News from NAICU

Lois Dickson Rice, a former executive with the College Board, who teamed with Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI) to revolutionize federal student aid programs, was posthumously awarded NAICU’s 2022 Advocacy Award for Independent Higher Education during a special dinner honoring the 50 year legacy of the Pell Grant program during the Association’s 2022 Annual Meeting and Advocacy Day.
 
After having helped create the Pell Grant, Rice set her mind and energy toward lobbying Congress to pass the legislation that would create the program.  The passage of the Pell Grant into law was neither easy nor expected.  It was through Rice’s tenacity, and that of the bill’s advocates and sponsors, that the program was approved and funded.  Her work rightly earned her the moniker, “Mother of the Pell Grant,” to complement Senator Pell’s recognition as the program’s founding father.
 
“As we celebrate the 50 year legacy of the Pell Grant program and the impact it has had on more than 80 million students, it is important to remember the pioneers who made this program possible for students,” said NAICU President Barbara K. Mistick, D.M.  “Lois Dickson Rice’s advocacy for the notion that federal funds should follow the student is a proven idea today that empowers millions of low-income and first generation students every year.”
 
The NAICU Advocacy Award was established to recognize individuals who have championed the cause of independent higher education. The recipient of this award has provided leadership, established resources, or enacted policy at the state or national level that recognized the role of independent colleges and universities in serving public purposes. No single contribution makes one eligible to receive the award, it recognizes a lifetime of service, initiative, and determination.
 
Rice’s daughter, Ambassador Susan Rice, accepted the award on behalf of the family.
 
“My brother John and I are deeply gratified to accept this award on behalf of our late mother, Lois Dickson Rice,” Ambassador Rice said. “I’m fortunate to have played many roles over the course of my life and career, but one of the titles of which I will always be proudest is to be the daughter of “the Mother of the Pell Grant.”
 
Ambassador Rice continued: “Passing Pell took tenacity. It took patience. It took passionate advocates—from students to community college presidents, from an aristocratic Rhode Island Senator to a dogged Black female College Board executive—to achieve. When you consider how many Pell recipients have gone on to shape so many other lives—as doctors, lawyers, and artists, as engineers and public servants—as college presidents—the true impact of Pell is incalculable.”  (Complete prepared remarks)
 
In addition to Ambassador Rice, two recipients of Pell Grants, Suzanne M. Rivera, Ph.D., president of Macalester College (MN), and Michelle Vasquez, a student at Trinity Washington University (DC), also spoke at the dinner.
 
Rivera described arriving at Brown University (RI) with a suitcase given to her as a high school graduation gift, a trunk and a black garbage bag containing bedding from home.
 
“I wasn’t sure what to expect of college life,” she said.  “I imagined it would be academically rigorous and I thought there would be parties. But I didn’t know how unfamiliar it would feel to me because I didn’t understand the cultural landscape of the academy– something we now sometimes call “the hidden curriculum of higher education.”
 
She continued: “Despite the challenges of adjusting to life at an elite college, I knew it was a privilege to be there.  I went to lectures given by world leaders, artists, and thinkers whose names I recognized only from newspapers and books.  I joined student organizations and clubs.  I got a summer research internship.  I began to think of myself as a scholar.  None of this would have been possible without my Pell Grant, and for that I am deeply grateful.”
 
Rivera’s college experience was transformative for her and her family.
 
“I know that the liberal arts education I received in college fundamentally changed me,” she said. “It opened my mind and my heart to new experiences.  It introduced me to people I never would have met (including my spouse, with whom I co-founded a club for students on financial aid).  It encouraged me to take intellectual risks.  Above all, it gave me the tools to forge a career focused on advancing opportunities for other talented and deserving students, who– by happenstance of birth– are unable to afford college tuition.
 
Moreover, the Pell Grant program had a profound impact on her family as two of her younger siblings attended private colleges with the support of Pell Grants – a sister went to Sarah Lawrence College (NY) and a brother went to Roger Williams University (RI).  Eventually, her single mother enrolled in college – at age 42– with a Pell Grant and completed her degree at Brandeis University (MA) while working two jobs and parenting a younger brother who is intellectually disabled.  (Complete prepared remarks)
 
A native of Washington, DC, Vasquez talked about her college pathway from a high school sophomore unware of college to graduating college senior.
 
