Thomas C. Sorensen Seminar: College Tuition and Student Debt: Historical, Policy, and Global Perspectives

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Location
Nebraska Student Union, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (City Campus)

What is driving the high costs of college tuition? What are the social, economic, and global implications of increasing college debt for American students? Professor Edward St. John (University of Michigan School of Education) will be addressing these and similar questions at this forum. Professor St. John will provide a historical review of public education financing in the United States, modern case studies, and look at recent policy initiatives that implicate higher education costs and access. The forum will provide audience members with an overview of this important issue in the run-up to the November elections.

This event is free and open to the public, students, staff, and faculty at UNL; co-sponsored by the Association of Students at the University of Nebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Education, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Arts and Sciences through the Thomas C. Sorensen Endowment, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Civic Engagement, and the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center.

Featured Speaker
Edward St. John
 is Algo D. Henderson Collegiate Professor of Higher Education at the University of Michigan. He is concerned with education for a just society, an interest that stems from three decades of research on educational policy and practice. St. John serves as series co-editor for Readings on Equal Education, an annual volume focusing on initiatives seeking to reduce inequalities in K-12 and higher education. He also co-edits Core Issues in Higher Education, topical texts for professors and graduate students with an interest in the field. He directs research for a consortium of universities working with Detroit Public Schools, funded by the Ford Foundation, at the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. St. John is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association and recipient of awards from other associations for his scholarship. His forthcoming books include College Prep with Johns Hopkins University Press, Public Policy and Higher Education with Routledge Press, and Research, Actionable Knowledge, and Social Change with Stylus Press, a book that launches a new book series on Actionable Research and Social Justice.

Professor St. John’s research has consistently focused on student aid and the public financing of higher education. In 1993, he was awarded the Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in recognition of his extensive research on the impact of federal student aid on access and persistence. His prior books with Johns Hopkins University Press—Refinancing the College Dream (2003) and Public Funding of Higher Education (2004)—have been well received and are used in many graduate courses on the financing of higher education. At Indiana University (1998-2004), St. John served as director of the Indiana Education Policy Center and chair of the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. He worked with the Lumina Foundation on studies of Indiana’s Twenty-first Century Scholars program and with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on research related to Washington State Achievers and Gates Millennium Scholars. He also directed the Indiana Project on Academic Success, funded by Lumina Foundation. These studies resulted in Breaking Through the Access Barrier (with Shouping Hu and Amy Fisher, 2010) and Pathways to Academic Success (with Glenda Musoba, 2010). St. John received an Ed.D. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education and B.S. and M.Ed. degrees from the University of California-Davis.

Presentation materials:
PowerPoint Presentation
Audio of Presentation

Contact information:
Tarik Abdel-Monem
University of Nebraska Public Policy Center
(402) 472-3147
tarik@unl.edu