All of the coverage that I've seen of Mary Sue Coleman's (UM president) most recent "public-private partnership" announcements in what is left of the local media has been glowing, unfortunately. See http://www.annarbor.com for examples. Not surprisingly, the media elite around here doesn't have any problems with UM becoming a university that is public in name only, dependent on govt/private research grants and endowment returns for almost everything, with all the further corporatization that implies. Partially there is the sense that things are so bad in Michigan, we should be happy that the university has any funds whatsoever, regardless of their source. I do not have a clear sense of what the public in Michigan as a whole thinks of this.
And on a similar note: Michigan Daily: Hype Help: Companies Turn to Students to Plug Products: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/hype-help-companies-turn-students-plug-products
-Aaron (a low-level web bureaucrat at UM on his lunch break)
>Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:41:38 -0400
>From: "Chuck Loucks" <lbo at hvgreens.org>
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] waste in higher education
>If anyone has a question about why college costs so much, read the response
>immediately below to my two LTE's following. R. Will appears to be a
>mid-level administrator at UofM; the dripping contempt for student stake
>holders and their families is plainly evident in my view. He even declares
>that UofM is not really a public institution since the State of Michigan
>"only" provides $325 Million per year to it!
>Chuck