law, Cotter and other Republican members of the House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee at a meeting last week said the university did not uphold the law’s intent, according to the Lansing State Journal.

July 22, LSJ: “If MSU doesn’t lower tuition of its own accord … ‘my personal opinion is we may have to rectify this,’ he said.

He raised the possibility of a ‘negative supplemental,’ a cut from MSU’s budget that would be voted on by the Legislature.

There were students at the meeting who urged the committee to make MSU reel in its tuition increase. There were others who urged them not to cut MSU’s funding any further.”

CSUDH confers the most degrees on black students in state

When it comes to the number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees conferred on black students, California State University, Dominguez Hills, has no rival among public colleges in California, according to a national diversity magazine.

This was among the many findings reported in an annual report ranking the top 100 universities nationwide on matters of diversity by the magazine Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Based on data from the 2009-10 school year, the 2011 rankings place Cal State Dominguez Hills 80th nationwide in providing bachelor’s degrees and 63rd in conferring master’s degrees on minority students.

As the CSU campus with the highest percentage of African-American students (23.1 percent), Dominguez Hills was the only public institution in California to be ranked for the total number of both bachelor’s and master’s degrees given to black students.

The magazine also breaks rankings down to specific ethnicities and disciplines, and the university was in the top 50 and top 10 in several of those categories.

For example, Dominguez Hills ranked ninth for all minority students and sixth for Latino students in undergraduate degrees in liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities. In engineering fields, the Carson university ranked fourth for Latino students, seventh for Asian-Americans and 10th in total minority students.

All totaled, of the 2,309 students who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in

Fresno State Advancement Division honored for fundraising

California State University, Fresno has been recognized with a 2011 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Educational Fundraising Award.

Fresno State’s efforts place the university’s Advancement Division in the top 10% of eligible universities in the Outstanding Performance in fundraising category.

Only two other universities in California – University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley – received awards in the international organization’s fundraising category of its Circle of Excellence competition.

The awards recognize superior work serving “as a best practice that contributes to the advancement profession overall,” said Norma Walker, the CASE vice president of advancement programs.

“CASE’s recognition of Fresno State’s fundraising programs is especially gratifying because it underscores our success even in very difficult economic times,” said Dr. Peter N. Smits, vice president for University Advancement.

“Our success is a tribute to our development team and the many dedicated community volunteers who not only contribute financially, but help cultivate new supporters for Fresno State,” Smits added. “There would be no success without alumni, friends, businesses and industries investing in Fresno State so we can provide opportunities for future generations of students from our diverse region who rely on us for their university training.”

Since 2005, the Campaign for Fresno State has raised $167 million, 80 percent of which goes to academic needs, Smits said. More than 107,000 gifts from over 22,000 donors have been received, supplementing dwindling state financial support of public higher education.

“Donations have provided much-needed scholarships, outfitted state-of-the art laboratories for science, engineering and nursing students, enhanced our new Madden Library and supported expanded research and improved facilities in agriculture and other disciplines,” said Smits.

The CASE award to Fresno State was made in the Public Comprehensive Institution category. Other schools recognized in the category for overall performance are Boise State University, Longwood University (Va.), Missouri State University and Western Kentucky University.

BU’s Chambers in mix at Penn State

According to multiple sources, Boston University men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers has emerged as a leading contender to become the next coach at Penn State. Penn State athletic director Tim Curley is expected to make a final decision between Chambers, who has guided BU to back-to-back 21-14 seasons the past two years, including an NCAA tournament berth this season and University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin head coach Rob Jeter in the next few days, Chambers, who has strong Philadelphia roots and came to BU to replace Dennis Wolff two yaers ago from Jay Wright’s staff at Villanova, talked to Penn State officials earlier this week and emerged as one of the leading contenders primarily because of the Philadelphia connection, which Penn State officials feel is a strong credential to take over the job of running what many people feel is the toughest job in the Big Ten. Chambers recently agreed to a contract extension at BU through the 2015-16 season.

Fresno State alumnus part of Nisei film project

Satoshi Kuwamoto of Fresno, whose higher education at what then was Fresno State College was cut short by the World War II internment orders that sent thousands of Japanese-Americans into prison camps in 1942, tell his story in a short film.

