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March 3: URC presidents testify on job creation, outline what Michigan needs to compete
UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CORRIDOR
PRESIDENTIAL TESTIMONY
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
May 15, 2009 — 10 a.m. — Vandenberg Room, Michigan League, U-M campus
Audience: Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education; media
Commitment to the Economy
Speaker: University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman
Good morning and welcome to the campus of the University of Michigan.
On behalf of my colleagues — President Lou Anna Simon of Michigan State and
President Jay Noren of Wayne State — we appreciate today’s opportunity to tell
you about the University Research Corridor.
We also have with us several of our students, as well as representatives of
economic development groups that partner with our universities to help move
the state forward.
The URC is two years old, and represents a commitment by our research universities
to strengthen Michigan’s economy with innovations and inventions; talented
graduates; and an entrepreneurial culture for attracting and growing new business.
We came together as the URC because we believe in the unlimited potential
of our state to expand upon a rich heritage of invention and to establish itself
as a world leader in innovation and creativity.
We see this unfolding in Detroit, where Wayne State’s Tech Town is a robust
incubator of ideas and jobs.
It is a place where Wayne State faculty such as Engineering Professor Greg
Auner have launched a startup company — one using materials and methods he
developed in his Smart Sensors and Integrated Microsystems lab.
The result is Visca LLC, which is developing and commercializing micro sensors
that already have attracted the attention — and the funding — of the Department
of Defense.
On all of our campuses, we are accelerating our technology transfer efforts
to encourage and reward professors who move inventions and innovations from
the lab to the marketplace.
We see the power of the URC in East Lansing, where IBM is connecting with
Michigan State to create an application development center on MSU’s campus.
This center will be the first of its kind in the United States for IBM, and
it will be housed here, in our state. It says to the world: the state
of Michigan knows technology. And it also says “jobs” — up to 1,500 new
direct and indirect jobs over the next five years.
We see the muscle of the URC here in Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan
is just weeks away from closing on the purchase of the former R&D headquarters
of Pfizer.
Acquiring this parcel of 174 acres and 30 buildings will allow us as a university
to take a revolutionary new approach to research. We are examining the
best possible uses for this site, but we know it will build upon our research
strengths in drug discovery, neuroscience, and health outcomes.
In addition to university research, this new campus will provide incubator
space for the private sector. And we expect that over the next 10 years,
upward of 3,000 jobs will be created here in southeast Michigan.
As with many of our respective projects, not only will we broaden our contributions
as a research university, we also will stimulate new business in region. We
believe the two objectives go hand-in-hand.
It’s important to note that MSU also is reviving former Pfizer property, in
this case a laboratory in Holland where research will focus on biomaterials,
specialty chemicals, and biofuels.
Our entire state was shocked by the loss of Pfizer. But we are confident
that U-M’s transformation of the Ann Arbor site into a research dynamo will
be equally stunning.
The URC has statewide impact because of the contributions of our staff, faculty
and students. President Noren will now tell you about our commitment
to attract and support the best students.
Commitment to Michigan Families
Speaker: Wayne State University President Jay Noren
Chairman Stamas, members of the subcommittee — this morning I would like
to speak briefly on the commitment of our three institutions to the families
of students and prospective students.
When President Coleman, President Simon or I talk to the parents of high-school
students who hope to attend one of our universities, most often the first question
we hear is not about the curriculum. It’s Can we afford it?
In a tight economy the answer increasingly is that families, even those that
have achieved some economic success overall, cannot bear the burden of university
costs on their own. More and more the responsibility for making sure
students can come to our universities, and stay there through graduation, falls
to the universities themselves.
The need is certainly there: For example, in fiscal year
2008-2009 Wayne State University made 15,737 undergraduate scholarship offers,
a figure equal to nearly 80 percent of our undergraduate population. The
average scholarship award came to $9,026. At Michigan State University,
77 percent of 2008-2009 undergraduates have received some kind of aid so
far this academic year, with an average of $12,953. At the
University of Michigan, nearly 80 percent of undergraduates who
are Michigan residents receive some type of financial aid, at an average
of $13,400 per student.