“I raised the idea of college with my family, and I am thankful to have received their full support and continuous prayers for me until this day,” she said.  “However, unresolved was how I would pay for college.  Senior year, I began to apply to colleges, and I also applied to some scholarships. Actually, a lot of scholarships. In fact, a little over 130 scholarships – I was very motivated!”
 
Vasquez said she was inspired by the idea that she would be the first in “my entire Latino family to go to college” and “I would be the main role model for my younger brother who would be next in this journey.”
 
“My Pell Grants have been instrumental to my attendance at Trinity since 2019,” Vasquez said.  “And now I am honored to share that because of the Pell Grant support and my financial aid package at Trinity, I will be graduating as Student Government Council President, as an honors student, and with a secured position to work as a consultant at Accenture upon graduation.”
 
She continued:  “Had it not been for my Federal Pell Grants, my chances of going to college would have deteriorated significantly. Because of my Pell grants, I have unlimited options for choosing a fulfilling career path and paving a more dignified and safer future for my immigrant, hard-working family that would have been unimaginable to that sophomore high school Michelle.”  (Complete prepared remarks)
 
Lois Dickson Rice Background
 
Fifty years ago, while working at what is now the College Board, Rice helped create the Pell Grant, working directly with the program’s namesake, Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI).  Rice and Sen. Pell were of the mind that a simpler and more empowering method for low-income students would be to provide direct aid to them based on income and not merit.  The students would then be able to use the aid at the institution that best fit their individual needs.  As Rice recalled in an interview many years later, “we were not anti-institution, we were just pro-student.”
 
Rice broke away from the higher education pack.  At the time, the prevailing wisdom was that federal student aid funding should go to institutions to determine which students should get aid.  Rather than adhering to the status quo, Rice advocated for the novel concept that federal support in higher education should be put in the hands of students, who in turn would use it at the college of their choice. 
 
Fifty years later, the Pell Grant program has made college possible for millions of Americans and enjoys broad bipartisan support.  Recent polling suggests that 60% of Americans are familiar with the program, and 87% support the Pell Grant.  Forty-two percent have either received a Pell Grant themselves or have a member of their immediate family who received a Pell Grant.  This is an extraordinary degree of recognition for any federal program.
 
Rice was born to immigrants from Jamaica who had big dreams for their children’s education, despite their own work as a janitor and maid.  Her future success was foreshadowed early on as student council president, valedictorian and the student voted “Most Likely to Succeed” at Portland (Maine) High School.  She went on to attend Radcliffe College, where she was elected student body president and graduated in 1954. 
 
Rice’s distinguished professional career included rising through the ranks to become an executive at the College Entrance Examination Board (now the College Board). After a lengthy career there she became a higher education scholar at the Brookings Institution, where she published numerous works on federal higher education policies, directed the Think Tank Consortium, and led an effort to promote racial diversity at public policy organizations.  Having served on numerus well-known boards, both corporate and non-profit, Rice was a pioneer for many women and minorities seeking similar leadership positions in America. 
 

Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) received NAICU's 2022 Henry Paley Memorial Award during the Association’s 2022 Annual Meeting and Advocacy Day.
 
“Sen. Roy Blunt has long been a strong supporter and advocate for private, nonprofit higher education and college students everywhere,” said NAICU President Barbara K. Mistick, D.M.  “As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Pell Grant, Sen. Blunt’s support of the program generally, and his efforts to increase both the maximum award and its total funding, specifically, have made him a Congressional champion of this critical student aid program.”
 
Named for Henry Paley, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities of New York from 1975-1984, the award recognizes an individual who embodies Paley’s spirit of unfailing service toward the students and faculty of independent colleges and universities. Paley Award recipients have set an example for all who would seek to advance educational opportunity in the United States.
 
“I want to thank you for the award and for the hard job you do,” Sen Blunt told the audience of largely private, nonprofit university presidents in accepting the award.  “You need to be standing up strong for what independent higher education does for America and for the students you uniquely get a chance to serve.”
 
