Michigan’s public universities grapple with enrollment decline, rising costs due to decreased state or federal funding and increasing competition among themselves, and they do so under a unique system grounded in the state constitution.
Each university is governed independently by a board of trustees and regents, without a coordinating agency or authority that can implement change from a wider, statewide view encompassing all 15 institutions.
That structure can help make each school more accountable and flexible to react to the specific needs of each institution, supporters say. But it also can make it harder to combine resources and forge collaborations that aren’t duplicated in 15 different places.
Read more at Crain’s Detroit Business.
