    [House Hearing, 113 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                         KEEPING COLLEGE WITHIN REACH:
                           SHARING BEST PRACTICES FOR
                         SERVICING LOW	INCOME AND FIRST
                              GENERATION STUDENTS

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   before the

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
                             AND WORKFORCE TRAINING

                             COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                               AND THE WORKFORCE

                         U.S. House of Representatives

                        ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                                   __________

                HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JANUARY 28, 2014

                                   __________

                               Serial No. 113-42

                                   __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce

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                                       or
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                    COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE

                        JOHN KLINE, Minnesota, Chairman

    Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin           George Miller, California,
    Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,             Senior Democratic Member
        California                       Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
    Joe Wilson, South Carolina           Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
    Virginia Foxx, North Carolina            Virginia
    Tom Price, Georgia                   Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
    Kenny Marchant, Texas                Carolyn McCarthy, New York
    Duncan Hunter, California            John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
    David P. Roe, Tennessee              Rush Holt, New Jersey
    Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania         Susan A. Davis, California
    Tim Walberg, Michigan                Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
    Matt Salmon, Arizona                 Timothy H. Bishop, New York
    Brett Guthrie, Kentucky              David Loebsack, Iowa
    Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee          Joe Courtney, Connecticut
    Todd Rokita, Indiana                 Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
    Larry Bucshon, Indiana               Jared Polis, Colorado
    Trey Gowdy, South Carolina           Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
    Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania             Northern Mariana Islands
    Martha Roby, Alabama                 Frederica S. Wilson, Florida
    Joseph J. Heck, Nevada               Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
    Richard Hudson, North Carolina       Mark Pocan, Wisconsin
    Luke Messer, Indiana

                        Juliane Sullivan, Staff Director
                     Jody Calemine, Minority Staff Director
                                     ------

            SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE TRAINING

                   VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina, Chairwoman

    Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin           Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
    Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,             Ranking Minority Member
        California                       John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
    Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania         Timothy H. Bishop, New York
    Tim Walberg, Michigan                Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
    Matt Salmon, Arizona                 Carolyn McCarthy, New York
    Brett Guthrie, Kentucky              Rush Holt, New Jersey
    Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania           Susan A. Davis, California
    Joseph J. Heck, Nevada               David Loebsack, Iowa
    Susan W. Brooks, Indiana             Frederica S. Wilson, Florida
    Richard Hudson, North Carolina
    Luke Messer, Indiana

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

    Hearing held on January 28, 2014.................................     1

    Statement of Members:
        Foxx, Hon. Virginia, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Higher
          Education and Workforce Training...........................     1
            Prepared statement of....................................     3
        Hinojosa, Hon. Ruben, Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee
          on Higher Education and Workforce Training.................     9
            Prepared statement of....................................    25

    Statement of Witnesses:
        Anderson, James, A., Dr., Chancellor, Fayetteville State
          University, North Carolina.................................    27
            Prepared statement of....................................    29
        Del Balzo, Mary, B., Senior Executive Vice President and
          Chief Operating Officer, The College of Westchester, White
          Plains, New York...........................................    41
            Prepared statement of....................................    43
        Garrido, Josse, A., graduate student, University of Texas-Pan
          American, Edinburg, Texas..................................    50
            Prepared statement of....................................    52
        Holtschneider, Dennis H., Rev., President, Depaul University,
          Chicago, Illinois..........................................    54
            Prepared statement of....................................    56

    Additional Submissions:
        Chairwoman Foxx:
            5000 Role Models is 20 years old, still stepping.........     5
            Prepared statement of Ron Haskins........................    80
        Mr. Hinojosa:
            The National HEP CAMP Association........................    11
            The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
              MALDEF.................................................    17
        Hon Jared Polis, a Representative in Congress from the State
          of from the state of Colorado:
            Prepared statement of....................................    91

                         KEEPING COLLEGE WITHIN REACH:

                 SHARING BEST PRACTICES FOR SERVING LOW-INCOME

                         AND FIRST GENERATION STUDENTS

                                  ----------

                           Tuesday, January 28, 2014

                           House of Representatives,

                      Subcommittee on Higher Education and

                              Workforce Training,

                   Committee on Education and the Workforce,

                                Washington, D.C.

                                  ----------

        The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in
    Room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Virginia Foxx
    [chairwoman of the subcommittee] presiding.
        Present: Representatives Foxx, Petri, Thompson, Walberg,
    Salmon, Brooks, Messer, Hinojosa, Tierney, Bishop, Bonamici,
    Davis, and Wilson.
        Also present: Representatives Kline and Miller.
        Staff present: Janelle Belland, Coalitions and Member
    Services Coordinator; James Bergeron, Director of Education and
    Human Services Policy; Amy Raaf Jones, Deputy Director of
    Education and Human Services Policy; Nancy Locke, Chief Clerk;
    Brian Melnyk, Professional Staff Member; Daniel Murner, Press
    Assistant; Krisann Pearce, General Counsel; Nicole Sizemore,
    Deputy Press Secretary; Emily Slack, Professional Staff Member;
    Alissa Strawcutter, Deputy Clerk; Tylease Alli, Minority Clerk/
    Intern and Fellow Coordinator; Jody Calemine, Minority Staff
    Director; Eamonn Collins, Minority Fellow, Education; Eunice
    Ikene, Minority Staff Assistant; Brian Levin, Minority Deputy
    Press Secretary/New Media Coordinator; Megan O'Reilly, Minority
    General Counsel; Rich Williams, Minority Education Policy
    Advisor; and Michael Zola, Minority Deputy Staff Director.
        Chairwoman Foxx. Good morning. A quorum being present, the
    subcommittee will come to order. Tim Bishop asked if I am
    responsible for the cold in here, and I am really not. In the
    country we would say, ``This is cold enough to hang meat,'' so
    I don't know--that means it is cold.
        Welcome. I thank our witnesses for joining us today to
    discuss ways postsecondary institutions are working better to
    serve low-income and first-generation students. This is the
    12th hearing the committee has held examining a wide range of
    issues facing the higher education community.
        From simplifying federal student aid programs to increasing
    transparency, each hearing has provided a forum to discuss ways
    we can strengthen the nation's postsecondary education system
    to meet the evolving needs of students and the workforce.
        One of the committee's top priorities for the upcoming
    reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is improving
    postsecondary access and affordability. To achieve that goal,
    we must take steps to close the education achievement gap and
    to increase postsecondary opportunity for low-income and first-
    generation students.
        Children from disadvantaged families often struggle to
    access important mentoring, tutoring, and other hands-on
    services designed to help encourage high school completion and
    the pursuit of postsecondary education.
        Sadly, these students are often unprepared for college
    academics and require remedial courses that add to the
    challenges of completing a program.
        Too many disadvantaged students simply give up on even
    applying to college because they are confused by the
    application process, overwhelmed by the cost, or unaware of the
    available financial aid options despite our best efforts to
    ensure the information is available and understandable.
        Recognizing these challenges, the federal government has
    created several programs to help disadvantaged students access
    the support necessary to realize the dream of a college degree.
        For example, college preparation and retention programs
    such as TRIO, Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Support
    Services provide a pipeline of support services that encourage
    low-income students to graduate high school and earn a
    postsecondary degree.
        Additionally, the GEAR UP program helps the middle and high
    schools with high numbers of at-risk students offer academic
    support, mentoring, career counseling, college visits, and
    other services designed to better prepare students for success
    in postsecondary education.
        Taxpayers dedicate nearly 1 billion each year to support
    the TRIO and GEAR UP programs, but despite the expenditures of
    significant federal resources in these important initiatives,
    more must be done at the state and institutional level to
    prepare disadvantaged students effectively for college and the
    workforce.
        Additionally, it is important that we examine the current
    programs to ensure they are working as intended and meeting the
    goal of helping students make the best choices.
        Fortunately postsecondary institutions are already rising
    to the challenge. In my home state of North Carolina, for
    example, Fayetteville State University is pursuing strategies
    to assess students' skill levels before they begin attending
    classes and use academic analytics to track students' progress
    throughout their curriculum.
        In New York, the College of Westchester provides students
    with a variety of support services such as success coaches to
    mentor freshmen and predictive tool kits that allow students to
    prepare for academic shortfalls and track their progress.
        Chicago's DePaul University has taken steps to coordinate
    with local high schools to ensure students are on the right
    track for college while also offering remedial education
    services.
        We have with us today representatives from each of these
    institutions who can share more information about the ways they
    are working to help disadvantaged students realize the dream of
    a college degree, and we look forward to their testimony.
        We want all Americans to have the opportunity to earn a
    postsecondary credential if they choose to do so. At this
    hearing today, we will discuss additional steps which can be
    taken at the institutional, state, and federal levels to
    improve college access and completion for all seeking
    postsecondary education.
        A number of this subcommittee's members have hands-on
    experience in higher education and mentoring programs. Recently
    I met with Representative Frederica Wilson about the 5,000 Role
    Models of Excellence Projects she started during her tenure as
    a high school principal in Miami.
        I was pleased to learn about this program that pairs
    disadvantaged high school students with mentors to encourage
    them to graduate and pursue further education. Members have
    received a short synopsis of this program in their folders, and
    I encourage all to speak to Representative Wilson about her
    efforts.
        I ask unanimous consent to submit this summary to the
    official hearing record.
        [The statement of Chairwoman Foxx follows:]

     Prepared Statement of Hon. Virginia Foxx, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on
                    Higher Education and Workforce Training