For each of our three universities the guiding principle is this — If we
accept you for admission, and your family cannot afford to send you to school,
we will provide as much financial assistance as possible.
At Wayne State University, for example, approximately 27 cents of every tuition
dollar we receive is returned to students in the form of grants and scholarships. As higher education is absolutely critical to the economic, social and cultural prosperity of Michigan, each of the URC institutions intends to ensure that every deserving student has access regardless of financial circumstances. We
regard assistance to students who wish to take advantage of the education we
offer but who cannot afford it as an investment not only in these students
but also in the future of our state and society.
If we accept that Michigan needs more skilled college graduates in order to
compete successfully in the 21st-century’s rapidly transforming global economy,
then we have to encourage highly motivated men and women to enter and stay
in college. Financial assistance goes a long way toward keeping that
motivation alive. Not keeping it alive has excruciating implications,
especially when you consider that Michigan already ranks a lackluster 37th
in the nation for the percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree.
Each of our three universities understands that a solid program of financial
aid also enables us to ensure an academically strong and culturally diverse
student body. We consequently are committed to a providing a variety
of flexible financial aid options to students in the form of grants, scholarships,
student employment and loans. In 2008-2009 Wayne State University will
disburse a total of roughly $262 million in financial aid; the University of
Michigan expects to pay out approximately $758 million, while Michigan State
anticipates more than $468 million.
If President Obama’s budget passes, federal Pell grants, which provide need-based
aid to low-income undergraduate and certain postgraduate students, will increase
by $200 to a maximum of $5,550 for the 2010-2011 academic year. More
important — for the first time, future increases would be tied to the consumer
price index plus 1 percent. The usefulness of Pell grants has steadily
declined because of a failure to keep up with inflation, so tying increases
to the CPI is a major step forward.
Just by way of illustration: 20 years ago, the maximum Pell Grant covered
60 percent of a student's yearly costs at a public four-year institution; by
2006 that had shrunk almost by half — to about 33 percent. Somewhere
in those intervening years the federal government, like many states, apparently
decided that higher education for Americans was just not very important, or
at least not worthy of adequate financial support.
However, Pell and other need-based grants play a critical role in our efforts
to assist students from low-income families. Of the financial
aid paid out at Wayne State University this year, $22 million comes from the
Pell program and will assist more than 7,800 students. Michigan State
University has similar figures, with slightly more than 7,000 students
receiving around $21 million in Pell grants. The University of Michigan
has paid out almost $20 million to date this year, to more than 3,000 students.
Federal dollars are supplemented at all three URC institutions by state appropriations
and private gifts. Each of our universities places significant emphasis
on endowed scholarships, which are privately funded; endowed scholarships are
perpetual gifts because only the interest is used while the principal continuously
grows. Both Wayne State and the University of Michigan recently concluded
capital campaigns that included increases in private funding for scholarships,
and at Wayne State we have begun a follow-up initiative designed to raise funds
specifically for that purpose.
Presidents Coleman and Simon can give you chapter and verse of the many initiatives
and programs their universities maintain to relieve families of some of the
financial burden of sending a student to college — from the University of Michigan’s
new scholarship support for community college transfers to Michigan State’s
Adverse Economic Circumstances fund. At Wayne State, we
recently significantly improved our financial aid awards for the 2009-10 school
year with a one-time doubling of the need-based grants we offer to freshmen,
as well as to sophomores, juniors and seniors who have a cumulative grade point
average of 3.0 or greater.