His is one of a dozen films posted online as part of the California Nisei College Diploma Project that helped to locate over 1,000 people or their surviving families. Each had been attending a California State College, the University of California or a California community college in early 1942 and had their college careers disrupted by internment.

The Nisei College Diploma Project was designed to find eligible Nisei and to award honorary degrees. California State University, Fresno awarded 28 honorary degrees under the program, most of them during a special May 2010 commencement ceremony attended by Kuwamoto.

In the film, he talks about growing up in the Japanese section of downtown Fresno where his parents operated a grocery store and a hardware store next door. While attending classes at Fresno State, Kuwamoto remembers rushing to work with the rest of his family when he didn’t have classes.

After being interned, Kuwamoto moved to the Midwest and attended classes at the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology), but was summoned back to Fresno by his father to help restore the family business. His father died, though, and he never returned to college.

A video interview with Kuwamoto was made during summer 2010 by University of San Francisco student Casey Ikeda. It can be viewed at .

BC at Florida State

It’s not Florida State-Miami, but Doak Campbell Stadium has the feeling of the good old days for FSU–back when they were contending for national championships every year. With a 5-1 record, the Seminoles are off to their best start in six years under first year coach Jimbo Fisher, who replaced legendary Bobby Bowden and Boston College comes here only with the memory of two wins in their last two meetings against the Seminoles, including a 27-17 win here two years ago. Sunny day, reasonably cool (70 degrees) and it will be interesting to see how BC freshman QB Chase Rettig handles his road debut. With 26 sacks in six games, the FSU defense has been eating QB’s for breakfast and lunch thus far. BC needs to at least stay in the game through the first quarter, which could lead to an interesting afternoon for FSU, which is a remarkable 21 point favorite. One disquieting note. BC strong safety Dominick LeGrande was suspended for today’s game for violation of team rules. It is the third game day suspension of a BC player in the last four weeks. LeGrande did not even make the trip. Defensive linemen Kaleb Ramsey and Conor O’Neal had been suspended earlier in the season for violation of team rules. With LeGrande out, sophomore Jim Noel was scheduled to start at strong safety against FSU. First Quarter FSU 7, BC 6 Wow. First play from scrimmage for BC and Montel Harris breaks loose up the middle 72 yards before being chased down at the FSU 12 by cornerback Greg Reid. Where did that come from. Things settled down somewhat for FSU and Nate Freese came in and kicked a 33 yard field goal to give the Eagles a 3-0 lead, but that’s a much better start than the last two weeks against North Carolina State and Notre Dame. FSU crowd appears stunned. Seminoles have not been behind in a game since a 47-17 loss at Oklahoma on Sept. 11. Even better for BC was the Eagle defefnsive stance on FSU’s first series. Three and out for the Seminles. Hmm. More Harris. This time he broke loose for 48 yards and the Eagles were in the red zone again on the FSU 20. Nothing after that, but a 37 yard field goal by Freese gave BC a 6-0 lead with 9:33 left in the first quarter. FSU clearly has not shown up mentally for this game yet and BC shows signs of life. This could get interesting, altlhough not converting red zone intrusions into TDs could haunt the Eagles.. More good stuff for BC, another 3 and out for BC, including a sack of FSU QB Christian Ponder by Alex Albright. FSU finally woke up as the first quarter ended. Starting at their own 35, ,the Seminoles moved down the field, ending the drive with a 3 yard TD pass from Ponder to Lonnie Pryor which put the Seminoles ahead by a point, 7-6 with 1:19 left in the first period.

2nd Quarter FSU 14, BC 6 Florida State woke up and BC hung in there and what we had was a stand off. BC griinding on defense–led as uusal by LB Luke Kuechly–and FSU probing on offense. What was clear from the get-go was that BC needed to pass the ball to open up more runs for Harris, who was startng to get stacked up by the FSU defense. Finally in the last minute of the first half, FSU looked like FSU as Ponder threw his second TD of the day, completing a 7 play 96 yard drive with a 10 yard TD pass to Bo Reliford to make it 14-6.