10/17/2006

The news is alarmingly clear: More and more young Americans will be denied a college degree simply because they can’t afford it. Money issues will keep 4 million qualified young Americans from attending college in this decade.  Are colleges, then, destined to become gated communities available only to the wealthy? Or is a college education a societal investment whose returns far outweigh the costs?

Public Forum

On October 27, 2006, Suffolk University will bring together a renowned panel of thinkers, writers, educators, and scholars for a provocative public conversation on this topic.  Entitled "Reviving the American Dream: The Crisis of Access in Higher Education," this forum is sure to generate fireworks when former Harper’s Magazine editor Lewis Lapham squares off with former U.S. Department of Education Secretary Dr. Rod Paige—who ushered in the controversial “No Child Left Behind” mandate for President George W. Bush.

Dr. Blenda Wilson, president and CEO of the Nellie Mae Educational Foundation, will moderate the blue-ribbon panel that also includes Richard D. Kahlenberg, Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation, and Thomas G. Mortenson, Senior Scholar at the Pell Institute. Both men are experts on the topic of access to higher education.

The forum is free and open to the public as part of Suffolk University's Centennial Public Forums.

It will run from 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, 88 Tremont Street, Boston.

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