Michigan
How Michigan universities’ lobbying changed amid threats to higher education
When President Donald Trump took office in January, he promised to fundamentally reshape higher education by cutting research funding, restricting international students, ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and taking other actions that higher education leaders scrambled to handle.
Behind the scenes, university government relations, along with private lobbying firms, visited lawmakers to plead their cases. The University of Michigan spent nearly $1.2 million on lobbying this year, more than three times what it spent in total in 2024, public lobbying disclosures show. UM is the largest research university in Michigan, with research spending that totaled $2.04 billion in 2024.
The cuts have affected the state’s three largest research institutions in UM, Michigan State University and Wayne State University the most.
This wasn’t entirely surprising, said Jesse Crosson, an associate professor of political science at Purdue University who studies legislative politics and money in politics, partly focused on how partisan competition has influenced the way interest groups operate. Not only was the university advocating for itself as it always had, but it was pushing back against a Republican White House that was deeply skeptical of higher education’s mission.
“You have to imagine (UM and other universities) are pretty nervous,” Crosson said. “I would say there’s something to the fact they’ve increased their spending.”
Michigan State University has also increased spending on lobbyists this year to $370,000, 15% more than at this time last year.
The job hasn’t changed much amid the change in leadership and money spent, said Rebecca DeVooght, Michigan State University vice president of government relations. It has required her team to move faster, however.
“The pace of federal action has required deeper coordination across campus and a more proactive engagement in Washington,” DeVooght said.
The way universities use their time with lawmakers has also changed slightly, DeVooght said. She said she’s found that policymakers are more receptive to specific real-world examples of MSU’s impact, something Michigan Association of State Universities CEO Dan Hurley said he encourages advocates for the universities to do.
“No matter how positive facts and figures are, it’s often the individual stories of students and graduates that have the most positive impact on legislators,” Hurley said.
How coalition saved $5M for MSU
The Nos. 1, 2 and 3 things on the minds of lawmakers are whether they’ll have a job in the next few years, Crosson said. Anything that can help them secure reelection is something they’ll take seriously, and universities should target that, he said.
Ezemenari Obasi, Wayne State University’s vice president of research, has visited Washington, D.C., alongside Relations Officer Melissa Smiley and the university’s hired lobbying firm, Lewis-Burke Associates. He said he’s found members of Congress are more receptive to stories about how the university has affected people.
“What we found to be most effective is less about dollar amounts, but more around: How would the city of Detroit be impacted if these programs were ended?” Obasi said. “And so we spent a lot of time using case statements to show the value of higher education and the value that the research done has on our local communities.”
In conversations with lawmakers, he said he’s pointed to research and work done by Wayne State’s Karmanos Cancer Institute as an example of the real-world impact.
“We talk about how 60% of cancer patients (in Michigan) will have a touchpoint with Karmanos,” Obasi said. “And so, if you begin to remove funding like that, we have a hard time dealing with prevention and various treatment modalities that are actually saving lives. And I think that story is impactful, because most people can relate with someone who’s experienced cancer.”
These one-on-one conversations with lawmakers are crucial, he said.
“I think oftentimes it’s easy for us to paint our lawmakers with a brush, based on what we see in the media,” Obasi said. “And what I have found is that having these one-on-one conversations are really an excellent opportunity to work through any kind of misunderstandings.”
DeVooght said the conversations have a real impact. She pointed to earlier this year, when it wasn’t clear if the Flint Lead Exposure Registry would be funded for the 2026 fiscal year because the funding was held up due to layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A bipartisan coalition of 12 Michigan lawmakers and four others signed a letter calling for the registry, which is administered by MSU, to be fully funded.
“It was all hands on deck,” DeVooght said. “(Rep.) Lisa McClain (R-Bruce Township), Tom Barrett, everyone in the state was saying, ‘This is our priority.’”
Through the work of MSU and the bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, the Flint Registry was approved in August for nearly $5 million through 2026.
U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, who represents MSU, has always had “a positive and productive working relationship” with MSU, Barrett spokesman Jeremiah Ward said in an email.
“That relationship recently led to the congressman securing $3 million for MSU to support the innovative agricultural research happening on campus,” Ward said. “We look forward to keeping lines of communication open as we work together to deliver results for the university and the greater mid-Michigan community.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, said her relationship with UM has fluctuated over the last decade. She said she feels her role is to consider all aspects of the university as a major constituent — both the things she likes that it’s doing and the things she doesn’t.
“My job is to understand their perspectives on issues that impact them, the students, the faculty, the athletes,” Dingell said.
