At Wayne State University, Michigan families’ investment in higher education offers unparalleled value (“Michigan tuition rates to rise across the board this fall,” Detroit Free Press, August 1.)
Since 2021, our average tuition increase has been the lowest in Michigan. Wayne State offers significant financial aid to make college accessible for families. Last fall, for example, six in 10 first-year students paid no tuition. With our flat-rate model, students pay the same amount for 18 credit hours as they do for 12, allowing for faster degree completion.
Even with the $281 per semester tuition increase, Wayne State has the lowest tuition among Michigan’s leading research universities. In the heart of Detroit, with the support of outstanding faculty, our students gain experiences that prepare them for meaningful careers.
Kimberly Andrews Espy
The author is President of Wayne State University
Walz is a winner
I think Vice President Kamala Harris has found the right person to be her running mate for the potential Harris administration.
Smart, funny, and capable of taking on the Republican establishment’s disinformation machine and getting back at them, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz comes across as a real person – not our former president or his vice president in training wheels.
I just wish I still lived in Michigan so I could see up close what a swing state looks like. I moved here in the last 15 years before Michigan became a swing state.
Kenneth Lane
Houston
Hope instead of gloom in Harris’ election campaign
The election is now decided. The contrast is clear. Hope and gloom are juxtaposed. One side projects a positive future for America. The other side cheers America’s demise. One side says we can work together to form a more perfect union. The other side works to divide us and take away freedoms from women and hard-working Americans. One side expresses joy at winning America’s trust. The other side congratulates Putin and the autocracy while trying to avoid prison.
The Harris-Walz team wants to get America on track, protect our personal freedoms, and find solutions to our problems. The Trump-Vance team wants to wear America down with hate and anger while trying to convince voters that things are so bad that only anti-democratic methods can solve our problems.
I believe the country has had enough of Trump’s negativity and disrespectful rants. We are ready for the breath of fresh air that the Harris-Walz ticket offers. It is a ticket that understands that elections are about the future, not the past. It is time for America to move forward, not backward, and to do so with joy, not hate. With hope, not gloom. As the crowd at the ticket’s launch in Detroit on Wednesday chanted, “We are not going back.”
Ernest L. Robinson Jr.
Southfield
Let’s use other words
We need to restore a more civil tone to our political discourse. Much of the division in our country is being promoted by the media on both the left and right. One simple step the media, including the Free Press and the other Gannett newspapers, can take is to stop using terms like “swing states,” which suggest acts of war. How about using the older term “swing state”?
And why don’t we avoid the terms “blue state” and “red state”? Should we think of our political parties as street gangs defending their turf? Why don’t we use terms like “Republican or Democratic-leaning” or “safe” state instead?
Robert Kollen
Brighton
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