[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
Available via the World Wide Web:www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/
committee.action?chamber=house&committee=education
or
____
Committee address: http://edworkforce.house.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
86-370 PDF WASHINGTON : 2015
_________________________________________________________________________________
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office,
Internet:bookstore.gpo.gov. Phone:toll free (866)512-1800;DC area (202)512-1800
Fax:(202) 512-2104 Mail:Stop IDCC,Washington,DC 20402-001
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:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[Additional Submission by Mr. Polis follow:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Foxx.. There being no further business, this
subcommittee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:47 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]