U-M president’s remarks on federal budget proposal

March 16, 2017

University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel delivered these comments regarding the federal budget proposal released today by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Today’s news from our nation’s capital gives me serious concerns about our faculty’s ability to do great work, like those recognized with the Sloan Fellowships.

“I want to reassure everyone in the University of Michigan family that we are working to further assess the impact of the President’s budget proposal and address it going forward.

“We are deeply concerned about the Administration’s proposed broad and disruptive cuts to areas that support federally funded research, the arts and the humanities. The cuts would have severe consequences and dramatically affect our work as a public research university to serve society and our students.

“America’s support of research has long made us the envy of the world.

“Furthermore, our national security, global competitiveness, and future economic strength depend on a robust research pipeline that trains future generations of scientists and that translates discoveries, to innovations, to actions and to economic growth.

“Such actions include life-saving technologies, like the tracheal stents U-M physicians and engineers created on U-M 3-D printers and implanted in the chests of three infants, saving their lives.

“They include the U-M faculty talent, who, as we learned last month from Vice President for Research Jack Hu, made us the top public university in the nation for research expenditures.

“We intend to work closely with the members of the Michigan Congressional delegation and monitor the many changes we are likely to see in the weeks and months ahead as this proposal moves through the budget process. I am confident that our colleagues at institutions around the country will be doing the same.”