ED will host the second in a series of four Community College Regional Summits on March 9, 2011, at Lone Star College-University Park in Houston, Texas.
The Regional Community College Summit will:
- Bring federal, labor and industry, and philanthropic partners to your region to discuss how each entity can support local community college efforts to meet the President’s 2020 goal for the U.S. to once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world;
- Provide a forum to share institution-level barriers, solutions and promising practices in college completion; developmental education; industry-education partnerships; services to military service-members and veterans; transitioning adults to community colleges; and successful transfer programs to four year colleges and universities; and
- Provide a forum to identify local, state and national recommendations for increasing community college completion to meet the 2020 goal.
The morning plenary session begins at 10:00 a.m. EST. The afternoon closing session will begin at 4:15 p.m. EST. Both sessions will be broadcast live at: http://hosted.mediasite.com/mediasite/Catalog/catalogs/Lonestar.aspx
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
I have seen that the injustice comes in the Financial Aid system itself. Someone needs to look at who is getting financial aid, and what the students actually do with it. I have worked with financial aid and with the advising aspect. It is difficult to understand how a student can sit there and demand their financial aid grants to be processed and yet they wear the latest shoes, have the high end phones, but are on welfare and financial aid. You have the lower class who gets every financial aid grant possible, layers upon layers of grants; however the middle class keeps paying taxes and gets none of these benefits. It was mentioned how “Double the opportunity for lower income families to go to college”, but what about the middle class student? The middle class student has to work 2-3 jobs, commute, and help their families and yet still expected to go to school. Why do we not give financial aid on merit? If I were to go for my Doctoral and actually be able to afford to continue my education, my focus would be on financial aid in higher educational administration. But what of the high class society you ask? They are so overwhelmed with scholarships that they don’t have to pay a cent back once they graduate since they have had private, exceptional and competitive educational experiences ever since they stepped foot onto a school and blow all competitors away. However the middle class student, will never improve because their basis of going to school is only on loans, and they will be in debt the rest of their lives simply because they decided to get an education. We work and work all our lives, to only be told that the more we work the more we are taxed, and yet I have friends and family who are on welfare and financial aid and not only get huge tax return checks, but feel that they should not strain themselves to work because they will then lose their benefits. How sad is it that we live in a complacent society that awards those who sit back and do nothing, while those like myself who go to school half their lives and dedicate the rest of their lives to educating students will never be able to scratch out the holes we put ourselves in by continuing our education.
The other part of the problem is that yes, it is all bureaucracy and politics. You are listening to the wrong people… to those like our chancellor who have no idea what it is like to make less than 100,000, who send their own sons and daughters to private institutions or nationally recognized public institutions, and whom lie, cheat and steal for a living. If you do not believe me, take a look at the Lone Star College System financial aid. There is so much underhandedness and yet every time something comes to light, excuses are made or the employees are told to shut up. I guess that’s part of being human where we fall prey to our egos and wants and stop actually caring about the student once we have our doctorates. Does it really have to be this way?