OPtimizing EDucation

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy March 22, 2024

Michigan’s public universities have learned to do more with less for many years now. While recent state budgets have been a well appreciated re-investment, institutions responded to years of cuts or stagnation by holding the line on affordability for students and families. This…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy July 27, 2023

Every few years, I like to draw attention to the shocking difference between what the federal government thinks a student is, and what the State of Michigan knows about students. It’s time for one of those posts again. The state’s Center for Education Performance and Information…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy February 2, 2023

For many years, various entities have set up dashboards to monitor the state of higher education around the nation. The federal government, state governments, business roundtables, and universities themselves have all created such tools. In that vein, MASU is pleased to unveil…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy May 20, 2022

At a recent debate among Republican candidates seeking to serve as Michigan’s next Governor, a number of them expressed their belief that the state’s public universities are swimming in dollars, particularly thanks to their endowments. Now and then we hear news stories about…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy August 31, 2021

Back in May, the fine folks out at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) put out a comprehensive report summarizing the available literature on state funding of higher education. They confirmed what we all suspected: cutting public higher education…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy May 26, 2021

My colleague Dan Hurley posted earlier this week about a major national study that reaffirms the direct role state investment in higher education has in determining student outcomes at public universities. This investment helps draws students to campuses by keeping education…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy May 18, 2021

The last time I wrote about public university missions, it was to give the reader a sense of university history and founding purposes. As I pointed out in that last post, what universities do now is even today often conditional on what they were originally established to do.…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy March 26, 2021

We’ve recently heard interest in Lansing, as limited as it is, of supporting public universities in Michigan through a voucher model. Such a model would theoretically set a flat rate amount of state funding that is paid to state universities on a per student basis. After all,…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy February 2, 2021

State universities in Michigan are not cookie cutter copies of each other. Each institution has a different history, a different geographic location, different local and state stakeholders, and above all else, different students and missions to serve those students. Because of…

In OPtimizing EDucation, by Mia Murphy January 14, 2021

Congratulations to the newly-elected members of the 101st Michigan Legislature! Choosing to run for office and serve the public is a major commitment, and associations like the Michigan Association of State Universities (MASU) exist in part to provide information to these public…

In Health & Safety, by Mia Murphy March 11, 2020

Updated: February 1, 2022, 5:20 PM University Campus Operations Sites COVID Dashboard Site Winter 2022 Semester Operations General Vaccine or Testing Requirements Central Dashboard In person as…

In Accountability, by Mia Murphy December 2, 2019

This fall in the Michigan Legislature, the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Higher Education are holding informational hearings while they consider revisions to the state’s funding formula utilized for its 15 public universities. MASU is slated to testify on Dec.…

In Accountability, by Mia Murphy August 29, 2019

This is “college” in America: Credit: WIKIMEDIA  And so is this: Credit: HOLYOKE CCThis is also “college” in America: Credit: TRIPADVISOR  And this is also “college” in America: Credit: JIM THOMPSON/ALBURQUERQUE JOURNAL/ZUMA  And so is this: Credit:…

In Higher Ed Finance, by Mia Murphy March 8, 2019

We might have expected much of the general approach Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took to her first budget, announced this week, by her campaign platform. Certainly a number of proposals like pulling School Aid Fund out of the universities’ budget were expected based on her platform…

In Accountability, by Mia Murphy July 26, 2018

When last we checked in on our friends at the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS, the federal government’s higher education data center), their graduation rate data was, uh, not very good. As I said at the time, if you don’t count a significant proportion of…