Since arriving at Metro State in 2005, President Stephen Jordan has advocated for a big-picture “master plan” approach to higher education in Colorado and the importance of educating historically underserved populations, particularly as the state’s demographics change. A national conference of higher-education leaders last week reached many of the same conclusions for higher education across the country.

At “Examining the National Purposes of American Higher Education,” held at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs in Charlottesville, policy analysts, college leaders, and government officials discussed the national purposes of American higher education and ways to overhaul public policy to meet the needs of the nation’s changing population. Jordan was an invited participant.

“Colorado’s not alone in facing these issues of how to recruit, retain and graduate students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds,” Jordan said, “and we have much to share and learn from our sister states.”

The conclusions reached at the meeting generally echo what Jordan has maintained in many speeches and presentations to the legislature and the College community: that our country’s colleges need to increase the number of Americans who attain college degrees, and that most of that increase “will have to be attained by educating lower-income and underprepared students who are least likely to get such an education now,” according to a summary of the meeting in the June 10 Inside Higher Education (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/10/publics).

The group further concluded that states should revamp their funding formulae to reward institutions that educate the highest numbers of historically underserved populations, and concurred on the need for state boards to coordinate the activities and missions of higher education institutions, particularly to avoid “mission creep.”

An editorial by Jordan on this issue, “Master Plan for higher ed system should address specific state policy goals,” published March 15 in the Rocky Mountain News, argues many of these same points. In that piece, Jordan wrote: “Colorado is in need of a master plan for higher education, one that defines each institution’s unique role and mission, and how the institutions are expected to collectively and individually achieve state policy goals… A master plan should look at how we get more Coloradans into college, while addressing the changing demographics and workforce needs in Colorado.”

The group meeting in Charlottesville also concluded that while it was articulating a set of national purposes for higher education, most policies and solutions need to be developed on the state level. A report on its findings and recommendations is expected in the coming months.