        Good morning and welcome. I thank our witnesses for joining us
    today to discuss ways postsecondary institutions are working better to
    serve low-income and first generation students.
        This is the 12th hearing the committee has held examining a wide
    range of issues facing the higher education community. From simplifying
    federal student aid programs to increasing transparency, each hearing
    has provided a forum to discuss ways we can strengthen the nation's
    postsecondary education system to meet the evolving needs of students
    and the workforce.
        One of this committee's top priorities for the upcoming
    reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is improving postsecondary
    access and affordability. To achieve that goal, we must take steps to
    close the education achievement gap and increase postsecondary
    opportunity for low-income and first generation students.
        Children from disadvantaged families often struggle to access
    important mentoring, tutoring, and other hands-on services designed to
    help encourage high school completion and the pursuit of postsecondary
    education. Sadly, these students are often unprepared for college
    academics, and require remedial courses that add to the challenges of
    completing a program. Too many disadvantaged students simply give up on
    even applying to college because they are confused by the application
    process, overwhelmed by the costs, or unaware of the available
    financial aid options, despite our best efforts to ensure the
    information is available and understandable.
        Recognizing these challenges, the federal government has created
    several programs to help disadvantaged students access the support
    necessary to realize the dream of a college degree. For example,
    college preparation and retention programs such as TRIO's Upward Bound,
    Talent Search, and Student Support Services provide a pipeline of
    support services that encourage low-income students to graduate high
    school and earn a postsecondary degree.
        Additionally, the GEAR UP program helps middle and high schools
    with high numbers of at-risk students offer academic support,
    mentoring, career counseling, college visits, and other services
    designed to better prepare students for success in postsecondary
    education.
        Taxpayers dedicate nearly 1 billion each year to support the TRIO
    and GEAR UP programs. But despite the expenditure of significant
    federal resources in these important initiatives, more must be done at
    the state and institutional level to prepare disadvantaged students
    effectively for college and the workforce. Additionally, it is
    important that we examine the current programs to ensure they are
    working as intended and meeting the goal of helping students make the
    best choices.
        Fortunately, postsecondary institutions are already rising to the
    challenge. In my home state of North Carolina, for example,
    Fayetteville State University is pursuing strategies to assess
    students' skill levels before they begin attending classes and use
    academic analytics to track students' progress throughout their
    curriculum.
        In New York, the College of Westchester provides students with a
    variety of support services, such as success coaches to mentor freshman
    and predictive toolkits that allow students to prepare for academic
    shortfalls and track their progress. Chicago's DePaul University has
    taken steps to coordinate with local high schools to ensure students
    are on the right track for college, while also offering remedial
    education services. We have with us today representatives from each of
    these institutions who can share more information about the ways they
    are working to help disadvantaged students realize the dream of a
    college degree, and we look forward to their testimony.
        We want all Americans to have the opportunity to earn a
    postsecondary credential, if they choose to do so. At this hearing
    today we'll discuss additional steps which can be taken at the
    institutional, state, and federal levels to improve college access and
    completion for all seeking postsecondary education. A number of this
    subcommittee's members have hands-on experience in higher education and
    mentoring programs. Recently, I met with Rep. Frederica Wilson about
    the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project she started during her
    tenure as a high school principal in Miami. I was pleased to learn
    about this program that pairs disadvantaged high school students with
    mentors to encourage them to graduate and pursue further education.
    Members have received a short synopsis of this program in their folders
    and I encourage them to speak to Rep. Wilson about her efforts.
        I ask unanimous consent to submit this summary to the official
    hearing record.
        I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on both
    sides of the aisle as we begin work on the reauthorization of the
    Higher Education Act. With that, I yield to my colleague, Mr. Ruben
    Hinojosa, the senior Democrat member of the subcommittee, for his
    opening remarks.

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
                    ______

        Chairwoman Foxx. I look forward to continued work with my
    colleagues on both sides of the aisle as we begin work on the
    reauthorization of the Higher Ed Act.
        With that, I yield to my colleague, Mr. Ruben Hinojosa, the
    senior democrat member of the subcommittee, for his opening
    remarks.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Chairwoman Foxx.
        Today's hearing will focus on how our nation can best
    eliminate barriers to college access for low-income and first-
    generation college students; students who strive to achieve the
    American dream, contribute to the nation's prosperity, and work
    to improve lives of others.
        In just a few minutes you will hear from Alex Garrido, an
    exceptional young man from my congressional district who is a
    low-income, first-generation student earning a Master's degree
    in information technology at the University of Texas, Pan-
    American, a Hispanic-serving institution in the Rio Grande
    Valley of South Texas.
        Importantly, Alex is also an immigrant who was able to
    afford the cost of a college degree due to the passage of the
    Texas Dream Act in 2001. To be sure, without the Texas Dream
    Act, college would have been clearly out of reach for this
    exemplary individual.
        Each year approximately 65,000 undocumented students
    graduate from high school but cannot go to college.
    Unfortunately, only 5 to 10 percent of undocumented high school
    graduates go to college because most are not eligible for in-
    state tuition.
        As a native Texan, I am especially pleased that more than a
    decade ago Texas became the first state in the nation to pass
    an in-state tuition law which made college more affordable for
    immigrant students.
        Today, 16 states have tuition equity laws allowing
    undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public
    colleges and universities and some boards and regions have
    adopted policies that allow undocumented students to access in-
    state tuition.
        Furthermore, a handful of states allow undocumented
    students to access state financial aid. While I applaud these
    states for taking bold steps to support immigrant students,
    Congress must act now and provide much-needed relief to our
    nation's dreamers through the passage of commonsense
    immigration reform.
        In fact, a 2010 UCLA study estimated that the total
    earnings of Dream Act beneficiaries would be between $1.4
    trillion and $3.6 trillion, and almost 1.8 million individuals
    in the United States would benefit from the Federal Dream Act.
        Preparing all students for good family-sustaining jobs and
    careers and a bright future must be a guiding principle for HEA
    reauthorization, which is badly needed here in Congress.
        A highly skilled at 21--or rather, a highly skilled 21st
    century workforce is key to strengthening our nation's economy
    and reducing income inequality and poverty particularly among
    our most vulnerable student populations.
        More to the point, the Georgetown center on Washington--
    rather, the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce
    found that 63 percent of all jobs will require workers with at
    least some postsecondary education by the year 2018.
        Along the same lines, a study by the College Board revealed
    that over the course of their working lives the average college
    graduate earns in excess of 60 percent more than a high school
    graduate.
        Finally, federal investments and Pell grants, GEAR UP, HEP
    CAMP, TRIO programs, historically black colleges and
    universities, tribal colleges and universities, and minority-
    serving institutions are transforming the lives of millions of
    disadvantaged students by making college more affordable and by
    providing students with the academic support and services they
    need to succeed in school.
        More than ever, Congress, states, and institutions must
    build on the successes of these Federal programs and do more to
    encourage greater numbers of low-income, first-generation
    college students to pursue a college degree.
        For these reasons, I ask my colleagues from both sides of
    the aisle to work together to make a college education
    accessible and affordable to our nation's dreamers and to
    greater numbers of low-income, first-generation college
    students in this reauthorization of Higher Education Act.
        At this time, I ask for unanimous consent to enter the
    letters from the national HEP CAMP association as well as from
    the Mexican-American Legal Defense and the Educational Fund
    into the hearing record.
        [The information follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Chairwoman Foxx. Without objection.
        Mr. Hinojosa. With that, I yield back.

     Prepared Statement of Hon. Ruben Hinojosa, Ranking Miniority Member,
            Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training

        Thank you, Chairwoman Foxx.
        Today's hearing will focus on how our nation can best eliminate
    barriers to college access for low-income and first generation college
    students--students who strive to achieve the American Dream, contribute
    to the nation's prosperity, and work to improve the lives of others.
        In just a few minutes, you will hear from Alex Garrido, an
    exceptional young man from my congressional district who is a low-
    income, first generation student, earning a master's degree in
    information technology at the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA),
    a Hispanic Serving Institution in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
        Importantly, Alex is also an immigrant who was able to afford the
    cost of a college degree due to the passage of the Texas DREAM Act in
    2001. To be sure, without the Texas DREAM Act, college would have been
    clearly out of reach for this exemplary individual.
        Each year approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from
    high school but cannot go to college. Unfortunately, only 5 to 10
    percent of undocumented high school graduates go to college because
    most are not eligible for in-state tuition.
        As a Native Texan, I am especially pleased that more than a decade
    ago, Texas became the first state in the nation to pass an in-state
    tuition law, which made college more affordable for immigrant students.
        Today, 16 states have tuition equity laws allowing undocumented
    students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities,
    and some boards of regents have adopted policies that allow
    undocumented students to access in-state tuition.
        In addition, a handful of states allow undocumented students to
    access state financial aid.
        While I applaud these states for taking bold steps to support
    immigrant students, Congress must act now and provide much needed
    relief to our nation's dreamers through the passage of common-sense
    immigration reform. In fact, a 2010 UCLA study estimated that the total
    earnings of DREAM Act beneficiaries would be between $1.4 and $3.6
    trillion, and almost 1.8 million individuals in the United States would
    benefit from the federal DREAM Act.
        Preparing all students for good family sustaining jobs and careers
    and a bright future must be a guiding principle for HEA
    reauthorization.
        A highly skilled 21st century workforce is key to strengthening our
    nation's economy and to reducing income inequality and poverty,
    particulary among our most vulnerable student populations.
        More to the point, the Georgetown Center on Education and the
    Workforce found that 63 percent of all jobs will require workers with
    at least some postsecondary education by 2018.
        Along the same lines, a study by the College Board revealed that
    over the course of their working lives, the average college graduate
    earns in excess of 60 percent more than a high school graduate.
        Finally, federal investments in Pell Grants, GEAR-UP, HEP-CAMP,
    TRIO programs, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal
    Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions are
    transforming the lives of millions of disadvantaged students by making
    college more affordable and by providing students with the academic
    support and services they need to succeed in school.
        More than ever, Congress, states and institutions must build on the
    successes of these federal programs and do more to encourage greater
    numbers of low-income, first generation college students to pursue a
    college degree.
        For these reasons, I ask my colleagues from both sides of the aisle
    to work together to make a college education accessible and affordable
    to our nation's dreamers and to greater numbers of low income, first
    generation college students, in this reauthorization of the Higher
    Education Act.
        At this time, I ask for unanimous consent to enter letters from the
    National HEP-CAMP Association and the Mexican American Legal Defense
    and Educational Fund into the hearing record.
        With that, I yield back.
                                     ______

        Chairwoman Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa.
        Pursuant to Committee Rule 7-C, all subcommittee members
    will be permitted to submit written statements to be included
    in the permanent hearing record.
        Without objection, the hearing record will remain open for
    14 days to allow statements, questions for the record, and
    other extraneous material referenced during the hearing to be
    submitted in the official hearing record.
        It is now my pleasure to introduce our distinguished panel
    of witnesses.
        Dr. James Anderson serves as chancellor and professor of
    psychology at Fayetteville State University, North Carolina's
    second oldest public institution.
        Mrs. Mary Beth Del Balzo serves as the senior executive
    vice president and chief operating officer at the College of
    Westchester.
        I believe Mr. Hinojosa would like to introduce Mr. Garrido.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Chairwoman.
        Alex Garrido is an impressive young man with a long list of
    accomplishments. Like many low-income, first-generation
    students, Alex is hard-working, entrepreneurial, and determined
    to succeed and, most importantly, to contribute to this nation.
        Alex graduated with honors from his high school and the
    University of Texas, Pan-American with a bachelor of science in
    psychology, and today he is pursuing a Master's degree in
    information technology at UTPA.
        Alex is also an entrepreneur. After earning his degree and
    working for one of the best Web site design firms in Houston,
    Alex started his own web design firm and now has over 90
    clients.
        Due to his unique talents, he was recruited away by UTPA to
    assist with their online and international marketing efforts.
    Alex is also working on an application involving Google Glass.
        Alex knows America as his home and is a proud beneficiary
    of President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
    known as DACA.
        I would like to note that without the leadership of
    Governor Perry and the passage of the Texas Dream Act, Alex
    would not have been able to afford the cost of a college
    education.
        As ranking member of this committee, it is a pleasure for
    me to extend a warm welcome to this outstanding young man.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa.
        Father Dennis Holtschneider serves as president of DePaul
    University, the nation's largest Catholic university and the
    largest private university in the Midwest.
        Before I recognize you to provide your testimony, let me
    briefly explain our lighting system.
        You will have five minutes to present your testimony. When
    you begin, the light in front of you will turn green. When one
    minute is left, the light will turn yellow. When your time has
    expired, the light will turn red. At that point, I ask that you
    wrap up your remarks as best as you are able.
        After you have testified, members will each have five
    minutes to ask questions of the panel members.
        I now recognize Dr. James Anderson for five minutes.

    STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES ANDERSON, CHANCELLOR, FAYETTEVILLE STATE
                UNIVERSITY, FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

        Mr. Anderson. Madam Chair, Ranking Member Hinojosa, and
    distinguished members of the panel, on behalf of the students,
    staff, and faculty at Fayetteville State University in North
    Carolina, thank you for this opportunity.
        We are a constituent institution of the University of North
    Carolina system. We are approximately 66 percent African-
    American, 27 percent white, 5 percent Hispanic, 75 percent Pell
    eligible, 20 percent military affiliated, which is the highest
    in the system.
        Half of our students are adult learners and 95 percent of
    our students are in-state, mostly from rural regions, so we are
    one of the most diverse historically black institutions.
        I came on board in 2008, and at that point we needed to
    make the leadership and financial commitment to creating the
    kinds of support programs and faculty development programs that
    would move our students forward successfully.
        I would like to mention two of our support programs for
    underrepresented students, especially since they won an award
    in December at the Press Club for high-impact practices.
        The first of those programs is called the CHEER program,
    and CHEER stands for Creating Higher Expectations for
    Educational Readiness.
        Many of our applicants, because of their standardized test
    scores, are not eligible to enroll in Fayetteville State
    University, and so the CHEER program represents a summer bridge
    program during which students take two courses of math and an
    English course, both of which are the traditional courses you
    would take in your freshman year.
        They are not remedial courses. They also receive
    counseling, advising, et cetera in the summer. If they pass
    those two courses, than the students are allowed to enroll in
    Fayetteville State University.
        Tracking CHEER students over the last several years shows
    that they are retained at a higher rate than the general
    student population that was already admitted and they have 11
    percent higher graduation rate.
        The second program for which we won that award in--by the
    way only four schools received the HIP, High Impact Practice
    awards.
        The second program focuses on underrepresented males.
    Nationally underrepresented males, especially minority males,
    have some of the poorest success rates. We wanted to make sure
    that did not happen to students who enter in that category and
    so one of the programs that we created really focused on
    bringing those students in, operating in a learning community,
    receiving strong mentoring and peer advising.
        One program was created for freshman, and there is a second
    program that carries them from sophomore through senior year.
    The students in those programs are highly successful. If we
    compare them to other males who entered who did not go through
    these programs, our students are retained at an 84 percent rate
    versus students who were not in that program who are retained
    at a 66 percent rate.
        The students--when you hear their testimonies--are probably
    as powerful as Alex's because they came in, they know they are
    under-skilled, they performed poorly in their first year, and
    then ultimately they recognized that they have to do much
    better.
        We also have made a major investment in financial aid
    counseling. Financial aid counseling should begin as early as
    possible, so our First Steps program begins in the spring and
    the summer before students enroll. Students and their parents
    come to the university and, besides doing the placement testing
    and the advisement and registration, the rigorous financial aid
    counseling has been very successful.
        For example, Fayetteville State University was one of the
    few HBCUs that was not affected by the Parent Plus Loan
    program, as many other institutions were in North Carolina who
    saw a drop in enrollment when the criteria were changed. We
    were not because we actually counsel our students and parents
    not to--especially the parents--not to take on the debt burden
    when their students are taking on a debt burden also. We try to
    find other means to support students rather than do that.
        We have, as you know, a strong military population because
    of the presence of Fort Bragg and the military children of
    those veterans and active military are very important to our
    enrollment.
        We have two early college high schools or traditional early
    college and an international early college high school, and
    increasingly we are seeing more of the children of the military
    enter these early college high schools.
        Our top graduates now come from early college high schools.
    It is a major investment financially; however, it is probably
    the best group of students that we bring from a high school
    pipeline into the university and ultimately who graduate.
        By the way, our early college high schools and all of them
    in North Carolina focus on minority and underrepresented
    students, so roughly 80 percent of our students come from those
    categories, and I strongly recommend that.
        Well--wow, that is fast.
        Let me close by saying in terms of Title III, I think we
    really need to look at the areas of Title III that can
    strengthen HBCUs and many of the other underrepresented
    institutions.
        [The statement of Dr. Anderson follows:]

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        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you very much, Dr. Anderson.
        Ms. Del Balzo?

     STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY BETH DEL BALZO, SENIOR EXECUTIVE VICE
         PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, THE COLLEGE OF
                  WESTCHESTER, WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK

        Mrs. Del Balzo. Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member Hinojosa,
    and distinguished members of the committee, I would like to
    thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the
    College of Westchester.
        I am honored to represent CW because I am particularly
    proud of how we serve our students and our community. CW
    celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2015. We are a privately-
    owned, single-campus college in White Plains, New York with a
    steady enrollment of about 1,000 students.
        Curriculum includes campus-based and fully-online courses
    in business, allied health, digital media, and technology--
    associate and baccalaureate degrees.
        We maintain vibrant relationships with the local and
    regional corporate community. A professional network of over
    300 businesses regularly hire our grads.
        We sit on boards of local businesses, community, and
    education associations. The New York State Board of Regents and
    the Middle States Commission on Higher Education oversee our
    excellence.
        The College of Westchester is a proprietary college. We pay
    local property taxes and corporate income taxes in the state of
    New York and federally. Our graduates secure good jobs and
    become contributing taxpayers.
        CW serves both traditional students who just graduated from
    high school and nontraditional students, adults who may be
    coming back to college. Most come from families with need; many
    first-generation. Seventy-five percent of our students are Pell
    eligible and the vast majority receive assistance from New York
    State's Tuition Assistance Program known as TAP.
        As you know, Pell and TAP are awarded to students, not
    institutions, and we are honored that they select CW. Our
    students come from our community and continue to reside at
    their homes. CW does not offer dormitories.
        Our traditional students work an average of 10 to 30 hours
    per week, and our nontraditional students work at least full-
    time.
        CW does not have an open enrollment policy. We personally
    interview each prospective student, review their transcripts,
    and accept only qualified students who we feel can succeed.
        Here are some methods we employ to help low-income students
    graduate. All incoming students who test into noncredit basics
    of math may participate in a cost-free CW Summer Bridge program
    to help them improve their math skills and retest into higher-
    level credit bearing math classes.
        Out of 122 students, 117 were able to successfully do so
    this past summer. Another version of this program is called a
    CW Boot Camp, offered at intervals convenient to working
    people.
        CW's success coaching program assigns each student to a
    success coach who tracks the student's strengths and stressors
    through CW's campus toolkit. This comprehensive evaluation
    identifies students who will benefit from academic, financial,
    or employment counseling necessary for continued resilience.
        CW faculty and staff constantly evaluate students to
    identify those at risk through classwork, student interaction,
    attendance, resilience, and persistence, and refer
    appropriately.
        Adult students may have completed course work or obtained
    experience that should be considered as credits earned. CW's
    prior learning assessment program allows students to enter CW
    with credits from other colleges through standardized exams,
    high school and VOC E articulations for holding technology
    certifications, for military experience through our portfolio
    evaluation of life and career experiences.
        CW students do not study abroad; however, we recently began
    partnering with SUNY's collaborative online international
    learning initiative. Our recent program utilized class
    videoconferencing with students in Panama, and soon we will
    have a future group from Coventry, England.
        CW is working with the NewsActivist, a writing-based
    partnership that provides classes and students with
    opportunities for text-based international collaborations.
        In 2012, CW was selected to partner with Carnegie Mellon
    University and a small group of other colleges across the
    country in Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative to
    improve the success of college students in certain gateway
    courses. Five faculty and over 100 students participated.
        For 2 years, CW students have been accepted into the
    prestigious University of Pittsburgh's i3 Scholars Program. CW
    has become proactive in reducing textbook costs. Twenty-two
    courses replaced commercial textbooks in 2013.
        In my written comments, I offer several areas I would
    respectfully like the committee to consider during
    deliberations of the reauthorization of the Higher Education
    Act, specifically year-round PELL and accurate data reporting
    and analysis through IPEDs reporting.
        We believe strongly that Congress and the Department of
    Education should judge institutions on the basis of how well
    they serve students and not on other considerations such as
    their tax status.
        As you know, the Department of Education is dictating a new
    regulation called Gainful Employment, which will result in the
    closure of programs that don't meet an arbitrary metric that
    measures student debt versus income.
        If enacted as proposed, the Gainful Employment regulation
    would introduce a complicated regulatory formula that is hard
    to understand and does not accomplish its goals.
        There is a lot of work to be done. Thank you so much for
    this opportunity to testify before you this morning, and I
    welcome any questions you may have.
        [The statement of Mrs. Del Balzo follows:]

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        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Garrido, you are recognized for five minutes.

        STATEMENT OF MR. JOSSE ALEX GARRIDO, GRADUATE STUDENT,
           UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN, EDINBURG, TEXAS

        Mr. Garrido. Chairwoman Foxx, ranking member Hinojosa, and
    members of the subcommittee, I want to thank you very much for
    being here. This is a very exciting moment for me. This is the
    first time I am testifying before you, and I am very nervous,
    but I am very happy.
        My parents brought me here to the United States hoping for
    a better life. Unfortunately, they were basically cheated away
    by a bad immigration attorney and the whole law firm
    disappeared just a few weeks after they gave this immigration
    attorney all the things they had.
        I attended high school here in the United States, and
    thanks to my counselor, my high school counselor, I was able to
    take advantage of several afterschool programs and several
    education tracks. I was able to basically take several advanced
    placement classes, and I was able to enroll in a community
    college just to take some basic credits.
        It was very sad when I realized that I wasn't going to be
    able to go to college. Thanks to my counselor--she told me
    about the Texas law, which thanks to Rick Perry allows students
    without status to basically attend the university paying in-
    state tuition.
        Working part-time, working several small odd jobs I was
    able to graduate with honors without a debt, of course. I
    didn't have a Social Security back then, so I was not able to
    get any loans or any kinds of scholarships.
        I started my non-profit back when I was in my undergrad. I
    was very active in the effort to pass the Dream Act back in
    2010. Unfortunately back then it didn't pass. Actually, the day
    it failed in the Senate was the very day of my graduation. It
    failed in the Senate on Monday--it failed in the Senate on
    December 18 and it was in the morning. In the afternoon it was
    my graduation.
        Thanks to the Morton memos and an extraordinary immigration
    attorney, I was able to move to Houston, finish a certification
    in web design, and learn on my own HTML5, CSS3, Ruby,
    Javascript, PHP, and WordPress application development.
        Thanks to that, I started working for one of the best web
    design firms in Houston. After that I started my own company
    with the help of my best friend. Today, my web design firm,
    alexwebmaster.com, has two employees and a manager and a
    portfolio of over 90 clients in plastic surgery, real estate,
    e-commerce, psychology, and many other markets.
        We provide strategic social media marketing and search
    engine optimization along with innovative web design and
    mobile-friendly design. My background caught the attention of
    the UTPA director of continuing education, and she invited me
    to teach digital marketing and web design classes at the
    University of Texas-Pan American.
        Today, I could not be happier. I live with an extraordinary
    woman in a beautiful 5-room house, I proudly pay my taxes, and
    I love my country.
        I am currently working on my masters in information
    technology. I do not manage my own company right now because I
    essentially got recruited away from it because right now I am
    helping the Office of Graduate Studies at the University of
    Texas Pan American with their online and international
    marketing efforts.
        Along with some friends in the MSIT program and the
    computer science program, I am working on an application to
    document your life using Google Glass. Hopefully we can submit
    it to Google and get it approved. I was one of the first people
    to be selected by Google to have this kind of technology.
        I am very fortunate to live in Texas because of the help of
    all the college preparation programs that I was able to take.
    Because of all of the help of my counselor and family members
    and friends and the Texas Dream Act and the leadership from our
    President, and the benefits of attending one of the most
    affordable universities in the United States, I am who I am
    today.
        I think that there is a lot of hidden talent in minority
    and low-income students; all it takes for many of them to shine
    is an opportunity.
        So today I am asking you to please provide us an
    opportunity, increase funding. It is really hard when you are a
    first-generation student to attend college.
        For example, my parents didn't see the value of going to
    college, so I guess--I just want to thank you so much. This is
    a wonderful opportunity, and I guess I yield my time.
        [The statement of Mr. Garrido follows:]

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        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you very much.
        I now recognize father Dennis Holtschneider for five
    minutes.