U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, a Detroit Democrat who represents Wayne State in his district, said the Detroit urban university has been “a model for higher education everywhere.”
“I am proud to represent the school in Congress, and have an open door policy with them, for anything they need,” Thanedar said in a statement. “Achieving fully funded college for all students is a goal of mine, and making sure to secure as much federal funding as possible for Wayne State is a top priority for me.”
Rising costs of lobbying
The costs of lobbying are rising. In UM’s case, the amount of representation is too.
In 2023 and 2024, Michigan State spent the same amount of money on in-house government relations: $340,000. In 2025, MSU has reached $310,000.
In 2023, UM spent $300,000 on in-house government relations and $260,000 in 2024. This year, it has spent $520,000.
UM officials did not respond to questions from The Detroit News, but disclosures show Michigan has retained the Alston and Bird Law Firm and, in 2024, brought on Strategic Marketing Innovations. This year, the university hired Ballard Partners and BGR Group as additional lobbying groups.
Michigan State University retains Bose Public Affairs Group as a partner, specifically to lobby for “issues related to funding for the Department of Energy’s nuclear physics program,” disclosures show. This is primarily used to get contracts or grants for the campus’ Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, spokesperson Amber McCann said.
MSU hasn’t spent considerably more on outside lobbying compared with the last two years, a consistent rate of $20,000 every quarter and $80,000 annually. UM spent $25,000 on outside representation in 2023 and $95,000 in 2024. This year, UM officials have spent $660,000.
Wayne State only retains outside counsel. Like MSU, Wayne State is on pace with 2024 spending at $50,000 a quarter or $200,000 for the year.
Crosson said the practice of retaining both in-house and outside, multi-client lobbyists isn’t unusual. The number of organizations with “hired gun” lobbyists acting on their behalf is the highest it’s been since at least the mid-1990s, he said.
These organizations hire lobbyists for two things, Crosson said: their specialized expertise on a topic, such as nuclear energy programs, and their ability to get access to a lawmaker.
“The advantage (of an in-house lobbyist) is you can look out for MSU’s or UM’s interests, and their interests alone,” Crosson said. “They only have one client to care about. On the other hand, you may hire a contractor because they specialize in something. Maybe they’ve spent their career inside the Department of Energy and know what they’re looking for in a grant application, or what they’re looking for in a contract like the back of their hand. So they’re more specialized than you can ever hope to be.”
As Congress has become less autonomous and more decisions are made by party leadership behind closed doors, it’s even more important to know who can get a university official in the room with a lawmaker, he said.
University networks
Universities don’t always need to rely on firms or government relations executives to get their points heard by lawmakers. Institutions can lean on their alumni, especially those who hold seats in Congress or roles in legislative offices, to help get their message heard. Former longtime U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, was a UM graduate.
“Lobbyists do have the impression that sharing an alma mater can improve access, either with an individual staffer or with the legislator themselves,” Crosson said. “There’s 20,000 lobbyists in Washington and only 535 legislator offices. Competition for access is pretty steep, and you’re looking for any sort of advantage you can find to make a connection with that office.”
But the real influence of universities is hard to quantify through just the information on lobbying disclosures, Crosson said. Prominent alumni often are influential with lawmakers, particularly the ones to whom they’ve donated, and universities sometimes tap into these informal relationships to advocate their causes, he said.
“Asking a prominent alum who happens to be a big-time businessperson or a big-time media influencer or whatever, who lives in the district of a member of Congress to talk to them on (the university’s) behalf, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that,” Crosson said. “And (the alum) would not need to register to do that because it’s just an American exercising their First Amendment right to petition one’s government.”
Michigan State has started tapping into its student and parent base, along with alumni and faculty, for its “Spartan Advocate” initiative.
“We’re trying to mobilize thousands of Spartans; students, alumni, and now we’ve expanded it to employees and faculty to help tell the story better in D.C., in Lansing and across the state,” DeVooght said. “I think this is a modernized advocacy network that’s really grassroots-based and allows us to speak with a more unified voice.”
What universities are asking for
Although the job of a university government relations team hasn’t changed, the focus of the conversations has, Wayne State’s Obasi said.
“Last year, we were much more future-oriented,” he said. “We’d talk about how we can collaborate around shared interests and so forth. Whereas this year, we were in a more defensive posture around how we protect our interests.”
Wayne State’s disclosures show something similar. Along with what they’ve lobbied for in the past, the disclosures show the Detroit-based university lobbying specifically about “issues related to grant funding” and, before it was passed, lobbying on “issues pertaining to higher education policies, student aid, and taxes” that were part of the One Big Beautiful Bill signed by Trump on July 4.
