This university is now a destination, attractive locally, nationally and internationally. And even with higher tuition rates, the number of students the university continues to attract gives weight to the idea that MSU’s enrollment will remain healthy, keeping the future of the university out of doubt.

The university should be lauded for making MSU such an attractive place to get a higher education while simultaneously pulling in more revenue for the university.

But there’s always another side to the coin. Can the university continue to admit ever-increasing numbers of new students while maintaining a high standard of education?

State legislators have shown a willingness to continue restricting public funding of higher education and a willingness to squabble over the contributions that the government is obligated to make.

Case in point: the House Republicans’ recent misgivings about the university being found in compliance with the state’s tuition restrictions, causing the university to receive $18.3 million in state funding. With this continuing decrease in government support, the university finds itself raising tuition rates and admitting more students in the hope of making up the difference.

But at what point does the university’s need for revenue come before its obligation to students?

As long as the university can handle the demands placed upon it by the size of the student body, it should have no issue with admitting large numbers of high school and transfer students. But if and/or when the quality of that education begins to falter because of class sizes, then it’s not worth the admission revenue. It’d be irresponsible to students if the university could not provide the best education experience it can.

Revenue is good. Educating students is good. But one cannot be sacrificed for the sake of the other. Even if the university only receives a trickle of state funding, it can ill afford a flood of students diluting the quality of the education it provides. The education students get has to be worth what they pay for it. If it isn’t, then students will go elsewhere, taking revenues with them.

So far, the university has maintained a balance between doing the best for its bottom line and doing the best for as many students as possible. And as long as it can maintain that balance, as long as it can provide a massive amount of students the high-quality education they paid for, the university can confidently walk whatever fine line it feels is correct. But with every massive admissions class and with every dollar lost in state funding, that line will get a little bit finer.