Cherry Commission op ed

President's Perspective

September 16, 2004

By Lou Anna Kimsey Simon

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has challenged Michigan's colleges and universities to identify a strategy that will increase participation in the state's higher education system: to double the number of postsecondary degree holders within 10 years, then keep them living and working in Michigan.

Greater participation in higher education and economic development go hand in hand. So the Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth, chaired by Lt. Gov. John Cherry, acknowledges that increasing participation also requires that we look at capacity.

If tomorrow, tens of thousands of additional students were to line up outside the admission offices of Michigan 's 15 public universities, it's not clear that we would have the space to serve them in the more specialized and technically sophisticated science and technology programs that produce the talent that fuels new ventures and creates new jobs. Institutions like Michigan State University already are experiencing significant enrollment growth, and our capacity is stretched, particularly in key areas.

Expanding these high-demand programs challenges our physical capacity because they require, in many cases, specialized teaching facilities - unique classrooms, laboratories and technological infrastructure. These facilities are essential, not only to prepare talent for the new economy, but to enable faculty and students to perform the research and launch the new initiatives and enterprises that will advance new ventures, jobs and industries.

In partnership with state government and the private sector, the state's public universities must identify potential barriers and limitations, such as physical capacity, and address them in bold and innovative ways.

Clearly we must evaluate how each institution can better use its available resources and how in partnership can align them across the universities, upholding the academic quality for which each is known. We must look for ways to build synergy and increase the spin-off benefits with other initiatives - like " Cool Cities " and the Technology Tri-Corridor - to create "talent centers" in Michigan that attract and retain highly educated individuals. And we must form public-private alliances to better support higher education by attracting additional corporate and federal research dollars.

Increased participation of students also will require more university professors, particularly those who can teach and conduct interdisciplinary competitive research in the specialized programs related to economic development. Michigan 's research universities have a special responsibility to concentrate on developing a strong but bigger cohort of graduate and professional students, who will be the next generation of scholars to fuel innovation.

The need for these teachers and innovative leaders becomes even more apparent when we recognize that earning a bachelor's degree - for many years, the passport to the middle class - probably will not be enough to nurture and sustain a talent-based new economy.

The new minimum for individuals to survive and thrive in Michigan 's growing knowledge economy may well be the master's degree. The research and development of advanced certificate and degree holders in the sciences, engineering, business, law, medicine and biotechnology - coupled with technology transfer - will be the catalyst for attracting new federal and corporate research dollars and expanding new businesses.

Increased participation and investment in higher education - by our students, their families and the state - will stimulate Michigan 's economy.

New talent centers will take shape and attract increased research funding from the research universities and other higher education institutions that support them. Long-term benefits will include new discoveries, technologies, businesses and jobs that will sustain Michigan 's economic expansion and an ever-improving quality of life in our state.

The Cherry Commission provides us with the opportunity - indeed the mandate - to act now to design a strategy that will promote a nation-leading new economy.

In our collective history, Michigan 's public institutions have risen to this challenge, building our agricultural, engineering and industrial economies into positions of national and world leadership.

Gov. Granholm has challenged us. Now let us challenge ourselves and our stakeholders to do our parts to meet that set of goals.

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