Like Wayne State, Michigan State and Michigan both lobbied specifically on grant cancellations this year, something they haven’t had to do in the past two years, according to disclosures.
DeVooght and Obasi agreed that their relationships with lawmakers were one of the most important parts of their jobs and said they had good relationships, despite more scrutiny about higher education from Trump officials and Congress.
“Our delegation is exceedingly available, and they are beyond available to Michigan State,” DeVooght said. “We are lucky that we have individuals that are willing to pick up the phone, are willing to text.
“They’re busy people, and we’re busy people,” DeVooght continued. “But there’s not a time that we don’t have access to all of them.”
satwood@detroitnews.com
4Warn Weather – You might have seen headlines circulating about an expected El Niño developing in the Pacific Ocean.
It’s true that El Niño is likely to ramp up as we head into the summer, but what does that actually mean? And, more importantly, how could it affect the weather in Metro Detroit heading into the summer?
El Niño refers to the warm phase of a fluctuating climate pattern along the equator in the tropical Pacific Ocean. More specifically, it describes sea surface temperature anomalies along the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
The last El Niño occurred during the winter of 2023-24. These fluctuating sea surface temperatures can have a major influence on weather patterns around the globe, including across the United States.
During an El Niño pattern, the southern United States tends to be wetter and sometimes cooler than average. Meanwhile, parts of the Midwest, including Michigan, are more often drier and warmer than average.
Some headlines have already begun teasing the possibility of a “Super El Niño.”
That term refers to sea surface temperature anomalies in the monitored El Niño region exceeding 2 degrees Celsius. Since 1950, that has happened only three times, most recently during the 2015-16 event.
Right now, ocean temperatures are only beginning to trend above average. The Climate Prediction Center expects El Niño to develop in the coming months.
While forecasters say it’s likely El Niño conditions will develop, the exact strength of the event remains less certain. The likelihood of a very strong, or “super El Niño”, comes in around 37% as we get into the early part of winter.
In general, strong El Niño events don’t guarantee stronger impacts; rather, they just make certain impacts more likely.
As global temperatures continue to rise, emerging research suggests climate change is amplifying the strength of El Niño and La Niña swings by about 10%. The expected El Niño could push 2026, and even more likely 2027, to a near record category in terms of average global temperature.
So what does this mean for Metro Detroit?
Since there is a high certainty of an El Niño developing, then our forecast would look for the potential of warmer than average temperatures, as well as drier than average temperatures. This does not preclude us from getting frontal boundaries through the region that bring chances for showers and thunderstorms, but overall, the summer would trend drier and warmer than average.
Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.
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Michigan vs. Ohio State took the first real step toward becoming “The Game” in college football in 1969, when first-year coach Bo Schembechler and the Wolverines stunned mentor Woody Hayes and the No. 1 Buckeyes 24-12 at Michigan Stadium.
Huge personalities on both sidelines. Personal history between them. Bordering states. Tradition-rich programs. All these elements were in place to elevate the rivalry in the 1970s and make it what it remains to this day. But don’t forget another critical element: national stakes. Michigan robbing Ohio State — a team Hayes said many times was his best — of a national championship is more impactful than anything else about this irresistible drama’s pilot episode.
Two programs that had met only once before with both ranked in the top five did so five times in the 1970s. Both were usually in the thick of the race to finish ranked No. 1; one of them always was. In nearly 60 years of football since Nov. 22, 1969, the cost of losing “The Game” has been steep for at least one of the two combatants. This is central to the rivalry’s greatness.
And now the guy who runs the Big Ten wants to take that away.
NCAA Tournament expansionist/TV executive/Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, who is navigating this era of college athletics like Joseph Hazelwood on the Exxon Valdez, is on a full PR blitz this week selling a 24-team College Football Playoff. It’s his baby, it’s got serious momentum, and the Big Ten is making sure to fill the air with endorsements — what a pleasure to find out Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck is in favor of mediocre football receiving unjust rewards.
This is a bad idea on many fronts and would be an unconscionable move in 2027, just three years after the four-team Playoff tripled to 12. The financial uncertainties alone should give pause. That’s why NCAA Tournament expansionist/bad idea guy/SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is balking.
But even if the inventory is ultimately valued and bid on as hoped, Michigan-Ohio State alone tells us staying at 12 long-term is the best path. With some hope that 16 might still be OK? And persistent concerns about what 24 would do to the sport.
