A new proposal to change Gov. Jennifer Granholm's recommended higher education funding cuts is facing an uphill battle to make it out of subcommittee for full House consideration.

Rep. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, said subcommittee members have doubts about the proposal.

"In talking to a number of subcommittee members, it's going to be a challenge to get it through subcommittee," she said.

Whitmer, who is the minority vice-chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the proposal to differentiate cuts to Michigan's universities would unfairly pit universities against each other.

"There's a much greater downside for higher education as a whole than there is potential upside," she said.

Whitmer said she favors Granholm's proposal to cut state funding to all of Michigan's public universities by 6.5 percent because differential cuts will create an unwelcome uncertainty among university administrators across the state.

"When it's a universal cut, it's a heck of a lot easier for students and universities to figure out how to make ends meet," she said.

If the majority of the nine member-House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education decide to pass the proposal when they vote next week, it will go to the House Appropriations Committee.

The subcommittee will vote on the proposal, which would vary cuts to universities from 4.5 percent to 9.5 percent.

The proposal is in response to Granholm's recommendation to cut spending to all of Michigan's 15 public universities by 6.5 percent.

Under the proposal, per-student state funding would be leveled within the university tier system.

The tier system places Michigan public universities into four tiers. Per student state funding to those universities ranges from $4,600 to $9,100.

The closer universities are to the funding they should receive under the tier system, the smaller their cuts would be.

Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, who is a member of the subcommittee, said although he favors the proposal, he's unsure if the subcommittee will pass it.

Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, said he supports the measure because the per-student funding gap among schools in the same funding tier is getting too wide.

"Wayne State has had a declining enrollment, yet their appropriations continue to go up," he said. "A little more equity is in order."

Under the proposal, Hoogendyk said MSU's state funding cut would see little change.

Presidents Council Executive Director Michael Boulus said no cut to any university should exceed the governor's proposed 6.5-percent cut. The Presidents Council represents state universities.

"There are inequalities in the system," he said. "It's easier to correct those inequalities in times of funding increases rather than negative appropriations."

Although the differential cuts proposal would benefit some state-funded universities, Boulus said it wouldn't serve the greater good of all 15 public universities in Michigan.

"When you benefit one at the expense of another, it becomes potentially divisive," he said. "Why should Ferris State take 9.5-percent cuts so that a few others gain nominally?

"The bottom line is there's only going to be so much money."