Dollars and sense
Central Michigan University’s operations are largely funded by student tuition; here’s where your money goes
Central Michigan University is projected to spend $443 million in total by June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Some of that is funded by student tuition, housing and fees. CMU’s total budgeted revenue is about $441 million in 2024-25.
The consolidated operating budget includes $1.7 million transferred from the general fund to make up the difference.
But once students have paid their tuition, where do their dollars go?
What is in CMU’s budget?
Many students on campus are unaware of what they’re paying for. Freshman Noah Derwick said that he was unsure where his tuition money goes, but gave an educated guess.
“Probably teachers’ salaries and other faculty,” Derwick said, “(Or) trying to make the campus and other things like that better.”
Joe Garrison, the University budget officer, said the CMU’s budget is comprised of a number of smaller budgets.
Garrison said that the Operating Budget includes a general fund budget. GFB covers “education, research and public service” and receives its revenue from student tuition, which means CMU students’ money goes mostly to professional salaries and educational services.
Garrison said there is also an auxiliary budget, or a non-general fund budget, which includes housing, food, parking services, athletics, WCMU and others. These offices make their own revenue.
Meanwhile, state funding helps pay for the infrastructure of the institution, utilities and debt on some buildings constructed using loans, such as Biosciences.
State appropriations also help fund some colleges, if they don’t have enough revenue to cover their operations, Garrison said.
“That helps in actually lessening the overall cost of tuition, because if we didn’t have state funding, tuition would likely need to be much higher, and we would be a private institution, but we’re not,” Garrison said. “We’re a public institution, and we appreciate getting support from the state.”
According to the Operating Budget 2024-25, CMU received $97,695,600 in state funding.
How much student tuition does CMU receive?
CMU’s undergraduate lower-level student tuition is $14,760 in 2024-25, according to Michigan Association of State Universities (MASU) report. It is $16,200 for undergraduate upper-level students. This is tuition and fees for a resident student who takes 30 credit hours.
By comparison, Western Michigan University’s tuition rate is $15,252 for lower-level classes, and $16,722 for upper-level classes. Grand Valley State University’s tuition rate is $15,140 for lower-level classes and $15,864 for upper-level classes.
Before scholarships, CMU receives $221,740,499 in student tuition, according to 2024-25 Operating Budget.
“The first key about tuition, though, that most students probably don’t think about because they’re thinking about the tuition rates, is not everybody pays that tuition rate,” Garrison said. “Students receive scholarships or receive need-based aid, and that means that the university won’t generate that amount of revenue in our budget.”
That means that in 2024-25, out of that $221 million, about $49 million will be given back to students in scholarships and financial aid, Garrison said.Those are the institutional scholarships in the general fund, but there are also about $3.5 million in athletic tuition scholarships.
Some departments also have additional revenue sources, for example from endowments, that sponsor scholarships, but those are in a different fund, Garrison said.
In addition to tuition, CMU students pay $225 service fee every semester. Garrison said this fee helps fund several services at CMU such as counseling and registrar’s office. Here is a breakdown of where student service fee goes, according to CMU’s website:
22% - Academic student services, such as the Registrar’s and Interpreter Services
19% - Counseling services
40% - Student services like the Career Development Center, Multicultural Academic Student Services and Sexual Aggression Services
17% - Student activities, some of them being the Mary Ellen Brandell Volunteer Center and Student Activities and Involvement
2% - Student communications
How does CMU increase tuition?
Returning students saw an increase in tuition costs this school year.
According to CMU budget, the undergraduate tuition rate has gone up by 4.67% since 2023-24. For domestic master’s students, the increase is 4.62% and by 4.49% for international. For domestic doctoral students, the increase is 4.31% and 3.85% for international.
International student Sairaj Kodagira is a student through the Master of Science in Information Systems (or the MSIS) program. Kodagira said that as an international student, the tuition increase has had little impact on him.
“(The tuition) has increased a little bit,” Kodagira said. “I mean, it is a little impact on us.”
Kudagira said that while the tuition increased, he doesn’t feel like he’s getting what he’s paying for.
“(Professors) give very basic knowledge and they were asking us to do a lot of things,” Kudagira said. “If I go with online courses ... no one will come to the online course. (Resources) are all recorded videos that will be posted.”
Garrison said the tuition in general can increase for several reasons.
“It’s not one single thing that raises the cost of tuition, but inflationary pressures are a big piece of it,” he said.
Another increase could happen to make up for the cost increase for compensation or benefits for faculty or staff, based on the new collective bargaining agreements, Garrison said. That means if a union of employees negotiates salary or benefits increase, tuition increases might follow students.
Healthcare services also play a major role in tuition increases, Garrison said.
“We’ve just seen such a significant amount of health care costs over the past few years,” he said. “In addition, we obviously invest in certain areas. If we add more advisors, or more counselors, or more of some other type of employees ... that adds on the cost side, even though the revenue is coming in to pay for it.
“The revenue side of the equation and the cost side of the equation need to balance out in the grand scheme of things.”
CMU has seen a precipitous 10 year decline in enrollment. When enrollment increases, it stabilizes the university, Garrison said. But while the increase in the overall number of students is good, the number of credits they take is the bigger question from a financial standpoint, he said.
For example, it is better for the university when a student takes 15 credits per semester than 12, Garrisons said.
Another important thing for enrollment, he said, is having attractive and market-competitive programs.
“Having certain programs that are new and actually very relevant and coming to market in a timely manner helps us with overall enrollment, too,” Garrison said. “When the College of Medicine first started, we actually saw an enrollment increase because we had that as an opportunity for someone.”
CMU publishes its Operating Budget each year on its website.
“We need to be accountable, and we are doing our best to be accountable,” Garrison said. “If you go out to our budget site, you’ll see this complete document. ...This is very transparent and lets people know where dollars are flowing.”
