Higher Education and the 2016 Presidential Election

The 2016 presidential election is making a statement for one thing. It is not making a statement regarding corrupt politics (although that is part of the problem) but the statement it is making is directed at higher education in this country today.

This election is clear example of the "lack of education" in the country today. Typically those with college educations and advanced degrees typically sided with Clinton while those with lower educational opportunities leaned towards Trump. Now I'm not saying all Trump supporters are uneducated illiterates, I'm just saying many don't have the type of education as Clinton supporters.

Now let's look at the state of higher education right. Higher education is becoming too expensive and students can't afford it.They are taking out too many loans to get it and not being able to pay it back right away after graduating or they opting not to go to college right after high school. The latter decision is have drastic effects on college enrollment - at ALL levels.

If they all are struggling - even the big schools - what does that mean for the small schools? Small schools are having trouble making ends meet. Last May, Dowling College, a small Division II institution of roughly 1,000 students, closed its doors for good on May 31, 2016. And it was just four years ago that Dowling was playing in the NCAA Division II Men's Lacrosse Championship Game!

Sweet Briar College, a small Division III School of less than 300 students, announced in February, 2015 that it was closing its doors that August due to "insurmountable financial" challenges. However, Sweet Briar was able to stay a float due to a 10-month, $10.25 million donation campaign that kept the small-town Virginia school alive - at least for another year, in what administrators hope.

These small schools are all suffering from the same thing: a decline in enrollment and a drop in tuition revenue from the low enrollment, which means less-enticing financial aid packages to students. Lower enticing financial aid packages have a direct correlation to the low enrollment figure. As the price of a college education sky rockets, prospective students are valuing their financial aid packages more and will end up choosing the institution that gives them more money.

And just this year another small school will be closing its doors at the end of this academic year. Daniel Webster College, a small Division III school in Nashua, N.H. comprised of about 550 students, was once known for its accredited aeronautical engineering and flight program but now it will be closing its doors forever on Wednesday May 31, 2017.

In 2009, the online school ITT purchased the financial struggling southern New Hampshire college and in an instant, Daniel Webster became one of the few for-profit college's in the United States. (Most colleges and institutions are are non-profit.) Over the course of the next seven years things only got worse for Daniel Webster. ITT cancelled their flight program in 2010 - with the program's last graduating class being the Class of 2012.

It has only gotten worse for Nashua college. This past August, the U.S. Department of Education withheld financial aid from their students, prevented ITT from enrolling new students who used financial aid and their accrediting body threatened to remove their accredidation thus resulting in ITT closing all of its campus. The one lone campus that remained was their "brick-and-mortar" campus, Daniel Webster College.

Daniel Webster remained opened because their accrediting body (NEASC) was different than ITT's accrediting body (ACICS). But in mid-September NEASC came back and said that their accreditation should be withdrawn as well. Tough times for Daniel Webster but neighboring institution and higher education power-house Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) swooped in to save the day with what they termed a "teach-out."

For the rest of the 2016-2017 academic year, SNHU agreed to take on Daniel Webster's expenses as well as the DWC for the rest of the year and DWC will remain open. DWC seniors who will graduate by August, 2017, will graduate with a Daniel Webster degree while all underclass will have the option of continuing on at SNHU in 2017-18 and beyond or transferring to a different school.

Looking at this from a pure education standpoint. It is time to stop looking at higher education as privilege and something that only the rich, elite can afford and start looking at it as something that is there for everyone looking to make themselves better. That is what the 2016 election was truly about.

Higher education needs to be affordable and everyone will be better off in the long-run.