     STATEMENT OF REV. DENNIS H. HOLTSCHNEIDER, PRESIDENT, DEPAUL
                     UNIVERSITY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

        Rev Holtschneider. Thank you.
        Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member Hinojosa, and distinguished
    members of this subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to
    appear today.
        In respect for our limited time, you will find more detail
    and additional suggestions for reauthorization of the Higher
    Education Act in my written testimony.
        With 25,000 students, DePaul University is the largest
    private university in the Midwest. We serve a broad swath of
    society, but we direct all of our financial aid towards
    undergraduates who are from first-generation families, low-
    income qualifying for the Pell Grant, or students of color for
    underrepresented groups.
        They are 53 percent of this year's freshman class, and they
    graduate in impressive numbers. To serve them well we keep our
    class sizes small. We are constantly trying new approaches.
        We recently shifted all of our remedial coursework to the
    summer before college and made it free of charge if the
    students shifted with it, but we charged them if they waited
    until the fall in order to keep them on track with their
    colleagues so they moved toward graduation. That has worked
    beautifully.
        We implemented a mentoring program for men of color, which
    now has a higher graduation rate than the student body at
    large.
        We completely redesigned gateway courses. Those are the
    courses like organic chemistry and calculus where students take
    the course, fail, and they drop out of college. We literally
    redesigned those courses based on what the students told us.
        We added supplemental instruction. We substantially
    upgraded advising, changing how it works. We have now become
    the top private transfer institution in the United States to
    enable students to spend two years before they come to DePaul
    and to be able to have a less expensive education.
        We are also among the top 10 providers in the United States
    for professional internships. All in service of helping them
    succeed not only in college but helping them succeed in life.
        Our focus on educational opportunity also finds expression
    in our TRIO programs. We host two TRIO programs at DePaul,
    Student Support Services and McNair Scholars, and we supplement
    them extensively with our own funds.
        These programs work. Our latest graduation rate for Student
    Support Services students was over 80 percent, 10 percentage
    points above the institutional average, 80 percent of our
    McNair students are going to graduate school within 3 years to
    some of the finest graduate schools in America.
        TRIO programs in our experience have an outsize effect, and
    we know firsthand their value. That said, my colleagues and I
    also believe that TRIO could be improved in the next
    reauthorization cycle.
        First, we ask that TRIO eligibility regulations be
    simplified. Rather than making every university in the country
    independently review the net taxable income for each TRIO
    student or their families of origin, TRIO eligibility should
    simply follow Pell eligibility.
        If a student has already been certified as sufficiently
    poor to be eligible for Pell funding, it would greatly simplify
    the administration of these programs if that designation also
    made them eligible for TRIO programs.
        That would allow us to apply the TRIO funds to student
    support rather than cause us to assign lengthy staff hours
    toward needless administrative work.
        Second, while TRIO program regulations technically permit
    collaboration between TRIO programs and other educational
    opportunity programs inside our institutions, it is our
    experience at least with respect to student support services
    that the regulation prohibiting comingling of funds discourages
    institutions from any significant collaboration internally.
        Moreover, extensive reporting requirements deter
    institutions from creating programs that would serve larger
    numbers of students. There is simply so much paperwork in the
    reporting requirements that universities have created
    standalone programs that serve small, discrete numbers of
    students and they can be more easily reported according to the
    requirements.
        Third, there appears to be little incentive for TRIO
    programs to collaborate their activities across institutions.
    There are 50 or so TRIO programs in the Chicago region alone,
    community agencies, colleges, schools . . . I have no doubt
    they are doing good work individually, but working together,
    Chicago universities could partner more easily with high school
    Upward Bound and Talent Search programs offering students real
    pathway programs that ease their transition to college.
        Just as importantly, we could create ways to assess the
    collective impact of TRIO. For now, however, we work
    independently. That is a shame. All that said, TRIO works
    beautifully at DePaul. I pray it remains at the heart of our
    national commitments to every student, and I thank you for your
    time.
        [The statement of Rev. Holtschneider follows:]

