The Ohio State University

Every family in the nation has been touched directly or indirectly by the current economic situation.  From records about students attending college, it is clear that in times like these, students and families decide to end their college plans.  That’s the wrong thing to do.  Let me explore the reasons families should stick to college going plans.

• The solution to our economic situation personally and nationally depends on more education.
• It has been and will be the case that public and private funding will be increased as much as possible to assure students go to college.
• On a very practical level, it’s a difficult time to get a job so college can be the right investment of time in a tough economy.

As individuals, there is no question that additional education improves our future.  While there is a debate among economists about how much more you are likely to earn with a college education, not one person debates that you will earn more than without education.  There are also many, many benefits beyond earnings.  Those with education after high school are much more likely to have children go on to college.  A college education leads to higher levels of voting and good health.  The best future for each person in our country is better secured with education.

Our nation will require more and more education to be competitive in the world economy.  What the United States has always done best is provide ideas and innovation that leads the world in improvement.  This need will only increase and increase at a faster and faster pace in the future.  That means those with the best futures will understanding thinking of new ideas and changing old systems.  The job that will be best for you may not even exist now, but will be created to solve current and future problems.

Whether federal or state, those representing public interests understand how important it is to keep education going.  Some will support financial aid because they believe educational opportunity is the socially just thing to do; others will support financial aid because they understand educational support is the smart thing to do.  No matter the reason for that support, financial aid will continue.

There may be changes in aid, however.  First and foremost, deadlines to apply for scholarships and financial aid will be even more important in the future than in the past.  As an Ohio State student said to me, “Better late than never works in every thing except money for college; with financial aid, late IS NEVER!”  She was right then, and her wisdom will increase as time makes demand on funds even higher. 

Realistically, when the economy is down, it’s a good time to attend college.  With jobs less available, students are giving up less to study than when the economy is strong and wages higher.  Wise people have always made money in bad times, and one way that has been accomplished is to invest in the right things – and most of all, college is great investment.

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As a nuanced discussion of affirmative action comes to the Presidential debate, a better understanding of what we mean by diversity will hopefully emerge.  In the wake of the Supreme Court decisions in the University of Michigan cases, new ways to achieve goals were sought.  Clearly, the right frame is to think about what goes on in the classroom, how we bring the real world into that learning environment, and how we extend that learning beyond the classroom into our communities. 

One essential beginning point is to understand that race, financial need and ethnicity are not interchangeable.  Especially among people earnest to create inclusive college environment, it’s all too easy to slide into these terms as if one and the same.  They simply aren’t.

In part, the fact that they are different is a celebration of what higher education has brought to our nation:  students whose families never had opportunity for college in generations past are now the daughters and sons of person with advanced degrees.  These are not necessarily needy students. 

Nor are all first-generation college-going students needy.  The opportunities for their parents to become entrepreneurs, work at jobs – often multiple jobs – and earn a comfortable income present many first generation students at our door that are not financially needy.

But this does not mean we can assume that these different, wonderful additions to our campuses have complete skills to succeed in college.  They need support and especially need role models among faculty and staff.

The subtleties of the many groups of students to be served are the responsibility of those of us on campuses to understand and address.  We can begin with a basic understanding of who fits which definition and how those definitions interact in the lives and the wonderful students we serve.

With a full generation of action to bring about access to higher education, I predict the new focus is likely to be on access to success, not just access.  While there is no basis to diminish our collective access efforts, conditions today have raised the stakes on success.  The Higher Education Act was reauthorized on August 1st and holds many hopeful aspects of both access and success, but much remains to be done to fund that legislation, bring simplification into reality without moving aid from needy students to those with greater means, and insure the related outcome of the increased federal investment. 

It’s the right thing to do, and it’s the smart thing to do.

With the new federal legislation, increased Pell Grants and simplification – if finally achieved – will move the access needle forward.  Arguably more important for success is the provision for year-round Pell Grants.  While less of a headline grabber, this provision will assure that students can persist without heavier loan burdens when they need to enroll outside the outdated structure of traditional nine month college “years”.  The opportunity to continue academic work without pause when it’s best for the student or without added loan burden of a term without Pell resources may prove the biggest single boost to success rates of low income students.