“One of the great strengths of the post-World War II higher education system, from the VA grants right after the war to Pell Grant 20 years later, is that they have been available to all accredited institutions,” Blunt continued.  “Competition is a good thing, choice is good thing in higher education.”
 
Sen. Blunt serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations and has been chairman or ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education since 2015.  In those roles, he has been a champion for increased access to higher education through the Pell Grant program, the foundation of federal student aid programs, and worked to increase funding for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health.
 
Under Sen. Blunt’s leadership, the Pell Grant maximum award has been increased by $670, from $5,825 in FY 2016 to $6,495 in FY 2021. This represents a $2 billion increase in Pell Grant funding over five years.
 
The FY2022 appropriations bill, which is currently working its way through Congress, would increase the maximum grant by an additional $400, to $6,895.
 
In addition, after hearing from constituent students about their struggles staying enrolled in the summer, Sen. Blunt led the effort to reinstate “Year-Round Pell,” which had been eliminated in 2010.
 
Sen. Blunt’s stanch support for the private, nonprofit college sector has been demonstrated through the years in many ways, both large and small. He was instrumental in ensuring that private colleges and their students received COVID relief funding in the three bills that included Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds. Sen. Blunt’s support of equitable treatment by the federal government for all colleges, whether public or private, nonprofit is steadfast, and anchored in his personal experience.
 
After growing up on his family’s dairy farm, Sen. Blunt went on to be the first in his family to graduate from college, earning a degree from Southwest Baptist University (MO). He became a history teacher, a county government official, and Missouri’s Secretary of State, before returning to Southwest Baptist University as its president from 1993–1996.
 
Sen. Blunt was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996 to represent the 7th District of Missouri, which includes the Ozark Mountains. He rose quickly through the Republican Party ranks to be elected Majority Whip in 2003, and remained in leadership roles throughout his tenure. When Sen. Blunt was elected to the Senate in 2010, he was chosen by his colleagues to join the Senate leadership during his first year in office. He currently serves as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and has been the lead Republican on the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration since 2015, whether in the majority or the minority.
 

In a climate where political parties, candidates, and even neighbors have a hard time finding common ground, a national survey of registered voters shows bipartisan agreement on support for the Pell Grant program.

According to the survey, 65% of registered voters say they support the Pell Grant program while just 5% oppose it.  The survey also found strong bipartisan support for increasing or doubling the program.  In a split sample test – where half of respondents heard one version of the question and the other heard another – 82% support “expanding” Pell and 75% support “doubling” the Pell Grant.  This widespread support crosses political lines as well:
 

	Support "Expanding”	Support “Doubling”
All Voters	82%	75%
Republicans	77%	66%
Democrats	91%	88%

 
“This survey reinforces what we’ve seen on campuses nationwide for decades and that is the transformative impact the Pell Grant can have for millions of students and families,” said NAICU President Barbara K. Mistick, D.M.  “The Pell Grant provides opportunities for students of all backgrounds to access their higher education goals, whether those goals are to attend a four-year private or public college or university, a community college, or a job training program.”
 
The findings show evidence of the public’s support for the eligibility and access the Pell Grant provides, which would increase if the program, approaching its 50^th year next June, was expanded.  In a series of messages tested, the most convincing all touched on these themes, including: that Pell Grants “help low-income students, no matter their race, ethnicity, gender or age”; they help with tuition at any kind of two- or four-year institution or training program; expanding the Pell Grant would result in more working-class families becoming eligible for tuition help; and that the program is “proven” and “has bipartisan support.”


 
Support for Pell transcends educational attainment.  Near identical percentages of White and Non-White college graduates and those without four-year degrees support Pell.  Sixty-eight percent (68%) of White college graduates and 69% of graduates of color support Pell, while 62% of White non-college graduates and 66% of non-college graduates of color support the program.
 
“At a time when the country is so divided politically, it’s rare to see this degree of agreement on anything,” said Margie Omero, principal at GBAO, which conducted the online survey of 1,000 registered voters from November 11-15, 2021.  “The Pell Grant is a well-known and well-liked federal program.  Voters are signaling a desire for policy makers to maintain their support for the Pell Grant and to expand its reach to even more Americans.”
 
