When the MSU Board of Trustees voted July 21 to hike tuition for the 2005-06 academic school year, all but one board member approved.
Dorothy Gonzales, a board member since 1993, presented the dissenting view at the meeting, telling other members that she voted with her constituents in mind.
The board approved a 13.5 percent tuition hike for new students and a 9.3 percent raise for returning students. The MSU increase is the highest since 2003 and the highest for new students since 1987.
The cost of tuition and fees for incoming MSU students will amount to an additional $945 annually. For returning students, the cost will go up by 9.3 percent, or $652.50.
Gonzales has voted against raising MSU's tuition for the past several years.
As the director of Wayne County's Health and Human Services Department, she works with some of the poorest people in the country in terms of job losses and income. She said many of the board members have lost sight of the reality for the poverty-stricken, low-income families who barely make ends meet.
As unemployment rises, those she represents continually ask her, "How can I afford to keep my son or daughter at MSU?," she said.
The jobless rate increased in the Detroit-Warren-Livonia area, climbing from 7.2 percent in May to 7.7 percent in June, according to the Department of Labor and Economic Growth. The rate stayed the same in the Lansing-East Lansing area at 6.3 percent. Both regions were affected by short-term auto-industry layoffs.
"Look at all of the empty buildings," Gonzales said July 29 from her office balcony on the third floor of the Wayne County Building, which overlooks several other abandoned buildings downtown. "It speaks for itself about what's happening here."
Gonzales is the only trustee who works in Detroit.
"This is such a burden on our students at MSU," Gonzales said. "How is it that we remain a land-grant institution to educate working-class families when the costs keep increasing? It hurts me that we've moved so far from that mission."
Despite an annoyed glance from a fellow board member at the tuition meeting, Gonzales said she's proud of the way she voted.
The East Lansing resident said she keeps her past struggles in mind when she votes for her constituents. She comes from a migrant farm working family and she said she put herself through college with a nighttime job assembling car parts.
"I always vote with my head and my heart," she said. "Considering where I came from, I wouldn't be able to vote any other way."
Political science incoming freshman Martinez Jarvis, of Detroit, said financial aid is paying for his college tuition, but he agrees with Gonzales that there are other students in the city struggling to make tuition payments.
"She was speaking for everyone from Detroit that wants to come to MSU," he said. "She knows the struggles. They can see where she's coming from, and maybe they'll see the real reason why she opposed the rise of state tuition."
Students such as incoming psychology freshman Jonathan Cole said the tuition hike is too high. His tuition is half covered by financial aid. He said he will have to find a job to make up the difference because his mother is unemployed and can't help him.
"It's going to hurt us more now and really put a dent on everything we planned on doing," Cole said. "I'll have some struggles, but I'll be able to get it done."
But Trustee Vice Chairman Joel Ferguson said Gonzales' views are "outrageous and inaccurate." Due to state funding cuts, he said the board had less money to budget with than in prior years but worked for several months to ensure that students from lower-class areas wouldn't be affected by tuition increases.
"She is totally wrong," he said. "They will actually be getting more funding."
MSU's Director of Financial Aid Rick Shipman said in July the tuition increase also includes a 15 percent raise in financial aid, which will bring an additional $6.4 million to students qualifying for it. This includes $5.4 million in additional financial aid, plus another $1 million for students just above the eligibility for Pell Grants.
Shipman said every student, regardless of their financial-aid status, will be given some monetary assistance from the university. For example, he said students who qualified for the lowest amount of Pell Grant, about $400, would receive $1,200 for the upcoming year.
The University of Michigan approved a 12.3 percent increase, meaning in-state freshmen will pay $9,213 per academic year for tuition and fees.
Ferguson said MSU students still pay about $2,000 less than students at U-M.
"In a dollar basis, we still are a tremendous bargain," he said.
Along with the increase, MSU also added special course fees for business and science majors.
Gonzales said the new fees weren't clearly presented prior to voting on the tuition increase, but Ferguson said the fee information and financial-aid increases had been readily available and were discussed by the trustees. Ferguson and Trustee Dee Cook both said Gonzales isn't an active participant at board discussions.
"We're pretty angry about it," Ferguson said. "We'd present her with information and ask her if there was another way to improve it, but there would be silence."
Gonzales said she feels the same tension each time she votes against the majority of the board.
"They get angry," she said. "They think you're not a team player."
Cook said this was the most difficult and stressful budget cycle she had been involved in during her 15 years at MSU. She said continual state funding cuts made the tuition hike necessary to maintain MSU's quality, class sizes and student-teacher ratio.
Despite Gonzales' views on tuition, Cook and other trustees said they believe anyone who wants to attend MSU will be able to in the coming years.
"I believe in the land-grant mission," Cook said. "There are very young people that we need to educate, and they're not going to be denied an opportunity to go to school."
