(As prepared for delivery)
Opening: Fulfilling Mission and Vision
Chair Markkanen and members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education, thank you for the opportunity to speak with all of you.
Your work is so essential to the future and vitality of our state – educating our students, developing new talent, creating jobs and growth, and opening new opportunities.
We share that vision, that commitment, that dedication to serving the people of Michigan.
I am honored to be here representing the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus.
Our mission is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.
Through our Vision 2034, we seek to transform the University of Michigan into the defining public university, educating learners, advancing society, and making groundbreaking discoveries to impact the greatest challenges facing humanity.
Research and innovation and impact – education and service and leadership – this is who we are at the University of Michigan – this is who we will always aspire to be.
We’re so grateful for your confidence and your trust. That’s why I’m pleased to report on our progress, and on our stewardship of the public funds that you have provided to our university.
Offering Value and Affordability
U-M is now the largest university in the state with more than 52,000 students, and we educate students from every one of Michigan’s 83 counties. We are proud to be ranked #1 for value among all universities nationwide, and we have more than one hundred graduate programs ranked in the top ten.
More than 80 percent of undergraduates complete their first degree within four years, and nearly 95 percent do so in six, graduation rates that are far above the average for public universities.
Two out of every three first-year students receive financial aid, and nearly two-thirds of the in-state undergraduate students in the 2023 graduating class completed their degrees without incurring any student loan debt.
Only 34 percent of our graduates have any student debt – the lowest percentage in the state, and their average debt is just over $27,000 – the 6th lowest in the state.
Additionally we have the lowest net price for in-state students with family incomes below $75,000 of any public institution in Michigan. At the $100,000 mark, only Dearborn and Flint are lower priced.
Our graduates go onto careers in medicine and education, technology, business and policy – teaching our schools, treating our sick, developing new innovations and growing our economy.
Increasing Educational Opportunity
We want to make the opportunity of a life-changing U-M education affordable for everyone, so we provide more than $226 million in funded scholarships. This ensures that thousands of students can become future professionals, growing and benefiting Michigan’s economy.
We were pioneers with the Go Blue Guarantee, and are investing even more to help additional students graduate with little to no debt and lower the net price of attendance to U-M.
Last December, we made a transformative increase in the Guarantee to provide tuition for anyone with less than $125,000 in family income.
It will enable nearly 2,200 additional in-state, current undergraduate students to qualify for tuition-free education at our Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses.
This increase was made possible in part thanks to enhancements to the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, and I’d like to thank all of you who have supported that essential funding.
Last week, we announced a further expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee for the talent of which Michigan is most in need.
Students going into nursing and education that qualify for the Go Blue Guarantee will now receive the full cost of attendance – including housing – covered by the Guarantee. We also created our first Graduate Guarantee – Masters of Social Work students who qualify will have their tuition, fees and housing covered.
As the year progresses, we will develop a plan to enhance the Blavin Scholars Program, which offers a community of support – including mentors and coaches – for undergraduate students who are overcoming incredible challenges such as foster care or kinship care, or creating their dreams at the University of Michigan without the support of their parents or guardians.
We also announced an expansion of Wolverine Pathways to five new rural schools, including the Upper Peninsula – providing students with college preparation courses that if they complete and are accepted, will provide free tuition to U-M.
We will also look to expand services such as career counseling, mental health resources and other essential supports which meet the needs of our students.
Advancing Research and Driving Economic Impact
We’re equally proud of our economic impact.
The University of Michigan employs more than 58,000 faculty and staff, making us one of the largest employers in the state.
And with a total compensation of over $6.28 billion, we significantly boost the economy by providing stable, high-quality jobs that support families and stimulate economic activity throughout Michigan.
As the largest R1 research university with over $2 billion of research conducted last year, our initiatives in AI, nuclear energy, mobility, advanced manufacturing, national security and defense have set us apart globally and drive economic impact locally, statewide and even nationally.
We also generated an extraordinary 615 new invention reports, and we are speeding our ideas from the lab to the marketplace, driving the launch of 28 new startups this past fiscal year.
Last fall we celebrated the ribbon cutting for a company called HistoSonics. It is based on an innovative technology developed at U-M called histotripsy, which uses a non-invasive sonic beam therapy to target and destroy liver tumors at the subcellular level.
The technology has incredible potential, and I’m confident that in the days ahead, we’re going to see it heal and transform lives across our nation and throughout Michigan.
U-M’s research spending is benefiting businesses all across the state. According to our latest research expenditure report, we spent over $332 million last year on goods and services needed to support federally funded projects.
