“When you get to writing a bill, for example, there is a cast of characters that you have to keep in mind,and if we’re not included in that policymaking process, our voices are ignored.”
S T A T E & HILL
Marisol Ramos
Ramos’ recalled Professor Richard Hall ’s core politics course (currently “Politics, Institutions, and Processes: National”) where students explored how to size up stakeholders in the policymaking process. “When you get to writing a bill, for example, there is a cast of characters that you have to keep in mind,” said Ramos. She realized that she herself was one of those stakeholders: “And if we’re not included in that policymaking process, our voices are ignored.” In an education policy course with Chuck Wilbur , she began to research the issues surrounding public university tuition for undocumented youth in Michigan. Ramos explained, “I did a lot of calling people, doing one-on-one interviews. When I started working at the Forum [The National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good], I continued having conversations with different administrators at higher education institutions, including Wayne State University and Ferris State. In all those conversations, everybody said, ‘If [the University of] Michigan does it, then we might,’” Ramos recalled. “That meant we had to get U-M to do it.”
Photo (top): Gabriel Martinez
As a seasoned organizer, Ramos served as an adviser for the Coalition for Tuition Equality (CTE), founded by Kevin Mersol-Barg (BA ’13) in 2011. CTE eventually comprised over 30 organizations working to secure in-state tuition for undocumented Michigan students. “Marisol played a really fascinating role,” said Mersol-Barg. “She spent numerous years in New York working with activists across the country around this issue. She facilitated our work with the National Forum on Higher Education. She also mediated between CTE and some national activists so we could find ways to bring them to campus.” CTE applied external pressure to U-M administrators by educating the broader campus community about the issue, bringing national speakers to campus, and staging demonstrations. But the organization also worked internally with University administrators on a task force initiated by thenUniversity Provost Phil Hanlon in April 2012.
Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs, chaired the task force, which had been charged with researching the pros and cons of tuition equality. “I enjoyed working with all of them [CTE students]. We visited California universities—Berkeley and UCLA—and met with a number of people and found that there was enormous support for undocumented students,” said Monts, who noted that, from the very beginning, the provost’s office had been responding to activism by students like Ramos, Mersol-Barg, and the Coalition for Tuition Equality. In March 2013, the task force presented its findings to the U-M Board of Regents. On July 18, the Board of Regents passed new guidelines extending in-state tuition rates to U.S. military veterans and to undocumented students who graduated and attended a Michigan high school for at least three years and a Michigan middle school for at least two years. ■
Ford School Spotlight New director Susan Guindi leads a dynamic team of professionals in the Ford School’s Student and Academic Services department. Top (l-r): Guindi, Mandy Ciacelli , Beth Soboleski , Amy Flanagan . Bottom (l-r): Mim Jones , Lindsay Price , Julia Hoffert , Tricia Heney .
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