MSU was left with more than a $21-million decrease in funding after the fate of higher education was decided Wednesday by state lawmakers.

MSU joins the list of eight other Michigan universities that saw cuts at an upward of 6 percent. Grand Valley State University and Saginaw Valley State University were the only public institutions to receive an increase in state appropriations.

MSU officials say they are not surprised by the news, but had hoped the university would have been added to the list of universities that received funding for the upcoming fiscal year.

"Our appropriations are not what was hoped for, but they had a difficult task," Interim President Lou Anna Simon said. "We understand the limitations of available dollars.

"The disappointment is we can't pass on further money to our students."

In an attempt to prepare students and their families for a cut in state funding, the MSU Board of Trustees approved a 9.9-percent tuition increase in June for fall semester.

"It's hard for us to put out a high-quality of education when we aren't getting the appropriations," Trustee Donald Nugent said.

MSU per-student funding remains low at $7,167, compared to other large research universities in the state.

Students at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan get about $3,000 more than their MSU counterparts.

Finding money to increase MSU's per-student funding to the same level as those universities is a difficult task for the state, Nugent said, because MSU has such a large student body.

"I'm disappointed MSU wasn't adjusted like other schools," he said.

State officials did decide to keep funding for the Merit Award Scholarship intact at $2,500. With money from Michigan's tobacco settlement, students who pass the four sections of the Michigan Education Assessment Program, or MEAP, are awarded the money to go toward their college education, said Richard Shipman, director for MSU's Office of Financial Aid.

"The kind of students coming to MSU are the kind of students who take the MEAP and pass it," he said. "For those who don't have financial need, that's the only thing they are getting, so it's a big deal."

For the 2002-03 academic year, 5,967 MSU freshmen received $13.9 million from the merit scholarship, Shipman said. That was an increase from the 2001-02 academic year when 5,693 students were awarded $12.8 million.

The Life Sciences Corridor Initiative, which MSU participates in, also will see an increase in funding of $5 million for the 2003-04 fiscal year. Gov. Jennifer Granholm had cut funding for the corridor by $12.5 million in February.

MSU faculty members and researchers received about $4 million in corridor funding in May - a decrease of $2.5 million from 2002.

MSU officials say maintaining scholarship money and corridor funding shows that lawmakers are trying to aid research universities.

"Parts of the entire (budget) people had to balance," Simon said. "That's all helpful."

Stephanie Korneffel can be reached at korneff2@msu.edu.