Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz speaks at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 30, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
It’s not enough to attract students to learning opportunities at colleges and universities in Michigan. Leaders around the state have to build bridges across sectors to keep talent in the state after graduation, university presidents in Michigan said on a Thursday panel at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
Connecting students to companies and organizations while they’re in college, equipping them to build relationships with creators and changemakers in Michigan can help Michigan schools achieve the common goal for graduates of “keeping them out of Ohio,” Ferris State University President Bill Pink said with a laugh.
“We have to have some of those learning opportunities, those internships, those externships, those opportunities,” Pink said. “If they can already make that connection while they’re at our university with many of your companies and we can expose them … to great companies … getting them connected to incredible businesses that we have here in the state, prior to graduation, to make those connections before they’re done, we have a better opportunity to keep them here, so that they understand what it means to stay in the state of Michigan.”
For years, Michigan has struggled to grow its population and keep young people in the state. Some projections show that the population decline will continue and leaders in Michigan are trying to change that. Last year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the creation of the Growing Michigan Together Council to come up with solutions to grow Michigan’s population.
President of Ferris State University Bill Pink at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 30, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
Michigan is the place to get an education as the state ranks high across its schools for generating talent in health and STEM careers, University of Michigan President Santa Ono said. Talent is not the issue in Michigan, the issue is connecting all these new graduates to all the careers in innovation and development that are being created every day by leaders in Michigan.
“I’m just so excited about what’s happening. … And when you’re talking about the governor and state Legislature and different communities, mayors, business leaders in Michigan. … It’s extraordinary how people are converging. There is an overall strategy that is emerging,” Ono said. “We have responsibility and we can actually meet the demand for talent. … Thousands of jobs are going to come here.”
The University Research Corridor, an innovation careers collaboration between the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Michigan State University, has produced 1.7 million graduates, Ono said. More than half of them have stayed in Michigan.
Universities have to keep up with the changing needs of students as traditional majors aren’t going to be the best path to in-state employment for all students, new Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz said. Just as the state and local governments work to establish new opportunities to grow the state and create new workforce opportunities, educational institutions need to facilitate educational paths that were unheard of in decades past.
“Many of us in the room here today have probably graduated from college with a single major with very little experiential education alongside that. That’s what I think is a big difference today,” Guskiewicz said.
University of Michigan President Santa Ono and Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 30, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
At Michigan State University, 78% of graduates get an internship opportunity, Guskiewicz said. Many are studying abroad and stacking their majors and minors, such as the school’s entrepreneurship and innovation minor to contribute to the changing workforce needs of the world.
But higher education has a bad reputation of not being worth the cost, Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz said, and schools need to do a better job of dispelling myths.
During the conference, the Detroit Regional Chamber released findings from a statewide poll of 600 registered Michigan voters which found that half of respondents didn’t believe a four-year degree was worth it.
“The public, when they hear about that. They hear that college is not important, it’s not necessary for jobs. … They’re not thinking about our institutions where the average tuition is $16,000 a year,” Pescovitz said. “When they graduate from our institutions, they’re going to earn an income which is substantially higher over the course of their lifetimes. …The jobs of the future require that our students graduate from one of our institutions.”
Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 30, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
Wayne State University President Kimberly Andrews was slated to be on the panel as well, but amid a controversy over police dismantling an on-campus pro-Palestinian encampment on the school’s Detroit campus, she did not appear on the panel.
College encampments have been cropping up all around the country, with students demanding institutions divest from companies connected to Israel. The University of Michigan and Michigan State University had encampments on their campuses in recent weeks. Police removed the University of Michigan encampment and some arrests were made, while protesters at Michigan State University left campus willingly.
Ono said though college campuses are the place for new ideas and social issue discourse, but the safety of students to learn on campus is a priority.
“This is very complicated. It’s more challenging than previous tense moments on campus, but it’s up to us, not only on campus, but government foundations to come together to address the root causes of antisemitism [and] Islamophobia,” Ono said. “There’s a lot of bad actors that are involved. We know that for sure.”
University of Michigan President Santa Ono speaks at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 30, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols
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