What Effect Did Obama’s Presidency Have on Your Alma Mater and Career Center?

 Here are over a dozen ways his presidency impacted you and your college!

The person we elect for President can have a HUGE impact on your alma mater and career center!

Prior to doing research for this article, I could name only a couple things that President Obama’s administration did to impact higher education. However, the more I researched, the more surprised I was at the significant changes his administration either implemented or attempted. 

In contrast to President-elect Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan came into his position as Secretary of Education with a good deal of experience in the K-12 educational industry. Secretary Arne Duncan’s tenure created a good deal of tension among players in the industry as he supervised new policy focused on the Department of Education’s duel roles as promoter of educational innovation and protector of federal educational quality. It’s a tough job to champion and facilitate change in an academic/intellectual world where change is resisted.

But Duncan and his team made significant changes in the K-12 industry and even more in higher education – this despite his lack of experience in higher education! 

While Secretary Duncan was undoubtedly a friend of higher education institutions, he had a soft spot and passionate desire to make colleges and universities more accountable for the cost and quality of the education provided. In a speech in the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign Duncan said,

“Institutions must be held accountable when they get paid by students and taxpayers but fail to deliver a quality education. So should states and accreditors who are responsible to oversee them under the law.”

MAJOR IMPACT

Here are some of the major accomplishments and impact the Department of Education had in higher education from 2008-2016:

• After immediately stepping into office with the nation’s economic system and employment market on its knees, President Obama traveled the country imploring people to go to college and pick up the skills they would need when the economy improved. From my view, he helped influence one of the largest increases in college enrollment in history. (In 2000 enrollment was 11 million. Today enrollment is pushing 22 million) 
• Provided tens of billions of dollars to colleges and universities for scientific research, in the first years of his appointment – in part to help offset issues caused by the Great Recession
• Eliminated the Federal Family Education Loan Program and instead made the federal government the sole originator of federal student loans through the Education Department's Direct Loan Program The student loans provided between 2007 and 2012 are estimated to produce 66 BILLION dollars in profits!
• Allocated some $40 billion each year directly to institutions of higher education to benefit students and improve the public good in areas such as health, security, and agriculture.

BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS

There were benefits for students and parents too! The Department of Education:

• invested more in student financial aid than any previous administration. The department nearly doubled annual Pell Grant program funding. It extended grant aid to 2.7 million more students each year. And increased the maximum Pell Grant award by 25 percent from $4,731 to $5,830 per year.
• created the American Opportunity Tax Act that gave this proud poppa’s and others like me a maximum of $10,000 ($2,500 per year) tax credit for investing their children's' education!
• lowered minimum federal student loan payments from 15 percent to 10 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income and made loans forgivable after 20 instead of 25 years.

Under President Obama’s tenure, the Department of Education created new rules and regulations to improve the quality of a college education and reduce the cost of obtaining a college degree by:

• asking colleges and universities to pay attention to post-graduation success! For-profit college enrollment soared in the first part of 2000. Under President Bush’s administration for-profit colleges were given free rein to expand and use Title 5 funding. The Department of Education became alarmed at the enormous amount of student loan money for-profit colleges were getting, as well as concerned about the huge default rate of their students/graduates. Fast forward to today and two major players in the industry, Corinthian and ITT are now out of business. For-profit colleges are paying attention to post-graduation success and are mindful of their responsibilities outlined in the “gainful employment” legislation passed in 2014.
• developing and hosting the College Scorecard website to share salary information of recent grads and graduation rates. The goal is to help parents and students determine how much they can borrow based on anticipated salaries.

One area Education Secretary Arne Duncan had to dial back on was a plan to reward colleges who showed the best employment, salary and loan payback data by giving them access to more Title 5 funding and punish those on the bottom of the scale by taking away some Title 5 funding. This is something over time that would provide more transparency and help parents and students focus on selecting colleges who provide the best post graduation experience.

Overall, I’d say Secretary Duncan and the Department of Education had a significant effect on higher education, and the cost and quality of education to parents and student. In a political climate where you win some and you lose others, take a quick look at some of the initiatives Duncan’s department attempted to implement but failed to get congressional approval. The Department of Education:

1. introduced a strategy to make community college free.
2. tried to encourage States to maintain minimum levels of higher education funding in order to receive new federal funds. But Congress set a low bar for States to pass and created loopholes for them to escape responsibility.
3. requested nearly $100 billion to support various new federal-state grant programs that would support State initiatives to enhance higher education affordability and quality. Congress rejected these proposals because they all required new spending or were paid for by raising taxes on high-income individuals. 

The third item above included a “carrot and stick” approach to improve the outcomes for graduates. It was one of my favorite initiative! It certainly was for President Obama. In a speech when he first announced the program President Obama said.

“What we want to do is rate them on who's offering the best value so students and taxpayers get a bigger bang for their buck.”

If implemented, this initiative would have raised the importance and awareness of the career center.

If Obama's administration could have seen this through, it would have required boards of trustees, presidents, faculty, and administrators to support career centers with the staff and resources they would need to help students not only land a job, but a job relevant to their degree, soon after they graduate.

Overall it's been a productive 8 years!

What about you? Do you think President Obama’s administration had a positive impact on your alma mater or career center?

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Additional articles you may find interesting: 

1. Should College Board of Trustees and President’s Council be held Accountable for Graduate Under/Unemployment?
2. McKinsey Report Confirms – Grads Not Ready for the Marketplace
3. Would Marcus Lemonis of The Profit Pass on Investing in Your Alma Mater or the College For Which You Work?
4. College Scorecard Is a Win for Consumers & Career Centers!
5. College Presidents & Boards of Trustees: Are You Listening to Your Customers?
6. Who Is The Customer At Your College? Students or Employers that Hire Them?
7. Rebranding Alumni Relations to Focus on Careers
8. Parents! There Is Something More Important Than SAT and ACT Scores!
9. College Sports Are Stealing Your Career Center’s Budget!
10. The Coming Jobs War