ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — Students from across Michigan are forming a new statewide organization aimed at making higher education more affordable by taking their concerns directly to state lawmakers.
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The group, United Michigan Student Governments, or UMSG, brings together student governments from public universities across the state to lobby for legislation addressing affordability, student experience, and post-graduate opportunities.
Ford Schoonover, executive director of UMSG and a Michigan Technological University student, said the alliance gives students a unified voice that no single university can provide on its own.
"When we speak, it is not any university. It's not Michigan Tech. It's not U of M. It's not State. It is the United Michigan Government. It is all of the students in Michigan," Schoonover said.
The organization currently represents students at 10 of Michigan's 15 public universities, with a goal of eventually bringing all 15 on board. That gives the group a lobbying voice on behalf of roughly 200,000 Michigan college students, including students from The University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Michigan Technological University, The University of Michigan - Dearborn, The University of Michigan - Flint, Lake Superior State University, Northern Michigan University, Western Michigan University, and Oakland University. The list also includes Henry Ford College, the only community college so far.
Braden Quesenberry, UMSG Constitution and Bylaws Committee Chair and Vice President of the Undergraduate Student Government at Michigan Tech, said the alliance is designed to close a communication gap between students and the people who make policy decisions.
"If I had to boil UMSG down into one thing, it's building a connection directly between students and legislators, because legislators hear about student concerns and students hear what people in Michigan politics are doing, but they don't talk to each other," Quesenberry said.
Petra Gablowski, one of UMSG's founding members and its associate director, said affordability is the group's most pressing concern. She pointed to mandatory on-campus housing and meal plan requirements as examples of policies that drive up costs for students.
"We have three main pillars that we're focused on being affordability, student experience, and post-graduate opportunity, but affordability is definitely the one that we are concerned about at this moment," Gablowski said. "About half of the universities at the moment require students to live on campus for some duration of time, and of those, all of them require you to buy the meal plans that they are giving you in those residence halls."
Gablowski said the group's goal is to bring real-world student experiences into policy conversations at the state level.
"I don't think there's any detriment to allowing us a voice to meet with these people one on one and say this is the experience in the realities that we live in the policies that you create," Gablowski said.
Summit Louth, student body president at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, said some of the biggest challenges students face fall outside the control of individual universities.
"Our university doesn't have control over things like housing, over things like transportation," Louth said. "We see that it's unaffordable, and we're working to change that."
Maddie Hanes, student body president at Michigan State University, said the alliance is focused on protecting students who are making difficult financial decisions.
"We're looking out for new students. We're looking out for anyone who has to make that decision of taking out a college loan. That's not something that we take lightly, and it's something that we're going to continue to fight for," Hanes said.
Ibrahim Yazdani, UMSG finance director and a representative of the University of Michigan - Dearborn, said the organization's potential reaches beyond what its founders can currently envision.
"Honestly, this whole idea is bigger, it's probably going to be bigger than what I'm imagining right now," Yazdani said.
Schoonover said the alliance reflects a shared goal between students and the state.
"The state wants us to go to college in Michigan. They want us to come back afterward," Schoonover said. "Students want to get a degree, a well-paying degree and they want to come back to Michigan with their families."
Now, these students are working toward a way to communicate directly with policymakers who could help formulate laws and regulations that are mutually beneficial.
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