In an editorial, Dan Pero, who served as chief of staff under Gov. John Engler, writes that Gov. Jennifer Granholm's idea of separating the funding for Michigan's largest three research universities - Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan - is a bad idea for students and businesses. Pero wrote that the three university presidents downplayed the equally important contributions of Michigan's 12 other public institutions, which award two-thirds of the state's undergraduate degrees. He added that the research at Western Michigan University - his alma mater - is integrally intertwined with teaching as opposed to the Big 3.