I do see UofM having the same relationship to Michigan as Princeton does to New Jersey. Princeton is an elitist enclave that is located in New Jersey, but not really part of it.
Michigan is not the only school headed toward privatization. Even further along this route is the original state university, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson originally wanted to create a national university system, as exists in France (for example the Grand Ecole Polytechnique). But he was stymied by the conservatives of his day, but did succeed in achieving the creation of the service academies.
Like Virginia, the University of Michigan was originally founded to make quality higher education available to those not born to wealth. Given the increasingly socially stratified and libertarian character of America in recent decades, for many schools like Michigan, that mission is now over.
The culture of U of M is much more elitist than it was when I graduated in 1979. There was some thread of the university acting as a rich kids' school back then, but that has now become its dominant character. Its future will be that of a gentry liberal/slightly conservative school that produces professionals at the grad level, and at the undergrad level to prepare the children of the elite for managerial careers or for further graduate study at Michigan or the Ivy League Plus schools.
The issue of whether to privatize will become a moot point in a decade, when the University's projection for state funding continues its linear trend toward zero state support. At that point, the university management and faculty will clamor for privatization in order to obtain the benefit of autonomy. In the past, the university presidents were content with some loss of autonomy in exchange for state support. Withdrawal of state support nullifies that implicit contract.
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I don't see UofM's taxes going up.
I do see UofM having the same relationship to Michigan as Princeton does to New Jersey. Princeton is an elitist enclave that is located in New Jersey, but not really part of it.
Michigan is not the only school headed toward privatization. Even further along this route is the original state university, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson originally wanted to create a national university system, as exists in France (for example the Grand Ecole Polytechnique). But he was stymied by the conservatives of his day, but did succeed in achieving the creation of the service academies.
Like Virginia, the University of Michigan was originally founded to make quality higher education available to those not born to wealth. Given the increasingly socially stratified and libertarian character of America in recent decades, for many schools like Michigan, that mission is now over.
The culture of U of M is much more elitist than it was when I graduated in 1979. There was some thread of the university acting as a rich kids' school back then, but that has now become its dominant character. Its future will be that of a gentry liberal/slightly conservative school that produces professionals at the grad level, and at the undergrad level to prepare the children of the elite for managerial careers or for further graduate study at Michigan or the Ivy League Plus schools.
The issue of whether to privatize will become a moot point in a decade, when the University's projection for state funding continues its linear trend toward zero state support. At that point, the university management and faculty will clamor for privatization in order to obtain the benefit of autonomy. In the past, the university presidents were content with some loss of autonomy in exchange for state support. Withdrawal of state support nullifies that implicit contract.
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