A hearing on higher education, facilitated by four state representatives, was held by the Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan Task Force last Friday. Gov. Granholm had just presented her proposed budget increases for higher ed. - granting 2 percent increases to the state's three research universities - U of M, Michigan State and Wayne State . "I've never been a fan of formulas, especially after what happened last year involving Northern and Wayne State , " said Democrat Rich Brown. "The one positive thing is that this formula is being applied using new money. In other words, we're not saying we want to give more money to this university and take it away from this university."