GUEST ROOM | Valuing Our Interdisciplinary Programs

I believe deeply in the value of these programs. As research enterprises and educational units, these programs greatly enrich the College of Arts & Sciences. In the context of the curriculum review we are currently endeavoring in the college, our faculty have affirmed the value of such considerations with the proposal to add a “human difference” category to the breadth requirements. If we are to prepare our students to be good global citizens and navigate an increasingly heterogeneous world, then we must prepare them to understand how social categories are created, and the implications that this has for our society more broadly.

GUEST ROOM | Student Debt Crisis and Policy Solutions

The student debt crisis is eminent and equal to the mortgage crisis in 2007. In “Condemning Students to Debt,” by Richard Fossey, “Generation Debt” and “DIY U,” by Anya Katamentz, and “Is College Worth it?” by Secretary William Bennet, the authors investigate the market failures regarding the student debt crisis.  Federal legislation must eliminate imperfect information, fix the principal-agent problem, establish greater accountability, utilize massive open online courseware, invest in public libraries, reestablish bankruptcy for student loans, lower interest rates and strengthen student success. National Student Loan Data System reports $1.3 trillion dollars in Federal student debt outstanding, and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau reports more than 150 billion dollars in private student debt outstanding. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel reports 43.3 million people have student debt with an on average loan balance of $26,700.