I’d like to move away from financial aid for a moment and give you another perspective on the many ways our universities are committed to the well-being of families — in this case one in which all three of our institutions are partners. The National Children’s Study, funded by an $18.5 million research contract from the National Institutes of Health, will monitor more than 100,000 children nationally from before birth to age 21. In Michigan, researchers will recruit and monitor approximately 1,000 participants in Wayne County in the initial phase of the program. As the study progresses, Genesee, Grand Traverse, Lenawee and Macomb counties will be added.
Michigan State University will lead Michigan’s role in the project, while
Wayne State will oversee the assessment and care of pregnant women. The
University of Michigan will be responsible for enrolling and interviewing study
participants and assessing post-natal child development. Other collaborators
in the first phase of this effort, the largest of its kind in history, include
Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Henry Ford Health System, Michigan Department
of Community Health, and the Wayne County and city of Detroit health departments.
Michigan’s economic diversification, and its return to prosperity, will take
the kind of vision, imagination and technical expertise present in the University
Research Corridor institutions. But even more than that, such a transformation
will take people — skilled, knowledgeable and highly motivated men and women. These
people will be the graduates of Michigan’s public research universities, and
they are the greatest service our institutions can provide to the state and
its future.
Thank you.
Commitment to Michigan’s Future
Speaker: Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon
Michigan’s research universities are focusing on the future. We’re hewing
to Michigan’s tradition of bold vision and fostering innovation by creatively
applying knowledge to real-world problems.
But let’s acknowledge from the outset that Michigan’s revival will come community
by community, building on our unique strengths. And that’s what the URC is
about.
We’re already in every county of Michigan, be it advancing health care; facilitating
community development; monitoring the environment; promoting better land use;
retraining our work force; or extending educational opportunities.
The URC allows us to better align our assets, strengthening our ability to
engage statewide while at the same time enhancing our external reach and reputation.
Agri-food/ agri-business is a bedrock component of the state’s economy, one that only continues to grow. Programs such as the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station and MSU Extension will ensure that will continue. Every new breed of crop our researchers develop — when it’s adopted by farmers — that’s university technology transfer in action.
But let me give you some examples of how your research universities are nurturing the other 21st century industries in Michigan.
Life sciences come easily to mind. At Wayne State University’s TechTown research
park, Wayne County is backing the state’s first stem cell commercialization
lab. Wayne State is aiming to collaborate there not just with Michigan universities,
but institutions around the world.
Also at TechTown is an innovative technology company called SenSound, which
is commercializing Wayne State technology for three-dimensional sound mapping.
SenSound develops software based on mathematical formulas and has landed several
SBIR grants and private contracts. It was named one of the Michigan 50 Companies
to Watch by the Edward Lowe Foundation in 2006.
And we won’t ignore the auto industry, which continues to offer a platform
for our engineering and technology. General Motors and the University of Michigan
earlier this year formed a new partnership to develop the next generation of
high-efficiency vehicles powered by diverse energy sources.
Just this week, U-M spinoff company Sakti3, joined with GM to seek federal
stimulus funding for electric vehicle battery production.
The Department of Energy also recently selected U-M and MSU to help develop
high-efficiency internal combustion engines. U-M will explore high-pressure,
lean-burn technologies and MSU will work with Chrysler to demonstrate a closed-loop,
combustion-controlled engine.
Our universities all maintain longstanding research-and-development links
with the Defense Department’s vehicle development center in Warren.
Michigan State’s Composite Vehicle Research Center has two new mid-Michigan companies associated with it. One is commercializing a graphite-based nanomaterial that makes better plastic. The other is developing 3-D weaving technology to give composite fibers more complex patterns and more resistance to impacts.
Let’s talk about energy and fuel. U-M and MSU both are slated to host DOE
Energy Frontier Research Centers, part of a big federal push for energy breakthroughs.
MSU will lead a $12.5-million program, working with U-M and Wayne State, to
improve electricity transmission technology by converting heat back into electricity.
Using another recent DOE grant, of $19.5 million, U-M will explore new materials
to better convert solar energy to electricity.