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        Chairwoman Foxx. Thank you very much.
        I would now like to recognize our members for five minutes
    of questioning.
        Mrs. Brooks, I recognize you as our first member.
        Mrs. Brooks. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
        Hello to the panel. Thank you so very much for being here.
    I actually, before coming to Congress, was a part of our
    state's community college system and Ivy Tech Community College
    in Indiana.
        Just last week when we were home, I convened a higher ed
    listening session of a huge number of institutions within our
    state. We had quite a discussion about higher ed
    reauthorization.
        An overarching theme that I heard from the administrators,
    including college presidents who attended, was that we need to
    have much more focus on the success of the students once they
    enroll.
        It was their belief that there has been a huge amount of
    progress in access, but yet once they get to the doors of the
    institution there are all of these impediments, and we have not
    had a very high success rate in this country on graduation and
    on completion.
        And so I just thank you all particularly for highlighting
    the programs that have been so effective in your institutions.
        Actually, Dr. Anderson, you brought up something that came
    up in my discussion last week and if you could talk a little
    bit more about the problem in this country, because we now have
    about 57 percent of all people going to college are females,
    which is a fabulous thing, but we are not focusing enough on
    the male students.
        Could you just talk a little bit more about the issue of
    males continuing on in college and their success?
        I would like to also ask you a bit about TRIO, Reverend
    Holtschneider, in a moment.
        If you could talk about your program, Dr. Anderson, with
    respect to the focus, the under-representation of males on our
    college campuses.
        Mr. Anderson. Sure. In identifying that group as a targeted
    population, we recognized that there had to be a significant
    commitment to both access and success for that group.
        All of the data nationally indicates that, and there are
    many good programs. As you heard, DePaul has one, and we have
    one also.
        The students have to learn to understand the culture of
    college when they first get there. Many are under-skilled, and
    so you have to put them into courses where faculty understand
    the level of readiness that they have and often that means that
    you have to train faculty and have a faculty development
    component to deal with these students.
        You must make sure that your best tutors, your best
    advisors, your best mentors are associated with the program,
    and by the way, they don't have to be males. Some of the most
    significant advisors and mentors on our campus are females;
    staff, faculty, and upper-class students.
        The students themselves have to be held to very high
    standards, and so the progression standards that we have
    created as a university as students move from semester to
    semester apply to them because if you don't hold them to high
    academic standards, they won't aspire to those standards.
        You must have a good assessment component to make sure that
    you can track how well these students are doing and where you
    draw the students from. I mentioned early college high schools,
    for example. Some of our students come from early college high
    schools.
        Some students come from the CHEER program. So they enter
    the university already having come from a pipeline that is very
    strong, and if you can have that strong pipeline--we have a
    very strong GEAR UP program, for example.
        Our GEAR UP program is one of the most successful in the
    country and sending students to the university as under-
    represented males but coming from a strong pipeline strengthens
    their chance of successes as opposed to just coming in as
    entering freshmen and having to start anew.
        Mrs. Brooks. Have you found that all of the different
    funding streams that are available cause the incredible amount
    of compliance work that we have heard about, and can you
    address that with respect to this population of students?
        Mr. Anderson. Sure. One of the hindrances has been the fact
    that when the reauthorization occurred in 2008, the
    institutions that got the designation of being PBI,
    Predominantly Black Institutions and who were not historically
    black institutions, they have been afforded the chance to use
    Title III funds for certain things that we can't, and many of
    the things that we would like to use Title III funds for would
    benefit this population.
        So one of our requests representing all HBCUs is that we go
    back and look at that 2008 reauthorization. You have, for
    example, PBIs that used to be historically black institutions,
    now are predominately white but may have a significant number
    of African-American or Hispanic students.
        They are allowed to utilize Title III in ways that
    historically black institutions can't, so we can do more with
    our minority males in our under-represented male program if we
    were allowed, for example, to utilize some of those funds.
        Mrs. Brooks. Thank you.
        And I have a very short period of time, but Reverend
    Holtschneider--yes, I am sorry. My time is up.
        I yield back.
        Mr. Anderson. I am sorry.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. You can always speak to Father
    Holtschneider and get something from him after the hearing.
        Mrs. Brooks. Thank you.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you.
        Mr. Hinojosa, I recognize you for five minutes.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
        It is wonderful to have such great panelists here on this
    subject that is so important to us here in Congress and help us
    prepare for reauthorization of Higher Education Act.
        I will start my first question for Alex Garrido.
        Briefly, could you describe your experience as a first-
    generation college student within your family and in college?
        Mr. Garrido. Well, basically it was very hard, very hard
    because my parents didn't recognize the value of attending
    college, and I couldn't have done it without the help of my
    school counselor, and she guided me through all of these
    programs through the GEAR UP program, through personal
    coaching, through personal guidance. I think it was essential
    that I got that help from her.
        Mr. Hinojosa. What did GEAR UP teach you that made you
    college ready?
        Mr. Garrido. It inspired me to go to college. It opened a
    window of opportunity. It just made me dream of a better life.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you. Briefly how did Texas Dream Act
    make it possible for you to attend college?
        Mr. Garrido. I couldn't have gone to college without the
    Texas Dream Act. Back then I didn't have status, and for
    undocumented students, usually they have to pay as
    international students, which the tuition rate is usually as
    you may know sometimes twice or three times higher than regular
    tuition. So the Texas Dream Act allowed me to pay in-state
    tuition, and Rick Perry is my hero for passing the Texas Dream
    Act.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Could you talk about your job perspectives
    coming out of graduate school and the financial impact that the
    Dream Act has had on your life?
        Mr. Garrido. Basically because I have such a large
    portfolio, and I work for so many different companies, I get
    job offers I think at least twice per week. Vice presidents
    from companies, IT companies in Houston, in Dallas, they are
    constantly calling me and they are constantly trying to recruit
    me, but my main goal is to finish my Masters in Information
    Technology and hopefully work for a large corporation such as
    Google or Microsoft.
        Mr. Hinojosa. A 2010 UCLA study that we saw estimated that
    the total earnings of all Dream Act beneficiaries would be
    between $1.4 trillion and $3.6 trillion. Do you agree with
    that, and how many students are there at your university who
    would fall into this group?
        Mr. Garrido. Back in 2010, we had 603 students. I don't
    know the specific number right now at my university, but yes.
    We are used to dealing with hardships. We are used to dealing
    with difficult circumstances. We are used to having to overcome
    a lot of obstacles.
        We know we are not entitled to anything, and we risk it. We
    go and take chances because we already have nothing, so
    anything that we can get, anything that we can do, we do it.
    Dreamers usually have an entrepreneurial spirit. I started my
    own non-profit even back when I didn't have a status, so I
    think that shows what we can do in terms of contributing to
    this country.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
        Dr. Anderson, I agree with my colleague from Indiana, Susan
    Brooks, in the need to address the falling percentage of males
    going to the University. I think that today 60 percent of all
    of the students attending universities are female.
        How did GEAR UP and TRIO help you move those numbers up and
    graduation rate as was pointed out?
        Mr. Anderson. Well, one of the things that we, when we talk
    to GEAR UP, we talk to them about really defining their outcome
    so that they were measurable. Some of the TRIO programs, while
    they serve a great mission, aren't as focused on measurable
    outcomes. We wanted to be able to say that the impact of GEAR
    UP is X or Y or Z.
        So as we talked to the leaders of the GEAR UP program, we
    made sure that they aligned their outcomes with the
    university's outcomes and expectations. Therefore, it was a
    seamless transition for the students because they were in a
    program where all of the activities were built around things
    that were measurable, good metrics.
        In fact, the assessment plan for our GEAR UP program is
    often held up to other GEAR UP programs when they apply, and
    they are told to look at our assessment model.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Did you include the importance of financial
    literacy at the GEAR UP programs so that they could make good
    choices and good decisions as to how they were going to get
    financing?
        Mr. Anderson. Absolutely. And not just in GEAR UP but all
    of the TRIO programs you will find that one of the significant
    weaknesses is the students and the parents understanding of
    what the debt to go to college really entails, so financial
    literacy training and all related training is important, is
    critical.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
        I yield back.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa.
        Mr. Walberg, you are recognized for five minutes.
        Mr. Walberg. I thank the chairwoman.
        I thank the panel for being here today.
        Ms. Del Balzo, I know from my background, having been in my
    field of endeavor for a number of years and then going back to
    Wheaton College Graduate School, the experience that I had was
    taken into consideration by Wheaton at the time and allowed me
    as a husband and a father of two at that time to have some
    efficiency built into my graduate school studies and be given
    credit for experience.
        At Westchester, how do you account for the experience of a
    person who comes not necessarily in a graduate study but coming
    to a bachelor's degree program from a field of endeavor for
    some time, experience in what they are doing, and now coming
    back for some training to allow them to progress further?
        What does the College of Westchester do?
        Mrs. Del Balzo. We do a number of things as most colleges
    do, I think. Our prior learning assessment encompasses a lot of
    different areas. One of them is obviously through credits
    earned possibly at another college. We assess those if they are
    pertinent to their degree at the College of Westchester through
    standardized exams such as CLEP, UExcel, ECE, international
    baccalaureate exams, sometimes early college high school
    credits, and VOC E articulations.
        Those are students who study career-specific coursework in
    their high schools, for holding technology certifications such
    as A+, CCNA, Adobe, Microsoft office specialists that would
    correspond to courses that we offer at the college. Also--
        Mr. Walberg. If I could just jump in there--
        Mrs. Del Balzo. Sure.
        Mr. Walberg.--With that list, extensive list, how do you
    communicate that to students, potential students, how do you
    communicate that this is a school that will take into
    consideration life experience, past courses, you name it?
        Mrs. Del Balzo. It starts in the admissions counseling
    prior to a student making a decision about whether they should
    attend, especially an adult because their time is so limited. I
    was an adult student as well, and I understand that. We explain
    all of those things.
        We have materials that we can review with them in the
    personal interview that we do with each student, and make it
    super clear. And then we also guide them through the process of
    taking those standardized exams or reviewing their life
    experience credits or their military experience through our
    listing.
        Mr. Walberg. I understand as well that you give no-cost
    remedial courses for students who come to the College of
    Westchester. How many new students participate in some of these
    courses, and how does it affect their financial aid?
        Mrs. Del Balzo. Yes. It affects their financial aid
    significantly because--well, this past summer we identified 122
    students in the incoming freshman class, and 117 of them didn't
    have to take the basics of math course. They were able to test
    into the higher level. If they had taken the basics, they would
    have had to pay out-of-pocket for that because it is not
    covered through their financial aid.
        We do that with adult students as well. I don't have the
    statistics on it, but we offer, to them, to adult students at
    times that are convenient for them to take what is called
    ``Boot Camp'' for adults.
        Mr. Walberg. Thank you.
        Reverend Holtschneider, can you tell me about the remedial
    courses that DePaul offers to new students prior to the start
    of their academic career?
        Rev Holtschneider. We took our lead from the research done
    by Cliff Adelman here at the Department of Education and
    realized that if we could keep students tracked with their
    freshman classmates they had a better chance of succeeding
    going through.
        So we basically took all of the remedial classes, put them
    the summer before, and made them free if they took them the
    summer before. That is actually financially a wise move as well
    because they will stay with you longer as students and you will
    make it up later, frankly, as a business model.
        But frankly, it creates a higher graduation rate as a
    humane model and helps students stay on track. So we try to
    push them into the summer where we put the courses for free,
    but if they wait until the fall we charge them. And that is the
    incentive so that they get on track and then they stay on track
    going forward. It is working beautifully. Their graduation
    rates are much higher than they used to be.
        Mr. Walberg. I suppose it also shows their drive of wanting
    to compete on a college campus like yours.
        Thank you so much. I know my time is about up.
        Thank you, Madam Chairman.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Bishop, you are recognized for five minutes.
        Mr. Bishop. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you
    for holding this hearing.
        To the panel, thank you for the work that you are engaged
    in. It is very impressive.
        Mr. Garrido, your story is an inspiration. I thank you very
    much for being here with us today.
        I guess my first question is an idea that is gaining a fair
    amount of currency around here is the idea of simplifying the
    student financial aid program such that we would have one grant
    and one loan program.
        The grant presumably would be the Pell grant, the loan
    presumably would be the direct loan program and by implication
    that would eliminate the campus-based programs that are
    operated under Title IV for a great many years.
        My question is what impact, if any, would a simplification
    of the student financial aid program such that we were down to
    one grant and one loan have on your ability to both attract and
    retain low-income students?
        Dr. Anderson, may I start with you?
