Go for a Big Goal
By Jamie P. Merisotis
President and CEO, Lumina Foundation for Education, Indianapolis
Times are indeed changing, and higher education must change as well. In fact, considering the social and economic challenges we face as a nation—and the vital role that our colleges and universities must play in addressing those challenges—stasis may well be another term for slow suicide.
At Lumina Foundation for Education, we have always worked to increase college access and enhance student success because higher education has always been an important rung on America’s socioeconomic ladder. But it’s more than that now. Economists, social scientists, employers, and policymakers all agree: In today’s ever-changing global economy, postsecondary education is critical to individual success and to the nation’s continued prosperity and social stability.
Without a doubt, the recent economic downturn has underscored this truth and magnified the importance of Lumina’s mission, infusing it with a new sense of urgency. For us, that urgency is reflected in a specific but very ambitious goal that now drives all of our work. Here’s our “big goal”: By the year 2025, we want to increase the percentage of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials from 39 percent to 60 percent.
Clearly, that’s a tall order. But it is a goal we must reach for this nation to continue competing in the global marketplace against countries whose college-attainment levels already outstrip ours and continue to rise. In essence, the educational bar has already been raised for those who hope to hold tomorrow’s jobs. And to complicate things further: Growing numbers of students who must clear that bar—the nation’s underserved students—already face daunting challenges.
That’s why, especially in these challenging economic times, institutions must do all they can to improve college affordability and to enhance programs that support the success of their students. That means offering more need-based financial aid, simplifying aid-application processes, and preserving (even increasing) funds that support developmental education and other programs that help students realize their academic potential.
Another important way to improve college affordability is to boost institutional productivity by increasing both efficiency and effectiveness on the nation’s campuses. That effort starts with data. At Lumina, we believe every college should collect, measure, and analyze student-outcomes data; share that data broadly; and use that data to inform and shape its efforts to improve student success.
Student success is at the core of our big goal and the key to our nation’s future. Here at Lumina, we also see student success as the perfect rallying point for every college and university in these changing and challenging times.
If your institution isn’t truly dedicated to the success of each student—and organized specifically to foster that success—it’s time for a change.
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