LATI Announces Commitment to Expand College Access at White House Event

WASHINGTON, DC   –  Today, Lake Area Technical College President Mike Cartney will join President Obama, the First Lady, and Vice President Biden along with hundreds of college presidents and other higher education leaders to announce new actions to help more students prepare for and graduate from college.

The White House College Opportunity Day of Action helps to support the President’s commitment to partner with colleges and universities, business leaders, and nonprofits to support students across the country to help our nation reach its goal of leading the world in college attainment.

Today’s participants were asked to commit to new action in one of four areas: building networks of colleges around promoting completion, creating K-16 partnerships around college readiness, investing in high school counselors as part of the First Lady’s Reach Higher initiative, and increasing the number of college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Lake Area Technical College, under the guidance of the Aspen College College Excellence Program, is responding to President Obama’s call to increase the number of Americans with college degrees.  Lake Area Technical College announces its commitment to strengthen student outcomes by redefining success in their mission, vision, and culture as both completion and employment.  This redefinition, coupled with integrating industry into the student success formula, will be supported through a constant feedback and action loop with industry aimed at ensuring the highest levels of quality and relevancy of instruction.

President Cartney comments, “We are certainly privileged to be part of this summit and honored to be recognized for all of the great work by our staff, students and community of Lake Area Technical College.  We are excited to implement our commitment and track its success.”

The President will announce new steps on how his Administration is helping to support these actions, including announcing $10 million to help promote college completion and a $30 million AmeriCorps program that will improve low-income students’ access to college.  Today’s event is the second College Opportunity Day of Action, and will include a progress report on the commitments made at the first day of action on January 14, 2014.

Expanding opportunity for more students to enroll and succeed in college, especially low-income and underrepresented students, is vital to building a strong economy and a strong middle class.  Today, only nine percent of those born in the lowest family income quartile attain a bachelor’s degree by age 25, compared to 54 percent in the top quartile. In an effort to expand college access, the Obama Administration has increased Pell scholarships by $1,000 a year, created the new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth up to $10,000 over four years of college, limited student loan payments to 10 percent of income, and laid out an ambitious agenda to reduce college costs and promote innovation and competition.

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Watch the live stream here:www.whitehouse.gov/live

Read the White House blog here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/12/03/watch-anywhere-white-house-college-opportunity-summit