Calculating tuition at Grand Valley State University begins the same way every year. School officials estimate staff costs and utilities. They have a good idea how many students they’ll enroll. But the rest of the equation is dependent upon a variable beyond the university’s control or analysis: appropriations decisions made by state legislators. Last year, […]
Grand Valley: "It's not our fault."
Posted inBusiness Watch
Guest column: Michigan Works agencies fill job slots
By Christine Quinn and Charlotte “Charlie” Mahoney/Michigan Works Association When reading the recent article in Bridge about both perceptions and realities regarding our state’s workforce development efforts, we remembered advice the 19th century abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher once offered his colleagues, “hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never […]
Posted inQuality of Life
O, brave new world that has such people in it
Considering the works of William Shakespeare have been performed everywhere from Central Park to American prisons, the production of “The Tempest” entering its final weekend at Detroit’s Park Bar doesn’t qualify as particularly strange. But the story of how it came to be is one that anyone interested in economic development or the nurturance of […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Will analyze poetic devices for food
Pity the poor English major, who must not only suffer the abuses of postmodern textural analyses in senior seminars but the Thanksgiving-table cries of their relatives: But what are you going to do with that degree? You can discuss comp lit with the passengers in that taxi you’ll be driving. But hold on a bit, […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Redistricting poll is no triumph
Michiganvoters want a nonpartisan commission to take charge of drawing election lines in the state — a job now tightly in the grip of the Legislature. That’s the message the Michigan Redistricting Collaborative is trumpeting from a new poll it commissioned of statewide voters. (Note: The Center for Michigan, Bridge Magazine’s parent, is a member […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Criticism mounts against Michigan Works
Jacora Seymore needs a job. Larry Harb needs an employee. Both have tried meeting their needs — so far without success — through the Michigan Works program, the network of agencies charged with matching Michigan’s unemployed with employers. Seymore, a single mother, who receives public assistance to support her two young daughters, fills out job […]
Posted inSuccess
Fencer helps Detroit youth parry problems
Keith Carr, 16, doesn’t talk like most of the other boys at Advance Technology Academy in Dearborn. He uses such words as “en garde” and “marche” and “balestra” – all terms he’s learned as a promising fencer. Athletically built with a wide smile, the high school junior says he hopes to fence in college, where […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Library specialists fear dwindling school ranks
It used to be that fifth-grade teacher Lisa Hudson could count on the school librarian at any time in her Walled Lake Schools elementary building. He shelved and checked out books, helped students select books he knew they would like and set up educational displays in the library – rockets, for example, to support other […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Michigan needs productive 'midlife crisis'
“Today, the country is middle-aged but self-indulgent. Bad habits have accumulated. Interest groups have emerged to protect the status quo. The job is to restore old disciplines, strip away decaying structures and reform the welfare state. The country needs a productive midlife crisis” — David Brooks, New York Times columnist. For the past three years, the New Year […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Guest column: Communities should find tax-spend 'niche'
By Mark Skidmore/Michigan State University Consumers instinctively look for bargains — quality products at a good price. We purchase the items that offer the right combination of price and quality we desire. This principle also hold true when we look for a place to live. Potential residents “shop” for the right mix of quality and […]