These expenditures benefited vendors in more than 700 U.S. counties, with Michigan-based companies receiving $97.7 million. Businesses in all 110 Michigan House Districts receive direct research-related funding from U-M, and though Southeast Michigan sees the largest benefit through proximity, the UP sees over $1 million in direct research expenditures.
Providing World-Class Care
We’re equally proud of the compassionate and world-class care we provide through Michigan Medicine. This ethos dates back to 1869, when Michigan became the first U.S. university to own and operate a hospital.
It was an audacious idea at the time. but our faculty knew that real medical education happens not just in the classroom, but at the bedside.
What began as a repurposed professor’s house with 20 beds has evolved into one of the nation’s premier academic health systems which provides top-tier care for over two million patients a year and handles 5.26 million clinic and hospital visits annually, reaching families and communities throughout the state.
In addition to our expansion in Brighton and Troy, we continue to provide access to world class healthcare in Grand Rapids, Lansing, Midland and northern Michigan.
U-M Health’s Ann Arbor-area hospitals and health centers received the top ranking of five stars from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the sixth consecutive time. U-M Health was also ranked by U.S. News & World Report as number one in Michigan, and one of the nation’s best hospitals.
Forbes named Michigan Medicine the best employer for healthcare in the state, and the National Association for Business Resources declared it one of the best and brightest companies to work for in Metro Detroit.
Today, our medical school has 14 top 10 residency programs and nine more in the top 25, and ranks 11th in NIH funding. So as we celebrate its 175th anniversary we remain committed to shaping the future of medicine through expert care, innovative research and pioneering education.
Developing New Partnerships in Advanced Technologies
We are also increasing partnerships and collaborations with other leading institutions, benefiting cities and communities across the state.
This past December, in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory, we announced plans for a transformative Michigan-based national security AI research center that will create 200 high-paying jobs in Michigan, averaging nearly $200,000 annually.
This project would not be possible without the Michigan Legislature’s extraordinary support.
I’m deeply grateful to this subcommittee and your colleagues for approving a $100 million Strategic Site Readiness Program grant – an investment that strengthens our work in science, energy, and national security, boosts Michigan’s economy, and helps attract top talent nationwide.
By housing a high-performance computational facility, Michigan will position itself as a leader in artificial intelligence and advanced computing technologies even as this partnership will bolster Michigan’s reputation as a hub for innovation and a key player in the national AI ecosystem.
This builds on our growing efforts in AI. In the fall of 2023, we became the first university in the world to provide custom AI services to our community, with the goal of providing Gen AI tools that were innovative, private, and accessible to all.
Last month, we announced the establishment of a new partnership with OpenAI that will bring additional artificial intelligence resources, research funding and computing power to campus, a collaboration that will include joint research projects between the university and OpenAI, focusing on applications that broadly benefit society.
Today we are creating 24/7 AI-powered advising tools to support our students and boost their mental health.
Our researchers are developing AI systems that can analyze brain tumor tissue during surgery in seconds, even as our doctors are employing AI to analyze complex health data to help underserved communities. And our students are using AI tools to innovate in ways we never imagined.
Building a Better Future
Today we are imagining and building a better future in Detroit.
The University of Michigan Center for Innovation in Detroit is rising, and when complete, it will be a world-class research, education and entrepreneurship center, one that educates and retains world-class talent, drives innovation, economic growth and job creation, and empowers the next generation of Detroiters to transform their dreams into realities.
This is also true for our initiative at Marygrove. In partnership with the Marsal School of Education and with significant support from the Kresge Foundation, we are directly involved in the transformation of public education in the City of Detroit.
These efforts are essential components of the Innovation Corridor, which will reach from Detroit to Ann Arbor, opening new connections and collaborations with universities and the private sector, attracting new talent and capital, and creating new innovations and opportunities.
On our North Campus, the U-M Innovation District is set to become a hub for technology advancement and enterprise, attracting startups and established firms, creating jobs, fostering economic diversity, and strengthening Michigan’s innovation ecosystem.
Together, we plan to deepen our efforts with new projects in our Innovation District as well as strategic partnerships that will boost Michigan’s competitiveness both nationally and globally.
The University for Michigan
This is our mission, our ethos, our commitment as a university – to educating our students and attracting and retaining world-class students, staff and faculty, to making new discoveries and developing new innovations, to advancing growth and prosperity across the state, and to seeing that every student who comes to the University of Michigan will reach and exceed their dreams.
We are so grateful for your continued commitment to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and I look forward to further engaging with all of you to create new opportunities, to lift our state and to advance our society – to be not just the University of Michigan but to be the University for Michigan.
I look forward to your questions.
