AFT Michigan Higher Education: A Michigan Platform

Quality Teaching and Learning - Institutional Resources

The Issue

The vast majority of campus resources should be directed not to administration, but to the classroom and activities that support student success and enhance the economic future of the state. This is not just a matter of paying teachers and researchers and buying supplies. It is equally important to provide adequate support to the front-line staff who, among other things, see that students are registered properly, taking the right courses, and receiving financial aid; to specialists who operate college libraries, communication systems and laboratories; and, now more than ever, to those responsible for on campus health, safety and security.

Action Steps

• Resources: To assess the appropriate allocation of resources in higher education, the state should conduct a longitudinal study of the changing allocation of resources by the state's institutions of higher education to full-time faculty instruction, part-time/adjunct faculty instruction, instructional administration, instructional clerical support, general administration, general administration clerical support and other support services;
  
  
• NCAA Mandates: The state should conduct a study on the impact of mounting and ever-changing North Central Accrediting Agency mandates on each higher education institution's human and fiscal resources;
  
  
• Economic Priorities: When the state does not adequately fund community colleges and universities, it creates a disincentive for them to expand offerings in high demand health and technology fields. Not only does this limit student's prospects, but also it negatively affects the state's economy.
  
  
• Technology: The state funding of two-year and four-year institutions should take into account the spiraling costs of instructional technology, management information systems and the electrical infrastructure supporting instructional and support services. These must be continually updated to provide quality instruction and process student data;
  
  
• Campus Safety Measures: State support for campus safety, including fire and emergency services, needs to be fully funded. Communities that have extraordinary costs as a result of hosting public universities should not have to draw away dollars for campus safety that ought to be spent on instruction.
  

opeiu42aflcio/cj
s:platform/highered
(7/06)

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