        Mr. Anderson. Yes. First of all, it would streamline the
    process. So at the university level we would be able to respond
    faster. We would probably have more applicants to the
    institution and for financial aid.
        I am going to say that sometimes financial aid application
    fatigue occurs among certain parents and student groups simply
    because it is such a complicated process to them. I constantly
    am responding to letters and phone calls about people who have
    difficulty with that process.
        So streamlining the process, increasing the number of
    applicants, and encouraging in an incentive-based way parents
    and students to understand it is easier to get into the
    educational pipeline than they had thought all would be very
    critical.
        Mr. Bishop. At the risk of being argumentative, there is
    not now a separate application for SEOG. There is not now a
    separate application for college work-study or for Perkins. The
    student files the FAFSA, and that is it.
        I thank you for your assessment.
        Father Holtschneider, could you comment on this?
        Rev Holtschneider. The same question?
        Mr. Bishop. What impact would this have on your students?
        Rev Holtschneider. Well, the simplification of course is
    always attractive in its own right. Many of my students rely on
    Work Study greatly. A number of my students rely on SEOG. A
    number of my students rely on Perkins.
        I didn't come prepared today to give you an exact analysis
    about it--
        Mr. Bishop. I am not asking for one.
        Rev Holtschneider.--but I can tell you I certainly have a
    number of students that have relied and that has been a reason
    for their success along the way. These have been programs that
    have been very helpful.
        Mr. Bishop. Thank you. If I could just stay with DePaul for
    a second, what is your institutional discount rate?
        Rev Holtschneider. The institution discount rate would be
    somewhere--it depends of course if you are--what you put in
    that, so different schools report that differently, but we
    would be in the mid-20s, somewhere along there.
        Mr. Bishop. And I hear you correctly that all of your
    institutional aid is granted on the basis of demonstrated need?
    That you don't engage in merit-based student financial aid? Is
    that correct?
        Rev Holtschneider. That is correct although we do have
    talent aid for our school of music for students studying opera,
    et cetera and our school theater. There would be talent aid in
    those cases, but generally, for the institution, we put our aid
    towards need.
        Mr. Bishop. Just one more question.
        Mrs. Del Balzo, you made a comment about gainful
    employment, and we all understand how very contentious and
    controversial gainful employment is.
        I guess my question is the federal government spends about
    $145 billion a year on student financial aid programs. And what
    gainful employment is, imperfect to be sure, is an effort on
    the part of the federal government to make some assessment of
    whether that money is being properly allocated and whether
    there is a return on investment, if you will.
        So I guess my question to you is if gainful employment
    isn't it, and by the way, perfectly reasonable position if
    gainful employment isn't it, what metrics would be best used to
    determine whether the federal government is in fact getting a
    return on its investments?
        Mrs. Del Balzo. Yes, thank you, Mr. Bishop.
        There is a metric already in place--the student default
    measurement that has been in place for many years--and we found
    this one to be a good measurement of student success.
        We also internally measure our student job placement in the
    field, so that is the other metric that we use, but from a
    federal perspective, I think the default rate measurement is a
    sound one.
        Mr. Bishop. Thank you very much.
        Mrs. Del Balzo. Thank you.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you, Mr. Bishop.
        Ms. Bonamici, I recognize you for five minutes.
        Ms. Bonamici. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman.
        Thank you to our panel. I want to join Congresswoman Brooks
    and the statement about the importance of retention as well as
    getting students into the school.
        Later this week or soon I plan to introduce the Pay It
    Forward College Affordability Act. This is a new college
    financing model. It sets up a framework to cover students'
    college tuition and mandatory fees upfront and then students,
    once they graduate, will pay back to the fund a percentage of
    their income for a set period of time.
        So current students will draw from the program fund while
    they are in school and then of course contribute into or pay
    forward once they graduate. My home state of Oregon is studying
    this model. We will be hearing from the stakeholders as they
    examine the proposal to address the rising costs of higher
    education.
        So I want to ask Dr. Anderson and Father Holtschneider, do
    you see potential in this sort of a departure from the
    traditional way of thinking? And also, can these ideas be
    explored without some state and federal funding to get them
    going?
        Dr. Anderson? And I do want to save time for another
    question.
        Mr. Anderson. Absolutely, and I would support it. However,
    I would say we would have to make sure that we have very select
    and stringent criteria. For example, we want to make sure that
    time-to-degree--that students and parents understand that if
    you are getting the support upfront--that we expect that time-
    to-degree will be cut off at a certain point.
        We also expect that progression standards be applied, that
    students have to meet the progression standards implemented by
    the institution to move from semester to semester and that
    these be held to higher expectations.
        Again, that is an incentive-based model. It is an
    entrepreneurial model. And I think it has validity especially
    at a time in North Carolina where we have declining state
    support and we expect to see it--we have had it for four years,
    we expect to see it for another two years perhaps. So it would
    be critical to have another option like that.
        Ms. Bonamici. Thank you.
        Father Holtschneider?
        Rev Holtschneider. I would welcome it as a model to be
    tested because I watch--as I am sure you have seen--students
    choose career paths based on whether they can pay back the
    loans that they have taken on, and so I have watched students
    choose not to go into teaching. I have watched them choose more
    highly remunerated law careers than perhaps public service law
    careers.
        You watch those choices being made all the time and if they
    could do something that created a way to pay back that with
    respect to that, it might have a nice effect.
        Ms. Bonamici. Thank you. I appreciate that. That is one of
    the benefits. Thank you very much.
        Recently, the administration identified four key areas to
    address if we are really to increase college opportunities for
    low-income students. And one of those key areas is to reduce
    inequalities in college advising and test preparation, which is
    a welcome change.
        I want to mention a couple of models. Oregon Institute of
    Technology, Oregon Tech, is partnering with local high schools
    to provide mentoring and advising and they actually are using a
    personalized text messaging system to encourage students
    especially to get them involved in STEM. They got a little
    shout-out at the White House recently for that program.
        And also the Oregon Student Access Commission runs a
    program called ASPIRE, which is Access to Student Assistance
    Programs in Reach of Everyone. So they go into school sites,
    they have about 145 sites now and about 1,500 trained
    volunteers.
        It is available to all students and it is a mentoring
    program that works one-on-one with the students to provide them
    with college and career options, admission and financial aid
    information.
        That is a great program but sustainability and scaling up
    is really important, so can you discuss the importance of this
    type of mentoring and the potential there to provide students
    with--and if you have any other ideas-to provide them with that
    one-on-one counseling that they need, especially as K-12
    budgets have been cut and high school counselors are really
    overworked.
        I would like to hear maybe from Mrs. Del Balzo and Mr.
    Garrido first and then the others if there is time.
        Mrs. Del Balzo. Thank you, Ms. Bonamici.
        At the College of Westchester we don't have a formal
    program besides the Success Coaching in place and that is
    really because each student does have an academic advisor. That
    is their first point, and from there they are referred out to
    appropriate places whether it is financial aid counseling,
    mental health counseling.
        In addition to that, the success coaching program that is
    in their first semester is there to really help students get
    through those gateway courses that we have all been mentioning
    this morning that are the most critical.
        Ms. Bonamici. And can you address--we need to get to the
    students while they are in high school to make sure that they
    are getting information they need to apply.
        Mrs. Del Balzo. We have--I am sorry--
        Ms. Bonamici. I just want to hear from Mr. Garrido.
        Do you have ideas about how to reach students while they
    are in high school to get them all of the information they
    need?
        Mr. Garrido. Peer mentoring could be very, very beneficial.
    My counselor actually connected me to a student who was already
    in a program that I wanted to be in, so that was very
    beneficial.
        Ms. Bonamici. I see my time has expired. I would like to
    hear from the others perhaps in writing after.
        Thank you.
        I yield back. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. I would now like to recognize Ms. Wilson
    for five minutes.
        Ms. Wilson. Thank you, Madam Chair, for this opportunity.
        I founded a program in Miami-Dade County, the fourth
    largest school district in the nation, 20 years ago, and the
    purpose of the project was to make sure that African-American
    boys got the opportunity to go to college because too many of
    them grow up believing that they do not deserve the rewards of
    life.
        For others, they feel beaten down by low expectations and
    an onslaught of degrading stereotypes. They learn to see
    themselves as society sees them, not as real men, but as
    caricatures of men whose only chance for success lies in
    violence and crime.
        Many of us will say, ``Well, that is the responsibility of
    the parents.'' I agree that parents should be responsible for
    their children, but what happens to the children who have no
    parents or who have not even a grandpa or an uncle to show them
    the way?
        So the 5,000 Role Models of Excellence Project is a group
    of men from the community, thousands of them, who are trained
    in how to raise and train young boys how to become men.
        Our main goal is to send them to college, so they are on a
    college track from elementary school through middle school
    through high school. It is a huge bonding where all of them
    wear the same uniform. People know who they are.
        We have a strong partnership with our community college.
    They are trained. They visit the college campuses. They are in
    school every summer leading up to college, so they understand
    what college is all about.
        They receive scholarships from our HBCUs, Florida Memorial,
    Bathune-Cookman. We train them and teach them how to apply for
    the Bill Gates Scholarships, STEM scholarships, so all of them
    are ready.
        We work with our state attorney, our public defender, every
    hospital, every police department, colleges and universities,
    our jails, our prisons, our school counselors, our judges. We
    even work with inmates to help them and parole officers and
    parole boards.
        We work with all of our philanthropists and the business
    community, and our community believes when you lift up these
    boys you lift everyone up. As so we engage them in all kinds of
    activities. They have been to Washington, D.C. They go to
    Tallahassee every year, which is our state capital. We expose
    them to museums and to art and to ballet. We take them
    everywhere.
        Remember, there are 8,000 of them. They start in elementary
    school and they are in the program as a result of either a
    parent or a principal or a counselor recommends them for the
    program. We have a waiting list of course. We have different
    counties who want this program. We have another one in Pinellas
    County.
        These children are trained through a specific curriculum.
    We teach them how to solve a conflict without resorting to
    violence. We teach them etiquette and leadership training.
        We teach them how to react to the police. There is a common
    thread that there is this tension between African-American boys
    and the police. We teach them how they are to respond if
    stopped by the police. The police officers are all involved in
    it.
        I want you to see the list. This is a copy of the last
    class that received their scholarships on Martin Luther King's
    birthday. They will be going to college. This is not all of
    them. These are the ones that our foundation will be sending.
        Many of them will be going by way of the Bill Gates
    Scholarships, STEM Scholarships, Florida A&M, Bathune-Cookman,
    and of course our community colleges are waiting for them.
        Everyone is begging. How do we get more African-American
    boys, men into teaching? How do we get them into the
    classrooms? How do we get them so that they can help these
    little boys who are going astray stay on the right track?
        I believe my time is up, and I don't want to--
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you, Ms. Wilson, for talking about
    that extraordinary program. We appreciate it.
        I am now going to use my time to ask some questions of the
    panel members.
        Mrs. Del Balzo, tell us a little bit about how the College
    of Westchester uses its partnerships with local businesses to
    improve course and program offerings for your students.
        Mrs. Del Balzo. Thank you, Dr. Foxx.
        We do that in a number of ways. We have been around for
    such a long time in the local community that we have many, many
    partnerships with companies. They hire our graduates upon
    graduation.
        We have a very robust internship program with a number of
    our course work and programs at the college. They mentor our
    students. They come in and they review classwork in particular
    courses that are appropriate, so those are the major ways.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you.
        Father Holtschneider, can you talk a little bit about the
    career counseling services that DePaul offers to its students?
    How do you coordinate with local businesses to address their
    workforce needs?
        Rev Holtschneider. Well, a couple of ways. Number one, we
    are surrounded by Chicago. We are in the middle of Chicago. We
    also, as you just heard a moment ago, have been there well over
    100 years.
        We partner very closely. We also turn to our alumni in all
    of those businesses to give students a shot in internships.
        You heard a few moments ago that we are top 10 in the
    nation now for internships. At any given moment, we have 4,000
    students in an internship, and we use Chicago to do that.
        And that is a powerful way to get them employed. You don't
    want them to wait until after they graduate to start building
    the Rolodex or to be looking out there when people, they could
    already be building those early. That is first and foremost.
        Secondly, we have all of the traditional counselors to help
    people and assist them as they pull together resumes, practice
    their skills in interviewing, all of the things that no one has
    actually taught them and that they can learn in those things.
    So there is a great deal of mentoring that goes on with the
    various groups and the university at large.
        That is also somewhat college-specific. We create offices
    that are very specialized for some of the colleges to help them
    in their search as well.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you very much.
        I want to do a quick follow up. What was the impetus for
    DePaul supplementing the TRIO programs with initiatives of your
    own? What brought you--
        Rev Holtschneider. The name St. Vincent de Paul over our