Additional findings include:

•  While 65% of voters support Pell, the number increases to 87% when respondents were provided a small amount of information about the program.  Support jumped 22 percentage points, while the opposition remained virtually the same (5% to 7%).
• 59% are either very familiar (24%) or somewhat familiar (35%) with the Pell Grant program.
  • 72% of voters of color are familiar with the Pell program.
• 42% of voters have either received a Pell Grant themselves or have a member of their immediate family member who received a Pell Grant.

“Now is the time to increase our investment in Pell and expand the program’s reach,” said Mistick.  “The most direct way for the federal government to improve college affordability is to provide increased grant aid directly to students from low- and middle-income families for them to choose the educational path that best suits their needs.  This survey shows Americans are supportive of doubling the Pell Grant and expanding its reach.”
 

This morning the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Joe Biden’s $1.7 trillion “Build Back Better” plan, a package of tax changes and spending on education, healthcare and the climate that is the centerpiece of his domestic agenda.  Included in the legislation is a $550 increase in the Pell Grant maximum award, the foundation of the federal student aid programs. The legislation is now headed to the Senate for consideration after Thanksgiving. 
 
NAICU President Barbara K. Mistick, D.M. issued a statement following the vote:
 
“This morning’s action by the House of Representatives to increase the Pell Grant maximum award by $550 is welcome news.  While the amount falls far short of the $1,475 Pell increase the Biden administration originally sought—and does not come close to doubling the Pell Grant to $13,000 sought by the Double Pell Alliance, we are heartened by this first important step and that Congress may add an additional $400 this year as part of the federal appropriations process.
 
“Over the course of nearly 50 years, the Pell Grant has been proven to be an effective tool in helping students from low- and middle-income families achieve their higher education goals.  We remain steadfast in our advocacy for doubling the Pell Grant maximum award to $13,000, which would increase the number of eligible students, reduce student debt, and restore the purchasing power of this important federal financial aid program.”
 
- Barbara K. Mistick, D.M.
  President, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
   
The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) serves as the unified voice for the 1,700 private, nonprofit colleges and universities in our nation. Founded in 1976, NAICU is the only national membership organization solely focused on representing private, nonprofit higher education on public policy issues in Washington, DC. NAICU’s membership reflects the diversity of private, nonprofit higher education in the U.S. Our member institutions include major research universities, faith-based colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority-Serving Institutions and Tribal Colleges and Universities, art and design colleges, traditional liberal arts and science institutions, women’s colleges, work colleges, two-year colleges and schools of law, medicine, engineering, business and other professions. Each year, private, nonprofit colleges and universities graduate more than 1.1 million students.

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, along with the American Association of Community Colleges, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, American Council on Education, Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Institute of International Education, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators, today issued the following statement urging the U.S. government to partner with the higher education community to develop and implement a national strategy to return international student enrollment and exchanges to pre-COVID 19 numbers.  
 
“The higher education community is deeply committed to, and places a high priority on, increasing the overall access, diversity, and success of the students it serves. International students play an important role in these efforts by enriching the learning environment for all students and bringing a global perspective that adds to the diversity of the campus and community.
 
“International Education Week celebrates the extraordinary contributions international students and scholars make to college and university campuses across the country. It is essential that the federal government support higher education’s efforts to develop a national strategy to increase the number of international students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities, ensuring that the nation returns to its pre-pandemic, high water mark level set in 2015 of more than 1 million international students.  
 
“We are encouraged by the recent Joint Statement by the Departments of State and Education expressing ‘A Renewed U.S. Commitment to International Education.’  The higher education community looks forward to engaging closely with the federal government to enact policies and take coordinated action to support greater international student enrollment.
 
“International students not only add to the diversity of our institutions, but they also contribute to the American economy by supporting jobs and businesses and by fueling innovation. As the U.S. recovers from the pandemic-induced economic downturn, international students can help support a lasting recovery. International students continue to bolster the U.S. economy even after they complete their studies; many go on to help American companies stay on the leading edge or even start their own businesses and create jobs.
 
“International Education Week provides an opportunity to celebrate the contributions international students and scholars make to our institutions of higher education. We appreciate the Biden administration’s efforts to date that support international students and offer flexibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The higher education community and country at large must continue to make clear that international students are an essential part of our communities and continue to be welcomed to the United States.”