LSU President F. King Alexander left Baton Rouge Wednesday to attend the White House summit hosted by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday as one of 100 college and university presidents.
The event will focus on increasing the accessibility of college and all presidents attending have agreed to pledge to do more to help low-income students enroll in and complete college, Inside Higher Ed reported.
LSU’s tuition and fees were 17 percent lower than the Southern Regional Education Board peer average of $9,476, and provided $11.5 million in financial aid this year. The University also had an all-time high six-year graduation rate of 69.1 percent,according to an LSU news release.
“Access to college education has never been more important,” Alexander said in a release. “If nothing changes, the United States will fall to nineteenth in college completion rates among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, countries.” Live coverage of the White House event will be streaming Thursday on www.whitehouse.gov/live.
On Friday, after leaving Washington, D.C., Alexander will travel to University of Wisconsin-Madison to speak about Obama’s proposed “College Scorecard” and ratings system as well as the need for more federal oversight of higher education, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s website. Alexander earned his Ph.D. there.
In addition to Alexander’s time in Washington, D.C. this week, Alexander will return to the nation’s capital along with chancellors and deans from other system schools on Feb. 5 to meet with the Louisiana Delegation to discuss college affordability, said Jason Droddy, director of External Affairs.
The eight-member delegation consists of state representatives, senators and doctors, including Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., who is interested in supporting research in water, energy and coastal studies, Droddy said.
This second trip to Washington, an Alexander-led initiative called LSU day, is funded in part by donations and the LSU Alumni Association, and is a chance for the group to present data and research, and the school as “national university serving a national purpose,” Droddy said.
Droddy said each year the individual chancellors make the trip to Washington, D.C., but LSU day will be the first time they will all travel together to lobby for higher education.
Alexander said previously that one of the main objectives is to approach the politicians with a complete and cohesive plan.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Stuart Bell said that he had heard about a second LSU day to take place in Louisiana with the same purposes, but was not certain of the date of the event.