Paying the Price: The Costs of a College Education and the Realities of Broken Dreams

Update: An archive of the webinar now is available on Blackboard. A link to the accompanying PowerPoint presentation also is available online.

“‘Paying the Price:’ The Costs of a College Education and the Realities of Broken Dreams” is the next in SUNY Empire State College’s ongoing “Re-visioning Adult Higher Education” series of free webinars.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of Higher Education Policy at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa. and the founder of the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice in Philadelphia, will make the presentation.

Goldrick-Rab is best known for her innovative research on food and housing insecurity in higher education.

Her re-visioning webinar on cost and broken dreams takes place from noon-1 p.m., Wednesday, April 17, via Blackboard Collaborate.

The college’s Re-visioning Adult Higher Education series of free webinars promotes national and international conversations around key issues, challenges and possibilities for adults and other nontraditional student populations in higher education.

No registration is required to participate. Simply join the webinar 10 minutes prior to the session. Running the audio setup wizard (Tools > Audio > Audio Setup Wizard) upon entering the Blackboard Collaborate room is recommended for all participants. The Blackboard Collaborate Launcher also may need to be downloaded before the event.

Webinar Description

A new economic model of college has created a crisis in higher education across America.

For far too many, the equation of dedication, hard work and sacrifice no longer yields the promised benefits of a college education.

Students now encounter prices so high, and sacrifices so steep, that the very meaning of going to college has changed and now, more than ever before, the general public is calling into question the value of a college education.

During the last decade and, more importantly, going into the future, good jobs and careers will require a college education and the degree that goes with it.

At the same time that the price of tuition and overall cost of attending college has dramatically increased, government spending on public higher education has decreased, financial aid has not kept up and, as a direct result, student debt is at an all-time high.

Large student debt, in turn, significantly inhibits achieving essential family goals and narrows work opportunities and career choices.

During her webinar, Goldrick-Rab will focus on her research on the cost and price of a college education today and will discuss specific ways to address the challenges of “paying the price,” making college more affordable and helping all students succeed.

About Sara Goldrick-Rab

Goldrick-Rab led three of the largest national studies focusing on food and housing insecurity in higher education.

She is the recipient of the William T. Grant Foundation’s Faculty Scholars Award and the American Educational Research Association’s Early Career Award.

In 2016, POLITICO Magazine named her one of the top 50 people shaping American politics.

Her latest book, “Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream” (University of Chicago Press, 2016), is a 2018 winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Education and has been featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

The Chronicle of Higher Education described her as “a defender of impoverished students and a scholar of their struggles.”

Goldrick-Rab is ranked seventh in the nation among education scholars, according to Education Week.

In April 2018, the Carnegie Corporation awarded her an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship to support her project, “College for All? Hunger, Homelessness, and American Higher Education.”

The Re-visioning Adult Higher Education series is sponsored by the college’s Center for Mentoring, Learning and Academic Innovation and the Office of the College Professor of Adult Learning and Mentoring. Contact Alan.Mandell@esc.edu, Shantih.Clemans@esc.edu or Karen.LaBarge@esc.edu with any questions about the webinars.