Just hope that MSU President M. Peter McPherson doesn't start sitting down with University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to clip coupons out of the newspaper.

It isn't that drastic, but a new joint venture between Michigan's 15 public colleges and universities and the state to save money when purchasing goods and services is a good idea.

In order to trim costs from dwindling budgets, the State of Michigan/Higher Education Purchasing Consortium will buy anything from software to road salt in bulk.

The public universities and the state will purchase lower-cost items by buying enough for all of them at once - think Wal-Mart Superstores.

In lean financial times, pooling resources and using a collective leverage to save taxpayer dollars is a great plan.

Especially since the Legislature is backing state universities into a corner with past and probable future cuts.

A $920 million state budget shortfall might lead to a 6 percent cut in appropriations to each of the public universities.

McPherson made a good point when he said that the Legislature might see how the universities are working to save money, and therefore spare them from further cuts.

Money-saving techniques are used by individual citizens everyday when buying goods.

It seems only proper for the government to do the same, and even more so they can use bulk buying to their advantage.

And as Granholm urges the entire state to "cut the fat" from budgets, it's important to cut the right fat, and that's what the universities are trying to do.

Government agencies and bureaucracies don't usually examine ways to streamline and cut costs without slashing departments and cutting jobs.

This initiative is an example of the appropriate way to reduce expenses, instead of laying off employees with bills to pay or cutting services provided to the people of Michigan.

After all, coupon-clipping is better than clipping away jobs from families who depend on them or public services that serve the community