New Voting Rights Could Cost Schools Tuition Funds

LANSING - New voting rights given youths may mean that Michigan taxpayers will pay to edúcate college students from New York and Ohio. Anyway, legislative leaders I and university officials are now studying that possible impact on out-of-state tuition rates as a result of the U.S. constitutional ame n d m e n t granting the voting franchise Ito 18-year-olds and of the I state's "Age of Majority" law. The heart of the issue is Iwhether if a college student is allowed to vote in his campus community if that gives him residency status enough to demand the much lower instate tuition rates, too. Several legal steps are [being taken to settle the quesItion of when a student is conIsidered a resident for voting Ipurposes, and once that is Iclear, officials will be forced Ito look at the out-of-state tuiItion situation. Nobody is really sure yet Iwhat total costs might be linvolved to the state if out-ofI state tuition rates w e r e jthrown out, but two tive leaders are m a k i n g guesses. Sen. Charles O. Zollar, RBenton Harbor, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he "anticipates" many such tuition cases, and that the cost to the state might be about $20 million, "if judicial decisions go against us." The chairman of the House Appropriations Comm i 1 1 e e, Rep. William R. Copeland, D-Wyandotte, said estimates he gathers are that the state could pay almost $22 million more, if the tuition picture changed. "And you know darn well I wouldn't look with favor on that situation," Copeland said. Officials still are uncertain over the effects, though, partly because many youths 18-20 are still signing up to vote, and partly because the Age of Majority law - which includes many new privileges and responsibilities - doesn't take effect until next Jan. 1. Several state and college officials nevertheless are getting an educated hunch about the situation. "We do get a lot of questions about residency requirements and many of these kids aren't bashful about saying the vote isn't the big thing, but rather getting their tuition cut," said James O. Chapman, a Department of State Elections supervisor. "We teil them, however, that they'll have to make their own peace with their college or university because each has its own residency regulations and we have no control over that." Chapman said the department usually simply notes that the state law requires that a prospective voter be a resident of Michigan for six months and a resident of a voting district for 30 days before an election. Several state colleges and universities have residency qualifications which are very similar - but not identical - to voting requirements, but in each case the ultímate rules are up to the school's governing body. Data compiled by the House Fiscal Agency shows that the Univerity of Michigan collects the most in extra payments of__out;of_ 1 state students - some $5.3 I million. 1 The fiscal agency's figures I for other universities' I state extra reverme include ' Michigan State University, $3.3 million; Western Michigan University, $663,000; Central Michigan University, $89,000; and Wayne State University, $663,000. Richard E. Augenstein, U-M legislative counsel, said he personally doesn't expect any big effect on that campus because the University's residency rules are close to those of the state for voting, and, "at any rate the courts generally have ruled that the Board of Regents and other governing bodies must set the rules for such matters." U-M now charges about $21 per academie credit hour for in-state students and $74 for out-of -sta te students. Jack Breslin, MSU executive vice president, is chairman of an out-of-state-fee committee which has the voting-rights situation "under advisement," as well as other aspects of the whole issue. MSU began the tuition study earlier as a result of other legal cases, not the new Age-of-Majority law or the Age of Marjority law or the constitutional amen d m e n t, Tuition-rate changes will be recommended by the mittee to top administrators within 30 days and perhaps within 60 days to the Board of Trustees, the vice president said. MSU charges about $14 a credit hour for Michigan residents, and $33 for out-of-state students. Both U-M and MSU have about 20 per cent out-of-state enrollment, the maximum allowed by the Legislature without penalty to the schools' appropriations.