Making College More Affordable

Steve Adubato sits down with four experts on New Jersey’s College Affordability Commission to examine the biggest issues facing higher education, and discusses the Commission’s recommendations for higher education moving forward. Guests Include: Nancy H. Blattner, Ph.D., President, Caldwell University; Giancarlo Tello, Student Representative, New Jersey College Affordability Study Commission; Tim Haresign, Ph.D., President, Council of New Jersey State College Locals & Associate Professor of Biology, Stockton University; and Ali A. Houshmand, Ph.D., President, Rowan University.

9/30/17 #3024

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to Caucus, I'm Steve Adubato. Higher education is still one of the best investments a person can make to build a better future but it's not always an investment that is easily affordable. Here to discuss ways we can make college more affordable in New Jersey, we have our good friend back again, Doctor Nancy Blattner, who is President of Caldwell University. Also back from a few months ago... That's right. Glad to have you back. Doctor Ali Houshmand, President of Rowan University, Doctor Tim Haresign is President of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals and Associate Professor of biology at Stockton University, and finally, Giancarlo Tello, New Jersey College Affordability Study Commission student representative. We'll talk about that commission in a second. Let me just disclose before we get this out of the way, I'll be teaching at Rowan in the Fall semester and I have also taught at Caldwell. It's not like I've taught at every university. I just want to get that out of the way. Let's talk about this. College affordability, how difficult is it, doctor, for most students to afford college? I think it's difficult, but it's doable if there's planning that goes into it and it's planning that really has to start for the student and his or her family long before they ever start thinking about which college they want to go to. So, one of the commission's findings is that there really needs to be more energy and time put into financial literacy training and conversation with students and their families and maybe even starting as early as middle school if you can believe that, but definitely by high school so that students are well aware of the types of aid and what it means to them when they sign on to take a loan or get a grant and what's going to be expected after they graduate. Real quick, what is this commission and what was it... why does it matter? Sure, well, the commission was commissioned by the governor. It was a ten member panel and it was representative as you can see from the four of us, of public and private two year and four year, as well as faculty organizations and students. We were so glad to have... You represent the faculty end? Yes. Yes. And student end, right? And we came together for 18 months, monthly and issued a report after we heard from..."