About

Building champions for WMU

Friends of WMU is a bipartisan state political action committee organized to promote the interests of Western Michigan University. Our priorities are simple: Help WMU keep tuition affordable for our students and provide state-of-art facilities for learning on campus.

Friends of WMU advocates for the University to:

1. Increase state support so student tuition remains affordable.

2. Increase WMU’s access to legislators and state policy makers.

3. Broaden the awareness/visibility of WMU and its nationally recognized, high-quality academic programs.

Our No. 1 goal is to increase state support so student tuition remains affordable consistent with the University's status as a nationally recognized, research university. The state has slashed funding for public universities over the past two decades. Now is exactly the wrong time to limit access to higher education in Michigan when it is widely acknowledged our future lies in a highly educated workforce. Funding for students needs to be a top priority of the state legislature.

Each year, many pieces of legislation are introduced that can potentially add more regulations and restrictions on how the University can meet the needs of its students, our community, and our state. WMU needs to remain responsive to changes in the entrepreneurial tradition that has served the state so well. Let’s not allow the state to add more bureaucracy than already exists.