Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder proposed a budget plan for the 2012 fiscal year on Thursday that would reduce state support for higher education by 22 percent.

The reduction will knock Grand Valley State University’s current state aid of $62 million down to $48.4 million.

Matt McLogan, vice president for University Relations, said despite the massive reduction, university leaders are not surprised.

“President Haas communicated with the campus community about the budget on Friday,” McLogan said. “He observed that the cut is large but not unexpected. We have been planning for this day. We knew that the federal funds being used to plug budget holes in Michigan will run out later this year.”

In an e-mail issued to the university Friday, GVSU President Thomas J. Haas said because the reductions in state aid were not unexpected, the university has taken a number of preemptive measures, including faculty and staff wage freezes, faculty and staff paying significant out-of-pocket portions for health insurance premiums and cutting $7 million from university budgets for the past two years. Administrative costs, he added, are 8 percent below the average among the Michigan public universities, which mirrors Haas’ theme of “living within our means.”

Out of a budget of $330 million, state appropriation averages to $5,704 per student. However, GVSU receives less than $3,000 per student. If state funding reflected the projected average, GVSU would receive about $67 million more in aid.

Haas said he will appear before the House Higher Education Appropriations Committee on March 2.

“You can count on me to remind our state policy makers of the importance of public higher education and Grand Valley’s role in producing the talent through which Michigan can regain its economic vitality,” he said in his e-mail to the university.

Gov. Snyder said universities that meet tuition incentives will only suffer a 15-percent reduction, which would restore $4.2 million in state aid to GVSU’s final numbers to bring the total to $52.6 million.

“President Haas made it clear that as we adapt to the state’s new, lower level of support that Grand Valley will not compromise academic quality nor adversely affect student services,” McLogan said. “Our highest priority is to see that students get the classes they need to make timely progress toward graduation.”

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