LANSING – As enrollment pressures continue to challenge Michigan’s public universities and as state aid stays limited, campuses are forced to choose how to keep their operations running. 

Those choices could have adverse economic effects on communities across the state, according to Dan Hurley, the CEO of the Michigan Association of State Universities.

Michigan’s 15 public universities employ 97,000 faculty and staff. They spend about $11.1 billion in wages and benefits linked to those employees, according to a 2026 economic impact report from the Michigan Association of State Universities.

Hurley said shrinking enrollment remains a major worry for Michigan’s regional public universities.

“With the exception of [Michigan State University and the University of Michigan], given their global brands, the regional public universities have had a significant decline that is largely a result of the demographic challenge of a diminishing high school pipeline,” Hurley said.

Hurley said that the enrollment decline is not a new problem: The state’s “enrollment cliff’’ began in 2007 and the impact continues as the number of high school graduates falls.

“Next year is going to mark 20 years,” he said.

Preliminary enrollment data released by Central Michigan University reflects a further decline at regional public universities in the state. 

For fall 2026, CMU counted 13,524 students, compared to 14,171 at the end of fall 2025, a 4.6% reduction. The university said official enrollment numbers are based on the number at the end of the semester.

Simultaneously, state funding has not kept pace with inflation.

“We have about the same amount of funding, when you factor in inflation, as we did in 1983,” he said.

Universities also depend on tuition to help pay for their day-to-day operations.

Hurley said the mix of inadequate state funding and growing pressure on enrollment makes the financial situation tough for schools.

Hurley said universities have seen state support cut during tight economic times, but in good times higher education does better than other sectors.

“That has not been the case here in Michigan,” he said

Public universities in other states have also announced layoffs, voluntary buyouts and staffing reductions as they work to cut costs. 

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that the University of Utah plans to cut from 5% to 15% of its non-faculty, non-health care staff through layoffs and attrition, including retirements, in the year ahead. Nearly 100 University of Texas at Tyler employees elected to take voluntary buyouts earlier in the year.

Other institutions have done the same. Florida International University is providing a voluntary resignation program until Sept. 30. Meanwhile, Minnesota State University at Mankato is eliminating 60 jobs, the Chronicle reported.

The financial effects on universities go beyond their campus grounds. 

According to the association’s economic impact report released in January, Michigan’s public universities created around $44.9 billion in activity and helped support more than 129,000 jobs across the state.

Mia Murphy, the association’s chief policy officer, said the economic role of universities reaches far beyond undergraduate education.

“It’s graduate education, graduate students and graduate research that lead to the spinoff companies that lead to patents that lead to practitioners of medicine and dentistry, stuff like that,” she said.

Murphy said that graduate students can also help Michigan’s workforce after finishing their degrees.

“That often leads to them staying here, having a family, settling down, opening a practice or business.”

Hurley said, “Spending and purchasing by faculty, staff and students provide significant tax revenue to the state.”

Wages and benefits paid to university employees are one of the main driving factors for the overall economic impact the public universities are having in the state, according to Hurley. 

However, the association’s economic-impact numbers don’t yet show that jobs are decreasing at Michigan’s public universities. That impact remains to be seen as regional universities face enrollment drops, Hurley said.

This story was originally published by the Capital News Service.

Thank you to our Education Watch sponsors

Bridge Michigan Education Watch is made possible by generous financial support from our sponsors. Sponsorship supports our independent journalism mission but does not constitute sponsor endorsement of individual articles or editorial content. Bridge Michigan journalism remains fact- and data-driven and independent at all times.

Please visit the About page for more information and to subscribe to Education Watch. Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Emma Carr.

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under our Republication Guidelines. Questions? Email republishing@bridgemi.com