    door. Our brand is poverty. That is what he gave his life to,
    and as an institution we wouldn't be honoring that name,
    frankly, if we weren't caring about students who need these
    opportunities. Frankly, being true to the name over the door.
        But also, frankly, the need of the students who present
    themselves to us. We have far more students that can be
    accommodated with the allotment we have through the TRIO
    programs and so we try to put our own money towards them.
        Sometimes it is because the TRIO programs are somewhat
    narrowly construed and we want to be a little bit broader. So,
    with regard to McNair, McNair is designed so that we can get
    students of color, under-represented students into the
    classroom as professors, to move them all the way to their
    Ph.D.
        But it doesn't enable students from those backgrounds to go
    into medicine or into law, so we created wraparound programs
    that would work beyond the structures of McNair so that we can
    serve a broader number of students.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Dr. Anderson, I was very appreciative of
    your emphasis on the need for measurable outcomes in these
    programs. I have known about Fayetteville State's Upward Bound
    Special Services Programs since I was an Upward Bound Special
    Services director at Appalachian State.
        Would you talk a little bit about the extensive data
    analysis initiative that you have and how you use that data to
    increase student achievement?
        Mr. Anderson. Sure. I am an assessment, evidence-based
    driven person, and one of the things that I instituted when I
    came to the institution was that anyone who submits a request
    for funding at the institution must have an accompanying
    assessment plan, or we won't even read your application.
        So it is pretty understood that if you create the mindset
    at the institution that assessment is important, that
    measurable outcomes and especially learning outcomes if you are
    talking about learning, are what is critical, people will
    understand that and in and of itself it becomes an incentive-
    driven model.
        So we have tried to make that university-wide. So in the
    case of support programs, one of the things I like to really
    mention is that it behooves the leadership at HBCUs to identify
    external revenue streams to fund these support programs to
    underrepresented groups when they don't have state-or grant-
    related funding, and both are declining.
        So we have to go out and find more support for these
    programs, but to get that support, we must say to the programs
    and to the program directors, ``You must demonstrate to us that
    you really understand how to measure impact and that you must
    show an assessment plan.''
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you very much. Again, I hope your
    message gets through to a lot of other programs.
        Mr. Miller?
        Mr. Miller. Mrs. Davis?
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Mrs. Davis?
        Mrs. Davis, you are recognized for five minutes. I am
    sorry. I got a different message.
        Mrs. Davis. Mr. Miller has graciously--
        Mr. Miller. [Off mike.]
        Mrs. Davis. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Miller.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.
        Mr. Garrido, I want to thank you for being here and for the
    role that you play really in showing everybody what the
    possibilities are. That is very important.
        One of the things that we know though is in California
    where we have the Dream Act as well as Texas is that many
    students either don't learn about it or even if they do they
    don't apply and therefore we have scholarships really going
    wanting or opportunities going wanting I think for students.
        How do you react to that? Did you have a lot of outreach?
    You obviously were a self-starter and you were able to reach
    out and get some of that information, but what do you see is
    the issue and the problem with trying to really connect young
    people who are eligible with the program?
        Mr. Garrido. Unfortunately, we dreamers usually have to
    live in fear, and it is that fear, that fear is the barrier
    that stops many dreamers from actually reaching out to
    counselors and opening up to counselors.
        I think one of the reasons why I was able to go to college
    and find out about the Texas Dream Act was because I was very
    open with my counselor. She already knew my situation, but she
    was very quiet. She was waiting for me to approach her and
    explain my circumstances back then.
        So I think dissipating myths will be something very
    important to do, something that we really need to focus on if
    we want more dreamers to become success stories.
        Mrs. Davis. Are you suggesting that perhaps the education
    for counselors, for teachers, for individuals significant to
    the students somehow suggest to them to be careful about
    identifying students--they obviously need to be able to play a
    role here.
        Tell us a little bit more about what you think--as a
    student, perhaps--you were comfortable being approached, but a
    lot of students are not and some of those lines that people
    worry about crossing.
        Mr. Garrido. Perhaps providing additional training for
    school counselors on how to deal with these kinds of
    circumstances and these situations.
        In my honest opinion, lowering down the anger, rhetoric,
    and hateful comments at the national level will help a great
    deal. It will help us feel a little bit more comfortable
    approaching other people about our circumstances because it is
    something--we didn't choose to violate laws. We got caught up
    in the situation.
        Mrs. Davis. Do you think a new immigration reform bill that
    addressed some of these concerns would be helpful? Would that
    make a difference in terms of students, and how do you think
    that would make a difference?
        Mr. Garrido. Of course. That is the ultimate goal. That is
    the ultimate dream of everybody. Comprehensive immigration
    reform will definitely solve all of these issues and will kick
    start, in my opinion, the economy.
        As the congressional budget office reported back in 2010,
    if comprehensive immigration reform is passed, especially in
    the section for dreamers, we can contribute significantly to
    the U.S. economy.
        Mrs. Davis. Yes. Thank you very much.
        One of the programs that we are aware of certainly in the
    San Diego area and I think in California is GEAR UP and the
    opportunity for students to be connected early in the middle
    school years. We have seen a pretty dramatic gain in terms of
    Latino graduation particularly from 31 percent to 58 percent.
        I don't know if you all want to comment. I think one of the
    things we are aware of is that programs work when people in
    that community are committed to that program. There may be all
    kinds of gradations of how they do it, but the commitment is
    what is critical.
        There was a program actually I think it was on 60 Minutes
    this weekend, about students working within companies early--
    well, the preparation for that was strong and then they could
    move in and they could see the relevance.
        Are there other programs? Is GEAR UP one? Are there other
    programs where you think trying to help young people see that
    relevance of the work that they are doing and really how
    tremendously capable they are even if they have gotten a
    different message?
        Father?
        Rev Holtschneider. The great insight of course with the
    TRIO programs that grew from their initial three to now eight
    was that money wasn't enough, that money was key for many
    students, that the Pell was absolutely key, but it wasn't
    enough and that there had to be interventions along the way.
        That is why it became an across-the-aisle set of agreements
    over the years when it first started to think about what are
    the interventions that are key in these young people's lives.
        There are certainly far more students that take advantage
    of it. Certainly there are best practices along the way. There
    are programs that you can always point to that are perhaps not
    living their potential.
        I think that the initial inspiration is still valid, that
    throwing money at the problem is not enough for many of these
    young people because they are first-generation, because they
    don't have the resources around them to succeed, that there
    needs to be some targeted interventions at moments that make
    all the difference.
        Mrs. Davis. Thank you. My time is up.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you.
        I recognize the chairman of the committee, Mr. Kline, for
    five minutes.
        Mr. Kline. Thank you, Madam Chair.
        I want to thank the witnesses for being here, for your
    testimony. I apologize. You have noticed, we come and go here,
    and I am sure that sometimes that is upsetting as we have other
    hearings or perhaps we are on the floor making impassioned
    speeches and so forth. Thank you for being here, for your
    testimony.
        Father Holtschneider, I want to talk a little bit more
    about TRIO if I could. You have made suggestion that the TRIO
    regulations be simplified as I understand it. How would that
    improve the student support services on campus if we were to do
    that?
        Rev Holtschneider. I have talked about it very specifically
    in terms of eligibility, to begin. Right now I have staff that
    are just dedicated to determining the eligibility first on
    family and individual tax status for that program.
        It is in my opinion a duplication of work that could easily
    already be covered by the work that was done, whether they were
    Pell-eligible in the first place.
        So why couldn't we be taking the funds that are just being
    used to determine eligibility at each university across the
    nation for each student individually and put that to better use
    either in the support services that are provided to themselves
    rather than I think needless administration?
        Mr. Kline. We are very much in favor, at least some of us,
    of simplification of rules and regulations and trying to get
    actual outcomes and not just be caught up in paperwork. We have
    addressed that issue a number of times in different pieces of
    legislation here, so I am interested in trying to make that
    work better.
        The TRIO program is one of those that has had pretty good
    bipartisan support. It reaches a student body that needs the
    help, and it has been pretty well-recognized, but as in
    anything it can get sort of complicated.
        What are the specific services that your TRIO staff is
    connecting students with? What does that mean to you? What are
    these services?
        Rev Holtschneider. The challenge of course is there are
    eight TRIO programs, one of which is just a training program,
    so it is really seven, and they would have individual answers
    to your question.
        The ones that are true at my university are the Student
    Support Services program and then McNair.
        McNair, I spoke about a moment ago, is for training people
    to go into and become professors and Ph.D.-level qualified.
    Student Support Services is much larger.
        That is everything from getting people mentoring because
    they really need someone around them to show them how this all
    works and to encourage them along some of the initial
    challenges.
        These are programs for selective tutoring when a student is
    finding something that is a challenge. These are programs that
    introduce people to college itself and how it works and how you
    succeed and build those kind of short-term training pieces into
    it.
        There are a number of pieces to help people who might be
    defeated by the complexity of the college system or some of the
    challenges for which they weren't prepared in their schooling
    to actually succeed when they suddenly have to rise to this
    level. It is a large panoply of different programs.
        Mr. Kline. You can see the excitement when you go and you
    visit a campus--I haven't visited yours, but in my district
    when you talk with people who work in the TRIO program and you
    talk to students. We would like to see it succeed. We are going
    to continue to pursue this idea of making it simpler.
        Madam Chair, I yield back. Thank you.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you very much.
        I now recognize the ranking member of the committee, Mr.
    Miller.
        Mr. Miller. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Thank you
    for holding this hearing, and for the witnesses, for your time
    and your expertise.
        Reverend Holtschneider, let me thank you very much. Every
    time I meet with people from DePaul it sort of lightens the day
    up, your commitment to students from low-income families is
    just remarkable and how you have managed to patch together this
    system so that they can complete their education and the
    support that you provide them. I deeply appreciate it.
        Rev Holtschneider. Thank you.
        Mr. Miller. I want to ask a question, and it may not apply
    to the private university but if you have thoughts on it--I
    want to begin first of all with Alex Garrido.
        Alex, you started at the University of Texas and finished
    at the University of Texas, or did you transfer?
        Mr. Garrido. No. I started and finished.
        Mr. Miller. You started and finished there, but let me ask
    you, one of my concerns has been through this process as we
    keep thinking about the cost of education and how we move
    students through this in the proper sense of time is this
    question of articulation agreements with in-state systems.
        I don't know if it flows over to the private university or
    not, but Fayette is part of the public system, correct?
        Mr. Anderson. Yes.
        Mr. Miller. And so this question, and maybe, Mr. Garrido,
    you know your friends that take classes in community college
    and then find out those classes aren't transferable, they have
    got to repeat the classes, they have got to borrow more money
    to repeat the classes--I just wondered if you might talk about
    that experience a little bit, but this really applies more--it
    is easier to do within the state system from community college,
    state college, the university system to do this.
        A lot of states don't do this. Some states have done it
    very well, but it is a real drag on the efficiency--on the
    efficiency of the use of money that families and students are
    borrowing to go to college.
        Mr. Garrido. In my region, the South Texas College, which
    is the community college where I got some credits from, they
    actually go to the high school and they teach the classes in
    the high school in high school classrooms.
        That credit is--they understand then you are not going to
    South Texas College, so they know in advance that those classes
    are going to be transferred to the University of Texas-Pan
    American, which is the only big University in that particular
    region.
        I guess that partnership really helps, but I definitely see
    an issue if that partnership is broken or it is not that solid.
    Of course that will be a huge issue with transferring credit
    hours and all that.
        Mr. Miller. Dr. Anderson?
        Mr. Anderson. Yes. North Carolina has a significant number
    of articulation agreements. The UNC system with the community
    college system, and for us it has been an absolute blessing. It
    has helped increase our enrollment obviously, but of the two
    highest categories of graduating students are early college
    high students and students who have transferred from community
    colleges with associate degrees. Those who transfer without
    associates don't get--
        Mr. Miller. They have completed their units for an A.A.
    degree.
        Mr. Anderson. Yes, so they must have associate degrees. But
    what has happened as a result of the articulation agreement is
    faculty from both groups, from community colleges and from our
    institution, talk about what is being taught at the community
    college so that the students will then be prepared when they
    come to us.
        We have recently gotten funding from a community foundation
    to support scholarships for students who are in the
    articulation agreement to come so that their education will be
    relatively debt-free when they get to us.
        So it has allowed us as an institution to think very
    broadly about the transfer of population, their success rate,
    their high persistence, et cetera, and if you really want to
    look for a true example of a return on investment, look at
    North Carolina's articulation agreements.
        Mr. Miller. Thank you.
