Collaborating for Excellence

By Menard, Joan

As chair of the New England Board of Higher Education, I am proud of our region and the forethought its leaders showed five decades ago when they came together to promote greater educational opportunities for the residents of the six states by forming the New England Higher Education Compact and the tuition-saving Regional Student Program (RSP), which has allowed more than 200,000 New England residents to save an estimated $740 million in tuition. Hundreds of New England’s education and civic leaders gathered at NEBHE’s New England Higher Education Excellence Awards in Boston last month to honor individuals, institutions and organizations that have contributed significantly to the advancement of educational opportunity in the region.

Among the 2008 Excellence Award winners, New Hampshire Governor John H. Lynch, knows that in anticipation of the coming decline in the high school age population, increasing the high school graduation rate is critical. He proposed legislation that would require students to stay in school either until the age of 18 or when they receive their diploma. Lynch made funds available for alternative programs to curb dropout rates and provide atrisk students with tutoring to ensure they graduate from high school. Additional steps include increasing the capacity at adult high schools for students who do not perform well in traditional high schools, and increasing tuition and transportation assistance to communities that support an expansion of regional dropout prevention programs.

Another award winner, the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington, has been serving youth in northern Vermont for 66 years. The club’s KnowHow2Go College & Career Readiness program introduces middle and high school club members to career and post secondary opportunities through exploratory and curriculum-based learning. This pilot program included a six-week curriculum designed to determine attitudes toward college and explain the opportunities available, a business club to introduce students to career skills, assistance with homework and with college admissions and the financial aid process. Surveys taken after the pilot program ended revealed a significant change in beliefs and assumptions about college access and financial aid, thus opening the doors of opportunity for all involved.

Robert S. Karam is another Excellence Award winner. Karam served on the board of trustees of the University of Massachusetts for 19 years and spent four years as chair. Widely regarded as the driving force behind the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center of the University of Massachusetts, Karam has also worked to establish partnerships between UMass Dartmouth and the business community in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The center combines academic research and business entrepreneurship to attract technology and manufacturing companies to the region. Karam believes the center, along with the UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford, create tremendous scientific and economic potential for the area.

The 2008 NEBHE Excellence Awards winners have all made a positive impact on the region, our students and institutions. To highlight some achievers:

* At URI, President Robert L. Carothers increased enrollment of the best and brightest students from the state and region; increased the diversity among students, faculty and staff; and increased alumni, corporate and state support.

* President Jonathan Daube made Manchester Community College a model for other community colleges in Connecticut and the region.

* The Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute awards a scholarship to a student from each of Maine’s public high schools every year.

* The work of the Massachusetts School-to-College Data Policy Team is an excellent example of collaboration between K-12 and higher education communities on behalf of students and their future.

* Keene State College’s Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies is a leader in Holocaust and genocide studies.

* Dorcas Place Adult and Family Learning Center assists low- income Rhode Islanders in realizing their full potential.

* President John F. Brennan’s leadership and entrepreneurial spirit reinvigorated Green Mountain College into a leading environmental liberal arts college.

These are just some of the individuals and institutions of many that devote themselves to excellence in the region’s higher education enterprise and to educational access and opportunity for every New Englander. They make us proud.

Joan Menard is chair of the New England Board of Higher Education. She is a Massachusetts state senator representing the First Bristol and Plymouth district. Email: Joan.Menard@state.ma.us

Copyright New England Board of Higher Education Spring 2008

(c) 2008 Connection, New England’s Journal of Higher Education. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.