A Note from Southern Region VP Jenny Krugman

Jan. 2010

Southern News

VP Jenny Krugman

The worlds of advocacy and admission/enrollment are critical parts of the higher education universe. Our Southern Regional Forum — which will take place Feb. 18–19 at the Renaissance Concourse Atlanta Airport Hotel — will bring together colleagues from our college and university communities.

Our forum will link higher education enrollment leaders to higher education policymakers, as well as district and state leaders from the K­­–12 world. Thus, the theme of connecting defines what our forum means to participants. For more information, visit our website.

The core of higher education institutions has many moving parts. Two of these are fairness in admission and advocacy for college-going studsents who are low income and first generation. We highlight these attributes among our member institutions.

Morehouse College continues to support low-income and first-generation students by offering services through dedicated funding procured from federal grant awards. This funding provides student support services and links with funding from the U.S. Department of Education through its College Completion Grant in Aid program. Morehouse annually provides funding to 15 incoming first-year students from low-income families, which covers students’ documented financial need and, in some cases, underwrites the total cost of attendance.

Vanderbilt University also works hard to create access and opportunity for all of its students. The university is piloting a low-income student search process and has established a low- and middle-income task force. This latter group studies Vanderbilt’s practices when it comes to access. There is also an expanded aid program, meeting full and demonstrated need with gifts rather than loans.

Financial aid and access are only part of the story — there is also admission. Virginia Tech’s undergraduate admissions director tells some of that story: “College admission is both art and science, where my colleagues attempt to evaluate each individual within the context of the rigor of a respective high school curriculum and that student's attempt to challenge herself or himself. So, I cringe when I read about students with high GPAs not getting a school of first choice, because I know the story can be much deeper and far more complex than one line in a news report. Many colleges and universities now read holistically, which means they consider many factors when evaluating a student for admission.”

Read more, learn more. On behalf of all of our higher education and K–12 leaders, we invite you to join us in Atlanta at our forum. More than 40 thought-provoking sessions have been planned by professionals like you. Meet your colleagues who oversee admission/enrollment and advocacy. Connect to K–12 leaders. Network, discuss, share. We hope to see you there.