        Reverend Holtschneider?
        Rev Holtschneider. This actually is possible for the
    privates, as well. Our transfer population is the same size as
    our freshman class each year. That is not by accident, we have
    well north of 100 of those agreements with different community
    colleges.
        We have also learned that we can create partnerships with
    community colleges that if they agree to abide by our standards
    for their courses we will accept them the same day, so the
    students are double enrolled in both institutions and we give
    them advisors so that they can be advised on what courses will
    transfer from the very, very beginning.
        This is also getting easier with technology. Illinois has a
    spectacular website that they put together several years ago
    where a student can simply type in what they have taken at the
    local community college, where they want to transfer, what
    degree they want, and instantly the computer will tell you what
    you have left to take. And private universities like ours and
    others can be part of that if we choose.
        It is a wonderful tool that is making this much easier for
    students.
        Mr. Miller. Thank you.
        Thank you also for mentioning the McNair program. I have
    had the opportunity to visit with residents in my district who
    come from the most difficult, dangerous neighborhoods in the
    state who graduated and brought their Ph.Ds back to work in our
    veterans hospitals, to work in our high schools. It is really a
    very exciting program for the young people.
        Thank you.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you very much, Mr. Miller.
        Mr. Messer, you are recognized for five minutes.
        Mr. Messer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the
    opportunity to be here.
        Thank you for your testimony on this very important topic.
    Our nation's Declaration of Independence declared that we are
    all endowed by our Creator with, among inalienable rights, the
    right to pursue our happiness.
        In modern life, a quality education is the key to having
    the opportunity to do that. I think it is important to point
    out in a hearing such as this that our modern federal financial
    aid system is one of the great success stories of the modern
    federal government, that it was a system based on providing
    access to students and providing access to higher education in
    a way that wasn't available before, and by that measure, it has
    been wildly successful.
        Of course, in modern life, or in today's world even
    different than the world just a few decades ago, you need more
    than just a little bit of college to do better economically. It
    used to be several decades ago if you went to college even for
    half a year or a year you were actuarially better off. In
    today's world, unless you graduate with a degree and a
    marketable skill that works in a modern economy, you are not
    better off.
        Of course, that is even more complicated by the fact--with
    the rising cost of school, students may leave school without a
    degree and with tens of thousands of dollars of debt and
    therefore be even worse off.
        So while these programs are important and we all want to
    share the goal of living in an America where anyone who wants
    to pursue an education, a quality education, has that
    opportunity, the results matter, too.
        And I would like to start with Dr. Anderson and invite
    others on the panel to share with me. The question I have is
    this: understanding that it matters that we get kids to
    completion, do you have any thoughts or ideas for holding
    schools more accountable for the federal dollars they receive
    to educate low-income and first-generation students?
        Mr. Anderson. Yes. I would like to see the introduction
    perhaps of some new metrics that could be used both in the
    selection criteria and in terms of whether or not students--
    schools would be eligible.
        For example, if we look at the cost per degree--we have
    been able to reduce the cost per degree. In the North Carolina
    system--it is about $69,000--our peers it is $62,000--for us it
    is about $59,000.
        So showing that you can implement an efficiency such as
    that, the number of FTEs per 100 students, which is an
    efficiency metric. How are students doing relative to that?
        If we select a few criteria that I think are good examples
    of moving students through the pipeline, that your programs are
    working, et cetera and we add those, I think we would be much
    better off in terms.
        Mr. Messer. Yes, I appreciate that. I probably ought to add
    I am a product of Perkins loans and Pell loans and student
    loans--I mean Perkins grants, and Pell Grants and student
    loans. I wouldn't have been able to go to college without them,
    so I recognize how important these programs are.
        I think the key is we need to make sure that this money is
    well spent and we are actually providing better opportunities.
        Would anybody else comment on that topic? No?
        The second thing that I would ask, and Mrs. Del Balzo--I
    want to make sure that I pronounce it correctly, pardon me--I
    am intrigued by your success coaching program. Could you
    explain in more detail the role a coach plays, how he or she
    helps flag students who may be struggling, connects those
    students with support services?
        Mrs. Del Balzo. Thank you, Mr. Messer. Yes, it is an
    interesting program. Part of it is ours, and part of it is some
    software and particular coursework that you follow through.
        Students are able to log on to their student account that
    is sensitive just to them, password-protected, and weekly they
    take their own temperature--emotionally, resilience-based
    questions, and their coach has access to those answers. So the
    coach tracks them weekly through their whole first semester and
    they are able to speak with the student to refer them
    appropriately to academic counselors or to a mental health
    counselor or financial aid counselor or for tutoring at the
    learning center, and really helps them get through that first
    semester, which is so critical to student success.
        Mr. Messer. Well, thank you all again. Thanks for your hard
    work. Obviously a critical issue for our country. I think you
    have both addressed one of the most--one of the biggest
    challenges we face, which is in a world of scarce resources we
    have got to find answers that aren't always just more money but
    how can we spend that money better.
        So thank you all very much.
        I yield back.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you.
        Mr. Tierney, you are recognized for five minutes.
        Mr. Tierney. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I yield my time
    to the ranking member, Mr. Hinojosa.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Congressman Tierney.
        I think that this has been very informative and I want to
    ask a question. I saw in California in the University of
    California system and I also saw in Arizona State University a
    parental involvement training program--
        Rev Holtschneider. I am sorry?
        Mr. Hinojosa. A parental involvement training program which
    invited--these were by universities now--they invited the
    parents to go drop off the children at school and then come
    over to their campus. And two hours a week they would receive
    training that gave them so much information on how to follow
    their children's education program through elementary school,
    junior high, and get them to take courses that would make them
    college ready.
        It leads to an actual graduation ceremony with cap and gown
    so that the children can see their parents graduating from
    college. It is very innovative. But the reason that I am
    interested in this program if any one of Anderson, Del Balzo,
    or Holtschneider, if you all have these programs or thinking of
    starting them the importance because we see that where ever
    there is parental involvement with their children in elementary
    school and through high school that those are the students that
    are for sure going to enroll in a university and graduate. So I
    am interested in hearing if any of you have such a program.
        I will start with you, Doctor--Father.
        Rev Holtschneider. This is the first I am hearing of that
    exact model and I am going to look at it when we finish today.
    However, what we do have is, as part of our orientation, we
    have combined and separate orientations for students and their
    parents where we bring many of those topics to the fore. And we
    have also learned to create an online community of all of our
    parents that we monitor daily that parents can ask questions,
    parents can be fed ways that they can support their students.
        They can be fed ways that they can ask key questions to
    find out how their children are doing, and that online
    community has served us pretty well the past several years.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
        Dr. Anderson?
        Mr. Anderson. Sure. One of the best models of what you just
    described is at South Mountain Community College in Arizona and
    that is a program where young Hispanic females began the
    program, got their mothers involved, and just as you said, the
    mothers in turn graduated. It is one that I hold up as a high-
    impact program.
        One of the difficulties for us in terms of doing that--I
    mentioned earlier that we go to great lengths to get parents
    involved in financial aid counseling, but one of the great
    difficulties is that the parents' work schedules often
    prohibits them from participating in such a program. Many have
    two jobs, in other words.
        So for us to do that, to draw them in, it would probably be
    best to do it online and have a very strong parental online
    program, but we don't have the dollars to finance that because,
    as I mentioned earlier, some of the money that could be used
    for distance education that is given to the predominantly black
    institutions, to PBIs, was taken out of the 2008
    reauthorization Act, and HBCUs don't get it.
        If I had that money, I would start the program next week.
        Mr. Hinojosa. You may want to take a look at Arizona State
    University where the program was started 6 years ago by former
    ambassador, Raul Yzaguirre, who at one time was the
    administrator, the CEO of National Council of La Raza.
        When he stepped down from that position he started that
    program, and in the first 6 years they graduated 16,000
    parents. You may want to look at that.
        Mrs. Del Balzo?
        Mrs. Del Balzo. I am taking notes because it is so
    inspirational to hear 16,000 parents in the first year.
        What we do currently, we visit a lot of Parents Nights at
    high schools. We invite parents to come in. We really do want
    parents to be very, very involved with their children's
    decision-making process and make them very aware of what is
    available out in their high schools where we partner.
        As far as parents themselves, we have a lot of parents who
    are graduates and they bring back their kids to come to the
    College of Westchester. We also have parent orientation. We
    always have parents involved with any financial aid counseling,
    especially with the younger students.
        We also encourage younger students to sign a release form
    so they can have their parents get regular information if it is
    necessary, and we are in development with an ESL program right
    now for the local community because many, many of our local
    community are Latino.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Madam Chair, I would like to ask Mr. Garrido,
    and I don't think it will take a more than a minute--can you
    give me another moment?
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Go ahead.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
        Mr. Garrido, you spoke about parents not thinking that it
    was important that you go to college. Do you think that a
    parental program like the one that we are discussing now would
    be helpful in our region of South Texas?
        Mr. Garrido. Of course. Of course we need to educate the
    parents about the importance of their offspring attending
    college. It is essential that they understand that it is
    important and to get involved actively getting a degree and
    actively trying to improve their lives. I think then they will
    set an example and it could strengthen the community.
        Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. You are welcome.
        I want to thank our distinguished panel of witnesses for
    taking the time to testify before the subcommittee today. I
    think you could tell by the questions there is a great deal of
    interest in the programs that you all are operating and in the
    dedication that you have to serving the students that you
    serve, and so we appreciate it very much.
        Mr. Hinojosa, do you have closing remarks?
        Mr. Hinojosa. Yes, thank you.
        I echo the remarks of the chairwoman. And I would like to
    also thank you, each one of you, as distinguished panelists to
    be witnesses and for joining us today and for sharing your
    expertise on these important issues.
        I especially want to thank Alex because you are one of the
    youngest panelists we have ever had here before our panel,
    before our committee, and we thank you for your courage and for
    sharing your personal story with this education committee.
        As ranking member, I strongly believe that our nation has a
    moral obligation to educate and prepare all students for good
    family-sustaining jobs and careers.
        As Congress considers the reauthorization of Higher Ed, I
    look forward to working with my colleagues on this committee to
    eliminate barriers for low-income, first-generation students,
    and for the nation's dreamers.
        Thank you. I yield back.
        Chairwoman Foxx.. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa.
        I appreciate very much again the emphasis that has been
    placed here on metrics and measurable outcomes. I think again
    that there have been lots of good intentions with TRIO
    programs, and a lot of other government programs that are out
    there that simply don't meet the good intentions that are set
    out for them because we don't do a sufficient job of designing
    metrics and pointing to what works and what doesn't work. And
    in that way, we shortchange the people we are attempting to
    help.
        I think that is a real tragedy. I think the tragedy is
    going to be worse and worse in the future as funds become more
    and more scarce, so I think that it is up to us, as Mr. Bishop
    said, to make sure that the hard-working taxpayers of this
    country get a good return on their investment.
        Our country has always been a country that wants to give
    people a hand up and that is what I have always thought of the
    TRIO programs as doing. I am a former TRIO director myself. I
    was very committed to the programs when I worked in the
    programs and still committed to them, but I do think we need to
    show results. So I very much appreciate the emphasis that has
    been put on that today.
        Again, another comment that was made, and I can't remember
    who said it, money is not enough. I think we have also always
    seen that. You have to have the commitment from the people
    running these programs to see that there is some success, and
    you have to believe in the students and make sure that they can
    see a vision for where they can go.
        Before I adjourn the hearing, I want to note that in
    addition to excellent institutional initiatives to better
    support low-income or first-generation students, the higher
    education community has also been exploring proposals to
    strengthen federal efforts to help disadvantaged students
    access and complete a postsecondary education.
        At a Senate hearing just last week, Ron Haskins, a senior
    fellow and co-director of the Center on Children and Families
    and Budgeting for National Priorities Project, discussed
    opportunities to strengthen TRIO program evaluations and
    improve program efficiency.
        I am submitting Mr. Haskins' remarks and his recent report
    for the record and hope we can discuss his ideas further as we
    move forward with crafting legislation to reauthorize of the
    Higher Education Act.
        [The information follows:]

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        [Additional Submission by Mr. Polis follow:]

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        Chairwoman Foxx.. There being no further business, this
    subcommittee stands adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 11:47 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]