“Partnership requires two-way communication,” she said. “It requires a bridge to somewhere, as opposed to a bridge to nowhere.”

She said freezing tuition could compromise MSU’s academic fortitude.

“There are some times you can freeze things, take them back out and pop them in the microwave and they work out just fine,” she said. “Academic programs aren’t like that.”

Although Simon targeted state government priorities as part of the reason for the university’s financial woes, she said MSU needs to be proactive in lowering costs and restraining budgets.

She announced a plan to reduce growth in health care costs by the end of the year. Currently, the university’s costs grow at about 9 percent per year.

Simon said lowering the increase to about 7 percent could decrease tuition by 5 percent.

“Our goal is to reduce cost but not shift the burden to the public payroll by reducing insurance,” Simon said.

“We think what we can do is really look progressively at some prevention methods using evidence that hopefully can reduce our health care costs … Everything is on the table.”

MSU Trustee Dianne Byrum — who was elected to the board in November and previously served in the state Legislature — said Simon addressed the tuition freeze issue well.

“I think that President Simon put (the tuition freeze) in the appropriate context,” she said. “MSU has always been a partner and part of that partnership is an open dialogue, listening and a giving and taking that Michigan State is going to remain true to our vision.”

Keep checking statenews.com for updates or see the Wednesday edition of The State News.