[Updated, 12/4/2014, 5:38 p.m.]
Washington — Hundreds of college leaders are now heading home, still giddy from Thursday’s White House Summit on College Opportunity. Now comes the hard part: Making good on their varied promises to enroll more low-income students and help them graduate.
More than 300 college presidents, foundation heads, and nonprofit executives attended the summit, which was twice as large as the inaugural event, held in January. They shared ideas, they heard from experts, and a lucky few got shoutouts from President Obama.
Like the last time, they came armed with steps they intend to take—their “commitments,” in summitspeak—to expand college access and completion. The more than 600 pledges center on building collaborations among colleges and between school districts and colleges, investing in high-school counselors, and increasing the number of college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the STEM fields.
During the daylong event, the college presidents listened to panels on innovation and collaboration, participated in breakout sessions, and swapped business cards. But for many attendees, the highlights were speeches by President Obama, the first lady, and the vice president.
Mr. Obama acknowledged that increasing access and completion were “big challenges,” but argued that “they are solvable, as long as we work together.”
The president also highlighted a few of the commitments, telling the sponsors to “pat yourselves on the back” when they heard their name. Those he mentioned included the National Association of System Heads, which pledged to produce 350,000 more graduates by 2025, and the University Innovation Alliance, a coalition of 11 public research universities that promised 68,000 more graduates by the same date.
“Our challenge going forward,” he said, “is to make sure your outstanding commitments mean something where it matters most: in the lives of young people.”
Michelle Obama focused her remarks on the importance of high-school guidance counselors, and the inequities in the current system.
“Right now, a small number of students are getting every advantage in the college admissions race, while millions of other students who are just as talented can’t even begin to compete,” she said. “We are depriving ourselves of so much human potential.”
The final speaker, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., praised colleges for their efforts to expand access, but took them to task over rising tuition, saying he worried the nation was headed toward a “two-tier higher-education system.”
“You’ve got to do something about escalating college costs,” he said. “You guys are still way, way, way ahead of the curve, in the wrong direction.”
If you missed the summit, you can catch up on the day’s action below, in our live blog of the event.
