AAUP Advises Congress on Higher Education Act

The most important elements of the act are student aid programs, including Pell Grants, loans, and campus-based aid such as work-study. The act also provides substantial aid programs for institutions, especially those serving targeted populations, such as historically black and tribally controlled colleges and universities and institutions serving Hispanic populations.

The AAUP's report, The Higher Education Act: A Faculty Perspective on Reauthorization, emphasizes four themes: access, quality, diversity, and openness. The AAUP supports expansion of the Pell Grant program to allow low-income students to attend college, recommending that the individual grant and the overall support level be expanded to meet the needs of these students. The AAUP would also like to see the new act maintain the range of loan programs now available, as well as the competition among the programs, which has improved opportunities for students and the overall efficiency of the programs.

The Association cautions, however, that improved access to higher education will not benefit students if the act does not ensure the continued quality of programs offered. New technology and more flexible means of delivery have made the time-based measurements of classroom hours traditionally used in higher education less relevant. The AAUP report argues that the act should therefore make sure that programs eligible to receive student financial aid dollars develop new standards to permit assessment of student effort and accomplishment across institutions, disciplines, and regions.

The report also highlights the AAUP's support for diversity among institutional missions. The Association advocates expansion of the act's institutional-aid programs that target colleges and universities serving specific minority populations, and it recommends support for maintaining different types of institutions to serve different student populations, whether the institutions are small liberal arts colleges or large urban universities that enroll students from varied class and linguistic backgrounds.

The report, noting that the debate over the reauthorization will take place in the context of international tension, points out that a critical strength of American higher education has been its openness to new ideas, participants, and practices. For years, the report says, these attributes have inspired students and faculty from all over the world to study at and contribute to U.S. colleges and universities. To continue to benefit from the presence of these scholars, American institutions of higher education must maintain openness in research, teaching, and learning, the report argues. In times of perceived crisis, it concludes, academic freedom and First Amendment rights are more important than ever.

The Association joined other higher education organizations in January in signing an overall set of recommendations on the reauthorization.

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