When University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman moved to Ann Arbor, one of the first people she met was Rick Snyder.

Coleman and Snyder, an U-M alumnus, have had plenty of conversations in the ensuing eight years, including some since Snyder was elected Michigan’s governor last fall.

Coleman says she expects to have more in the near future, especially concerning the state budget.

“We’re hoping for the best, but we understand the dire situation the state is in,” she told the faculty Senate Advisory Committee on Academic Affairs Monday afternoon. “We are preparing for shared sacrifice.

U-M President Mary Sue Coleman

"(We're taking) a hard look at our operations."

U-M gets about $300 million in state aid. Earlier this year, the university formally asked for a 2.6 percent increase in its state allotment.

“We want to be good partners with the state,” Coleman said, while pointing out the Ann Arbor campus gets about 21 percent of its general fund budget from the state. She said that's among the lowest percentages of all Michigan universities.

Coleman was at Monday's faculty leaders meeting to provide updates on several issues.

Both Coleman and faculty leaders said they would like to see more collaboration between professors and industry, including having industries come to the university with specific problems to work on.

Part of the problem with setting it up, Coleman said, is all the proprietary information from companies and getting all the companies in an industry to share any new findings.

She suggested that perhaps one approach would be to have a common problem solved by university professors, and then each company could use the general solution however it wished.

“If we could get to that, it would be a huge realignment,” Coleman said, adding she wants to see U-M lead the nation in this area. “This is going to take a major shift in thinking. I think we’re in a global competition, and it’s not just Ford versus GM.

“We need to also be more explicit with what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s the end result that matters.”

David Jesse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.