Published: March 26, 2008 09:45 am         

Senate votes to increase university funding

LANSING (AP) The state Senate on Tuesday passed a spending plan that would give each of the state's 15 public universities the same percentage increase.

Each school would get 3 percent more in state aid next year than it's getting now.

Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to base the increase on factors such as how much research is done and how many students graduate. That formula would give some schools more than 6 percent more and others just over 2 percent more.

The Republican-led Senate prefers an across-the-board increase.

It passed the university spending bill 37-1 and sent it to the Democratic-led House, which will start working on university funding next month.

Michigan universities are getting less in state aid for operations now than they did in the 2002 fiscal year, which officials say has resulted in higher tuition increases.

Community colleges would get increases in state aid ranging from 2.4 percent to 3.9 percent under a budget approved by the Senate in line with Granholm's plan.