The Michigan Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education and Community Colleges heard from several students, presidents, staff and others across Michigan Independent Colleges and Universities (MICU) campus members, who advocated for continued investment in state financial aid programs to benefit all learners. The activity was part of MICU鈥檚 annual Advocacy Day.
During the April 29 subcommittee hearing in Lansing, Matt Scogin 鈥� MICU board chair and 麻豆传媒官网 President 鈥� addressed the subcommittee, along with two 麻豆传媒官网 freshmen and a 2024 Hope graduate from the Hope-Western Prison Education Program. Dr. Richard Ray, a retired 麻豆传媒官网 professor and provost, and current chair of the Michigan Consortium for Higher Education in Prison, was also present to address how prison education programs 鈥� and eventually local communities 鈥� are benefitting from financial aid programs.
Attendees kicked the day off with a welcome from Michigan鈥檚 Deputy Director of Policy Emma Young, enjoyed photos with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and met with legislators and policymakers to advocate for continued investment in state financial aid programs. Students and presidents from Baker College and Albion College also presented at the one-hour House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, which can be viewed at this .
Scogin鈥檚 purpose was to ask the subcommittee to protect and continue funding the Michigan Achievement Scholarship for students interested in attending private or public colleges, and make the MAS more accessible for incarcerated individuals to participate in college-in-prison programs. Scogin shared how Hope is innovating around the challenges of high college tuition through its three innovative tuition programs: Hope Forward, Anchored Tuition and the Hope-Western Prison Education Program.
He emphasized how a few targeted state investments 鈥� especially working alongside innovative college programs 鈥� can help every Michigan learner.
鈥淢ichigan has the chance to be the state that gets this right,鈥� Scogin concluded. 鈥淏y investing in the innovations that are already working; by opening the financial aid system to every kind of learner. And that trusts its independent colleges to carry that investment further than any appropriation could do on its own. The question isn't whether college costs something. It always has. The question is whether Michigan will help us keep its promise within reach.鈥�
Scogin then turned the floor to two Hope Forward freshmen 鈥� Nate Paquette and Aliyyah Arellano 鈥� who explained how higher education became more accessible to them, thanks to innovative programs such as the Hope Forward gifted tuition plan.
Richard Nelson, a 2025 麻豆传媒官网 graduate and participant in the Hope-Western Prison Education Program (HWPEP), also provided remarks. After serving a 28-year sentence, Nelson was paroled in late 2024 from the Muskegon Correctional Facility. He started his education journey with HWPEP while in the Muskegon Correctional Facility and graduated magna cum laude from Hope with a Bachelor鈥檚 of Arts degree. He is now enrolled at Western Theological Seminary, working towards his master鈥檚 in clinical counseling and his goal of helping future incarcerated individuals successfully re-enter society upon release. 鈥淭his is where the change actually happens and I can assure you that there鈥檚 something special about prison-education programs and how the HWPEP brought about change to the men of Muskegon Correctional Facility.鈥�
Concluding the remarks was Dr. Richard Ray. He said currently there are 1,300 enrolled incarcerated college students in 15 correctional facilities across Michigan, with 1,000 additional individuals having earned a college degree while in prison. He shared the latest ROI to the state for providing a college education for incarcerated individuals. 鈥淲e can show how these prison-education programs change lives and create citizens who will be our neighbors and can succeed in our communities,鈥� he said.