MSU a while ago landed a large share of the DOE’s $135-million Great Lakes
Bioenergy Research Center. That project involves 36 key scientists and $900,000
in monthly research expenditures.
We’re attacking bio-fuels from a lot of angles, including an Agricultural
Experiment Station program compiling genetic databases of biofuel crops and
a development program to pre-treat crop waste to make cellulosic ethanol easier.
We also recently landed a $1.4-million federal allocation for a new
bio-fuel research program at the MSU Upper Peninsula Tree Improvement Center
in Escanaba, partnering with Michigan Technological University.
The DOE in December awarded MSU the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. That
half-billion-dollar-plus facility will attract top scientists from around the
world to Michigan to make new discoveries about our universe.
You’ve probably heard that F-RIB is expected to bring a billion dollars
in economic activity and hundreds of jobs to Michigan. You might not know that
one of our senior physicists is also a high-technology manufacturing entrepreneur.
Terry Grimm is president of Niowave in Lansing, which just acquired a Virginia
company that will better position it to supply components for superconducting
particle accelerators around the world. They also hire former autoworkers,
who have been retrained through a Lansing Community College program.
We in the URC are applying our technologies to leverage Michigan’s traditional
— and still formidable — strengths in manufacturing and chemical industry
innovation. Private investors are validating us, even in this troubled economy.
There’s Draths Corp., a next-generation chemical company in Okemos based on
MSU’s “green science.” Draths is scaling up to manufacture the chemicals used
to make nylon, coatings and other products using renewable resources instead
of petrochemicals. ...
Draths was founded by MSU chemists John and Karen Frost. The company raised
$21 million dollars in new venture funding in the first quarter of this year,
despite the worst quarter for venture capital in 12 years.
To their investors, the Frosts are emphasizing the value of Michigan’s human
and physical assets. Draths already employs former Pfizer scientists and now
is talking to former Dow Chemical people.
All told, they expect to add about 200 researchers and administrators over
the next 10 years. These are, in John’s words, “gold collar jobs,” with an
average salary of $85,000 or more.
Like us, the Frosts are committed to Michigan. They are working with the MEDC
to locate or build a $20-million pilot manufacturing plant, looking to
operate in places such as Kalamazoo, Midland and Ann Arbor.
At the same time, home-grown Ann Arbor company, Lycera — a University of Michigan
technology spinoff — also closed on $36 million dollars of venture capitalization
in the first quarter.
That company focuses on the life science side of chemistry, developing small-molecule
drugs for treating autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
That’s a sample of what your research universities are doing to help transition
Michigan to a 21st century, knowledge-based economy — while we also strive
to be better, more accessible partners to Michigan businesses and entrepreneurs.
Importance of Collaboration
Speaker: Simon
- Our work involves working closely with partners equally committed to strengthening
the state’s economy.
- Introduce respective speakers:
- MSU: David Hollister of Prima Civitas
- U-M: Mike Finney of Ann Arbor Spark
- WSU: Randall Charlton of Tech Town
Message: Encouraging Entrepreneurs
Speaker: Noren
- We are committed to building a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation
on our campuses, among both faculty and students.
- Today we want you to hear directly from students who are making a difference
with their inventions and initiative.
- Introduce respective students:
- WSU: Samantha Staley
- MSU: Elizabeth Kunkle
- U-M: Jeff LeBrun
Closing
Speaker: Coleman
All of us appreciate the opportunity to share our stories with you today.
Just last month, we heard a loud and clear message from the organization known
as Michigan Future. It told us that jobs requiring only a high school
diploma are evaporating, and the real growth in employment is in fields that
demand a college degree.
The prosperity that any of us wants — for our personal growth and the wellbeing
of our communities and our state — that prosperity comes with a higher education.
The University Research Corridor is proud to contribute to Michigan’s wellbeing. We
look forward to working with you on our shared future as a state that values
and celebrates knowledge as an economic engine.
Photos by Austin Thomason
U-M Photo Services
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