Yesterday, UVM President Tom Sullivan joined President Obama, the First Lady, and Vice President Biden along with other college presidents and other higher education leaders to announce new actions to help more students prepare for and successfully graduate from college.
The White House College Opportunity Day of Action helps to support the President’s commitment to partner with colleges and universities, business leaders, and nonprofits to support students across the country to help our nation reach its goal of leading the world in college attainment.
The White House would like universities to focus on four specific areas to increase college access: building networks of colleges around promoting completion, creating K-16 partnerships around college readiness, investing in high school counselors as part of the First Lady’s Reach Higher initiative, and increasing the number of college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
President Tom Sullivan was enthusiastic about the focus of the summit: “I am proud to partner with my fellow presidents from around the nation to increase higher education access and attainment for our citizens. At the University of Vermont we are committed to promoting college completion in four years, and to increasing the number of STEM graduates as evidenced by our recent significant investment in STEM programs and infrastructure.”
President Obama announced new steps on how his Administration is helping to support these actions, including announcing $10 million to help promote college completion and a $30 million AmeriCorps program that will improve low-income students’ access to college. The event is the second College Opportunity Day of Action, and will include a progress report on the commitments made at the first day of action on January 14, 2014.
Expanding opportunity for more students to enroll and succeed in college, especially low-income and underrepresented students, is vital to building a strong economy and a strong middle class. In an effort to expand college access, the Obama Administration has increased Pell scholarships by $1,000 a year, created the new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth up to $10,000 over four years of college, limited student loan payments to 10 percent of income, and laid out an ambitious agenda to reduce college costs and promote innovation and competition.