Everyone should acknowledge there are things we don’t and can’t know right now. Same as with the NCAA Tournament going from 68 to 76. I’m worried about what the added opening-round games and unwieldy bracket will mean to the casual fan. I don’t know that it will be damaging. Nor do you, misguided expansionist, know it will be embraced.
But I’m pretty sure this comment from Ohio State coach Ryan Day to The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman on the rivalry in a 24-team world will age poorly, if it’s given the opportunity to age: “I think it could even be more important. You’re playing for either a chance to get into the Playoff or a chance to get seeded high to get a first-round bye. Or, if you are already maybe predicted to be one of the top eight schools, then you’re fighting for a high seed. So, all those are critically important to your success in the Playoff.
“I think with the elimination of the (Big Ten) championship game, it keeps that rivalry as fierce as it’s ever been, the stakes just as high.”
The only thing that makes sense here is that Day was just talking to talk, to support his game show producer — er, league commissioner — with a united front. What does he care? Ohio State’s good, whether it’s four, 12 or 24.
If Day thought more about it, he’d consider the distinct possibility of a Michigan-Ohio State game with zero stakes. With zero tangible downside for the loser of the game. An unprecedented stinker of an outcome.
He’s right that one or both of the teams could have a bye on the line. If either is playing with a spot in the field on the line, it’s a problem. Remember last year’s mediocre Michigan team? It had a faint hope to make the 12-team field and would have been a lock for the 24. Yes, yuck.
That speaks to all the middling, “also receiving votes” sorts of teams that would have a chance in November in the 24 world, which proponents are mistaking as adding meaning to the regular season. But let’s not even get into that. Let’s also not get into the likelihood that most coaches in the 24 world would be weak in their nonleague scheduling practice so they can safely absorb three conference losses. Let’s keep it to peak Michigan-Ohio State.
If these programs are what they should be moving forward, they’ll have more meetings as they did in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Both teams were ranked in the top five entering those games. No. 5 Michigan beat No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan beat No. 2 Ohio State, and No. 3 Michigan beat No. 2 Ohio State, in order. Ohio State dropped to No. 7, No. 5 and No. 6 in the ensuing rankings, respectively.
In the 24 world, conference championship games are gone, and those rankings dictate the College Football Playoff seedings. So both teams enter “The Game” with first-round byes and home games for the second round — the top eight rest while the bottom 16 play in the first weekend — and both teams exit “The Game” with first-round byes and home games for the second round.
It means nothing. Nothing for the Playoff, at least. Congrats, Tony Petitti, you’ve found a way to make your most valuable piece of inventory as worthless as possible.
Tell me why, if you’re coaching one of these teams, if you know that even with a bye it’s going to require four Playoff victories to win a national championship, you are putting a key player at risk with so much as a tight hamstring. And don’t throw a Big Ten championship at me. Those are as quaint as pet rocks these days.
The rivalry itself? Yes, I’ll listen to that. And this is where “I don’t know” comes into play. Of course the passion will be there for whoever lines up in this game, but decision-makers have a lot to consider. I got in touch with former Ohio State coach John Cooper and threw this scenario at him.
“The only way I’m sitting a player is if the team doctor told me to, and I don’t care what the scenario is, you’re gonna give everything you’ve got to win this game,” Cooper said. “No question. You don’t want to lose that game under any circumstances. And your fans, goodness gracious. It’s almost like you live for that one game, you know?”
Yes. But Day lost it in an enormous upset in 2024. Then he took advantage of the first 12-team Playoff and had Ohio State fans, who were lining up to fire him, lining up for a national championship parade a few weeks later. It’s a different world.
And the 24 world doubles the difference. I reminded Cooper of these things. Even the teams with byes face four games to win it all. That’s a tidy 16, an NFL season, for the student-athletes in this era of “player safety.” There’s a good chance Michigan and Ohio State would meet again.
And unlike the NFL, where every seeding spot matters because it’s all home stadiums until the Super Bowl, there would be no Horseshoe or Big House advantage in such a rematch. Because apparently, we’re preserving the pet rocks known as bowl tie-ins for the quarterfinals and semifinals.
“You’re asking me questions about things I’ve never been through, obviously,” Cooper said.
Nobody knows for sure how they’d respond to such a situation. Though some probably have a better idea than others.
I got in touch with an agent who represents college football players and threw this scenario at him — you’ve got a prominent client in this rivalry, he’s banged up as most are by late November, he’s looking at a high draft slot and he’s trying to decide whether to risk himself for this game with so much of the season potentially still ahead.
The agent laughed. I can’t think of a better response to this entire discussion.
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