Lente Festina

Regional Public Universities are an Essential Piece of the Economic Puzzle

The New York Times (NYT) September 7th article on top U.S. colleges with the greatest economic diversity not only propagates a fallacious trope but does actual harm to the institutions whose primary mission is access and economic mobility. The article was designed with bias at its core, focusing on what the NYT deems as the only schools worth considering when it comes to opportunities for the economically or geographically limited. 

Selective schools are focused by definition on exclusion rather than access. Is it surprising that they enroll fewer Pell students? Forty-seven percent of U.S. students seeking a bachelor’s degree attend a regional public university. These local universities, rooted in their communities, serve outsized numbers of Pell-eligible and first-generation college students, as well as students of color.

UM-Dearborn is one example of the ways regional publics provide an affordable, accessible pathway to success: Our entering freshman GPA is 3.7 and our graduates go on to be doctors, lawyers, bankers and engineers and lead major corporations like Ford North America, FedEx Ground, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, found companies like Huda Beauty, and serve our nation, in such roles as the interim US Secretary of Energy. 44% of our students are Pell eligible and 49% are first generation college students. We were recently ranked among the top 50 universities in the United States for socioeconomic mobility. We are not alone. These data are typical of many regional universities across the country. I feel strongly that the New York Times has a responsibility to present a more complete narrative of economic mobility for the sake of not only our students but our society.