MSU College Dems to target State News for editorial supporting elimination of college scholarships

LANSING — Michigan State University College Democrats are furious with the university’s student paper for a staff editorial published Tuesday supporting cuts to the Michigan Promise scholarship fund.

In The State News, editors opined that eliminating the Michigan Promise Scholarship is a necessary evil.

In the editorial, the S’News wrote:

The scholarship is a great luxury to have, but a luxury nonetheless.

The editorial comes at a time when MSU just jacked up tuition by 10.1 percent over the next two years, and the University of Michigan tuition was increased by 5.6 percent. All the while Michigan, is seeing double-digit unemployment rates, the highest since 1983, putting a college education out of reach for an increasing number of students.

Mitchell Rivard, president of the Michigan State University Democrats, and one of an estimated 11,000 MSU students who has benefited from Michigan Promise, had this to say in an email to Michigan Messenger:

Just as with the Republicans who voted to slash the funding that allows almost 100,000 students to go college, I believe The State News Editorial Board is myopic, uninformed and clearly delusional on how much this scholarship means to students across the state and their ability to continue going to college.

They clearly are not suffering as much as their fellow students across the state, which is clear by their rhetoric and apparent facts that are not backed up by credible sources.

Rivard said his group has filed complaints with the paper and its editorial board, and will be organizing a move this fall to have students request their student tax be returned. The State News is funded by a student tax, but students have the option to request that funding back each semester.

Rivard also raised concerns about the accuracy of the information provided in the editorial. Specifically in question is the following:

Seventy-five percent of recipients don’t require any financial aid to attend college and the remaining 25 percent still can be eligible for need-based scholarships

Those figures are actually the State News’ re-wording of an article from the Detroit News, Rivard said.

Rivard cited the following as the source:

Only about 25 percent of Michigan Promise Scholarship recipients are estimated to have financial need, according to Kyle Jen, associate director of the House Fiscal Agency.

But Rivard notes that the editorial presumes that 75 percent of the students receiving the scholarship don’t need the money to attend college, when many of those students may in fact have financial need, but not qualify for needs-based scholarships because income levels are too high under the guidelines.

MSU spokesman Tom Oswald told Michigan Messenger that 72 percent — or 35,306 students — received some form of financial aid in the previous academic year.