University President George Ross testified on behalf of Central Michigan University to the House Subcommittee on Higher Education Wednesday morning in Lansing.

Ross' testimony, given in the House Appropriations room in the state capitol building, addressed performance-based metrics for state-funded universities, financial aid, per-student funding and university access for first generation, minority and nontraditional students. Along with Ross, Eastern Michigan University President Sarah Martin and Wayne State University Vice President for Governmental and Community Affairs Patrick Lindsey testified before the committee.

Ross first addressed the subcommittee's question regarding financial aid, addressing tuition raises and increase in financial aid in recent years.

"Since 2008, CMU has increased its financial aid to students by 64 percent. We have gone from $31.5 million in 2008 to $51.7 in the current fiscal year," Ross said. "I would note to you that over the last two fiscal years, cumulatively we've had the lowest tuition increases in the state. In the last two years, it's been a combined total of 5.53 percent."

Ross said he supports Gov. Rick Snyder's performance-based funding system, and CMU is willing to be held accountable by metrics for higher education funding.

"Our general reaction to the metrics is that we think it's a good idea. We think it's a great start. We believe in accountability at Central Michigan University. We believe there should be accountability for the use and spending of state dollars," Ross said. "I want to also publicly endorse the business leaders of Michigan as they have brought forth the proposal on metrics."

The university supported comparing performance against peer institutions based on metrics, and supported using tuition prices, the number of graduates to remain in Michigan and the number of students using Pell Grants as metrics, Ross said.

"We expand those metrics as we look at our university into looking at the average net price of tuition, the number of graduates who remain in Michigan," Ross said. "We enroll 96 percent of our students from the state of Michigan and 72 percent of those remain in Michigan and take jobs and start businesses."

Per-student funding

Ross stressed the need for a per-student funding mechanism for state universities, and said CMU was ranked among the lowest on a state and national level for per-student funding. Ross said the university would comply with metrics to help improve funding.

"We're currently spending at a 1999 spending rate at CMU," Ross said. "CMU is currently on a per-student funding level that ranks 11 out of the 15 institutions. Nationally, it was reported by a U.S. news report that CMU ranks 265 out of 268 institutions for financial resources."

Ross ended his testimony by talking about the importance of budgeting for higher education, and said the university wanted to ensure that financial aid funding and cost of education would remain reasonable.

"We believe that the future of higher education is the future of Michigan. It's about student access, it's about affordability, it's about graduation rates, it's about jobs, it's about developing the future leaders and citizens of our great state," Ross said. "Our universities including Central Michigan University face serious challenges retaining costs as our institutions have done over the years even in the face of declining revenues."