Mom Moments

From the Detroit Free Press

Cash-strapped families find freebies at colleges

In tough economic times, a university or college’s free offerings — from dinosaur museums to legal clinics to personal finances workshops — are invaluable to Michiganders dealing with new financial realities.

Though oft-overlooked, public service is a cornerstone of a higher education institution invested in its community, said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, a national advocacy group for colleges and universities.

“Let’s face it, universities and colleges are not like business. They’re going to stay put in a community — for richer and for poorer,” she said.

It’s tough to measure whether such programs and services overall are used more during a down economy. That’s in part because the offerings vary greatly — lectures, public libraries and museums, health services and the odds and ends, such as U-M’s video game archive.