MSU isn’t a foreign place for most students.

Continuing a recent trend, the university’s campus continues to be mostly made up of in-state residents.

This year, for instance, about 91 percent of the freshman class are full-time Michigan residents, and preliminary enrollment figures show 80 percent of all MSU students are from Michigan.

“That’s common for most public institutions,” said Gordon Stanley, MSU’s director of admissions.

Preliminary figures don’t include the thousands of students taking online courses - many who are presumably from other regions of the country.

The figures are still being analyzed and will be released in October, but MSU is near the bottom of the Big Ten in that respect, Stanley said. Schools such as the University of Ohio, the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan continuously accept more out-of-state students than MSU, he said.

Subsequently, MSU makes less money than those schools that admit more non-state residents.

Out-of-state tuition is typically much higher than in-state rates. But Stanley said only 10 or 20 percent of MSU’s applicant pool lives outside Michigan.

That could change because of the men’s basketball team’s NCAA Championship run earlier this year, university Provost Lou Anna Simon said.

“The athletics will provide a national window for MSU,” Simon said. “It takes longer for news to spread across the country.”

Yet many still aren’t sure it’s in MSU’s best interest to accept more out-of-state applicants. Many say it discourages in-state students from applying.

However, in recent months, administrators have been pondering whether MSU has the money needed to continue thriving for the next several years - more out-of-state students means more money.

The recently approved state higher education budget gave MSU a slight increase in funds, but the university still receives less per student than U-M and Wayne State University - the state’s other two research institutions.

The state allocated $8,000 per student to MSU, $11,000 to Wayne State and $10,000 to U-M.

MSU officials rely on an increase in that state aid to allow the university to continue its tuition guarantee, a program MSU President M. Peter McPherson initiated in 1994 to keep tuition rate increases at or below the projected rate of inflation. The MSU Board of Trustees chose to maintain the guarantee this spring when the body set tuition rates for 2000-01.

But those opposed to the guarantee argue it hurts the quality of education on campus. History Professor Henry Silverman said it limits the amount of money faculty and staff can earn.

“The university needs to grow to increase salaries about 3 percent a year, and it hasn’t done that.” said Silverman, who earlier this month lost a bid to seek the Democratic nomination for the Board of Trustees. “Linking it as we have to the rate of inflation, there’s less money going into the pool.”

MSU faculty and staff continue to be among the lowest paid in the Big Ten - accepting more non-Michigan residents could help increase the university’s coffer to increase those salaries.

Out-of-state residents pay nearly two times as much for tuition as in-state residents. And having so many in-state students means “your tuition revenue would be less, and the cost of educating out-of-state students is the same.” said MSU’s chief lobbyist Steve Webster, vice president for governmental affairs.

Trustee Scott Romney, who was appointed to the board in August, said it’s clear admitting more out-of-state students to the university would boost budgets.

But he’s not sure if that’s the right thing to do.

“(Out-state-enrollment) enhances the revenue for our programs,” Romney said. “But what the proper balance is, I don’t know.”

Stanley said increasing the number of students MSU accepts from outside Michigan would increase both campus diversity and university revenue.

However, Trustee Don Nugent said the university must continue to maintain its commitment to in-state residents. He said MSU wouldn’t have to consider accepting more non-Michigan residents if the state Legislature would increase its appropriations.

“We have to put pressure on the Legislature to close the funding gap for research institutions to get the same proportions as Wayne State or U-M,” he said.

Vincent Estes can be reached at estesvin@msu.edu.