They deserve that boost as much as we need them in our future.

Our friends in residence life recently forwarded an interesting article about the impact of learning communities on low-income students published in a new journal from the Pell Institute. The journal is called Opportunity Matters and looks to be required reading for access folks.  There is an article on graduate school readiness among McNair participants as well as one discussing access efforts in the United Kingdom.  Thanks to Bernie and Susannah for the heads up!

Here’s the article on learning communities:  http://www.pellinstitute.org/journal/Pell_OppMattersv1_EngstromTinto.pdf

Many of you may be familiar with the College Guide program, now called the National College Advising Corps, begun at the University of Virginia by the amazing Nicole Hurd.   It’s our goal to get this concept up and running in Ohio and we’ve found some fantastic partners in the Ohio College Access Network, the Cleveland Scholarship Program and the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative.  Here’s more.

We’re heading to YouTube with our insprirational First Generation Videos.   Featuring Buckeyes who were the first in their families to attend college, these videos spotlight a new person–faculty, staff or student– each quarter.   They’ve proven quite popular…we’re hopeful that they convey the diverse paths members of the Ohio State family have taken to get to college. 

 http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D2407A3D1ABE9868

The Ad Council (Great Ads, Good Causes) has posted an interview with the three creators of the new series of “Tough Classes” ads. 

http://www.adcouncilcreative.org/interviews.asp?interview=15

One of Ohio State’s early outreach efforts has been granted some well-deserved publicity in the Columbus Dispatch.  Kudo’s to Amy Wade from Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience!

Check out the new viral videos, Myspace pages and Facebook pages from the Take Tough Courses KH2G campaign! You’ll learn more than you ever wanted to know about the new “characters”.   (We here at Economic Access are particularly fond of the thought of the Biology twins as Paula Abdul fans.  Who knew?)

The videos can be viewed on the personal pages for each “tough” character on MySpace.

www.MySpace.com/Algebraii

www.MySpace.com/foreignlanguages

www.MySpace.com/Biologytwins

http://www.facebook.com/pages/KnowHow2GO-to-College/13376689842?ref=ts

In late April, I had the opportunity to testify in front of Senator Sherrod Brown, who was holding a hearing to gather information regarding the current student lending crisis. Here is an excerpt from my testimony:

Student loans are crucial to educational opportunity that is the foundation of our country’s future economic success.  I ask your action in three ways to assure that educational opportunity continues:

1.      Encourage legislation that will provide a certainty that financial aid will continue despite the challenges in banking and student loans.

2.      Increase loan limits and funding for Perkins Loans so needy students may be assured of adequate financing without relying on higher interest loans and credit cards.

3.      Provide support for the growth in Direct Lending so that increased participation in that program does not reduce service to students.

To my first point:  There is historic evidence that when student aid reductions are even discussed, students believe that aid is not available and opt out of college.  This occurred in 1982 following the proposal by President Reagan to totally dismantle federal student financial aid.  As students said then, a student aid cut never heals.  The charts show that it heals, but over years and at the loss of many talented students required by the national economy.  It is paradoxical that information about the availability of student aid is so difficult to convey, but lack of student aid – even as a possibility – causes dramatic decreases in participation.

Second, increase loan limits and Perkins Loan funding so students can have sufficient funding without higher interest loans and/or credit card use.  Also included in my testimony is a study funded by the Lumina Foundation, by Dr. Shoumi Mustafa, also here today, that shows improved retention and completion of Pell eligible students when they have sufficient funds.  This improvement was accomplished through use of increased Perkins Loans but could also be accomplished with higher loan limits on Stafford Loans.  Simply put, without adequate funding, needy students cannot remain to pursue their degrees at rates comparable to their more affluent counterparts.

Third, we ask that you provide support to the administration of the Direct Lending Program at a level at least concomitant to the growth in that program.  We have long held the view that both FFELP and Direct Lending provide what is needed for the best options for students and institutions.  As you know, Ohio State is the nation’s largest Direct Lending school both by number of students and dollar loan volume.  This program has been especially important to our talented professional students here at the Moritz College of Law.  Our law students begin each year earlier than programs and would be especially hard hit if the administrative support of Direct Lending delays their student loans.