President Obama was quoted in USA Today as urging students to pursue higher education. I believe he deserves accolades for the encouragement of student and continued support of higher education. However, I am a bit perplexed by the statement to .....lean on parents, teachers and other adults in the context of financial support. I understand that academic support and encouragement can come from this group of individuals; however, financial resources are limited regardless of how much you a student would like to “lean” on the individuals. I realize this may be only an excerpt of his statement, but it caused a reaction from me because I am one of those parents incurring student loan debt for both myself and my daughter, and in three years I will have one other child in college. Although I have saved some money for college tuition the amount seems dismal compared to the percentage of increase in higher education tuition in the past several years.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/09/obama-urges-students-to-pursue-higher-education/1
The subject caused me to delve deeper to discover the” National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education which promotes public policies that enhance Americans' opportunities to pursue and achieve high-quality education and training beyond high school. As an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, the National Center prepares action-oriented analyses of pressing policy issues facing the states and the nation regarding opportunity and achievement in higher education-including two- and four-year, public and private, for-profit and nonprofit institutions.” http://www.highereducation.org/
This organization has created a report "Challenging the State to "Preserve College Access and Affordability", but when read closely the organization is encouraging limiting access, capacity, closing graduate programs, stream lining administrative functions, increasing faculty load, and ensuring that tuition is not increased, and that the state financial deficits are covered equally among state entities and not penalizing to higher education alone. Although dwindling state funds is addressed anectodally, the overall tone of the report seems to imply that higher education (the academy) is the problem and the solution.
http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0309/Challenge_to_the_states.pdf
The two articles combined made me realized that as higher education professionals we have an obligation to address funding, access, and completion issues by constantly communicate the current state of the academy because of funding. In the absences of proactive communication with both the good news and the bad, the academy will continue to experience more unfunded mandates, regulation and reporting requirements. However, I know that I have personally become less involved in the past several years because of my perception that limitations have been put on State of Colorado Employees in the political process. Therefore, I reviewed the Federal Hatch Act and the Fair Campaign Practices Act (FCPA), as well as the Colorado Division of Human Resources in the Department of Personnel & Administration on Employee (DPA) Participation in Political Activities. After reviewing the DPA advisement more closely, I feel like I am limited. In addition, every year a separate email comes from the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) President to all CCCS employees with reminders about the limitations of political involvement of state employees. I will research any reported correlation further and encourage others to do so also.
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1234499450854&ssbinary=true
Sharing my thought process may have resulted in three blogs in one. Nonetheless, access to higher education is a complicated subject and as Higher Education Professionals we have the obligation to promote our message, but I am not sure if we are doing so with debilitating perceived limitations (in Colorado).
I read the article and I think President Obama was referring to parents, teachers, and other adults as a means of morale support rather than financial (just my opinion). I mean when a new college student enters the institution especially a student of color, there are numerous situations that can deter them. And usually most of the student affairs pros are Caucasian, so for some students they can feel “intimidated.” Often times those students who do not have a strong support system discontinue college.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you the reality of being in college debt is puzzling: “Go to college son/daughter and you will live happily ever after, you just have to payback $40,000 as soon as you graduate and get a job.” :) I too, have loans to payback and I’ll have a son in college in two years…oh boy! His thought of going to the military is looking better and better.
It’s a shame the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education doesn’t “work with” institutions to improve things. It sounds like they would rather put the blame on them. I recently read an article in the Greeley Tribune about the President of Adams State College. David Svaldi rejected his 11% raise because his employees have not received a salary raise in four years. He asked the board of trustees to defer his raise until ALL his employees received raises. Right on! Now here’s a guy putting a solution to the problem.
That’s too bad about feeling limited in the political process because of the DPA regulations. I can only imagine that it’s like trying to fight a fight with your mouth-taped shut and arms tied behind your back. Interesting post ☺.