stat counnnter

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Univ. of Michigan's Disgraceful Military Policy

The May 23rd Detroit Free Press has a troubling article on University of Michigan's apparent policy of not giving Michigan residents the standard in-state discount if those students have parents in the military who have been transferred to another state by that military.

If U-M were a totally private university receiving no taxpayer money whatsoever, I would say they have a right to any policy they want. But U-M gets lots of taxpayer money and should not be displaying any kind of bias against students of military people. According to the article, a student's residence is determined by the residence of his or her parents until that student is 24 years of age. So, if a student has parents in the army say , and they get re-stationed to an out of state base, the student, even though he continues to reside and work in Michigan, loses his in-state discount.

Evidently, some Michigan colleges have policies like U-M but others don't. These others seem to understand that military families can and do get transferred but as long as the student remains in the state he gets the discount. I think this is a good policy. But I wonder how Michigan military families feel about having their tax dollars given to a University that is not very friendly to military families?

I think this is a disgraceful policy and U-M should abandon it post haste.

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