President's Message

This fall, as tens of thousands of new students head for the nation’s campuses, they’ve already learned at least one thing: College is expensive. Indeed, the rising cost of postsecondary education has been a complex and critical problem for several years, not just for students and their families, but also for officials and policy-makers in nearly every state.

This issue of Lumina Foundation Focus tackles that problem head on, exploring the interrelated causes and the sometimes heart-wrenching effects of the college-cost spiral.

This issue, written by noted education journalist and Columbia University instructor Steve Giegerich, examines college affordability from several angles:

• Researchers from organizations and higher education associates such as the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the College Board and the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis cite the many factors that contribute to rising costs.
• Campus leaders talk about innovative ways their institutions are helping students meet the cost challenge.
• Experts from policy-focused organizations and higher education associations share their views on what steps are needed to make college more affordable.
• And finally, promising young students such as Iowans Ashley Stockdale and Laura Meyer and Indianapolis native Harvey Brown explain how high costs have detoured their paths to a college degree. Their compelling, real-life stories help frame and humanize a very complex issue – one that has huge implications for our nation’s future.

At Lumina Foundation, we are committed to increasing student access and success in education beyond high school. Clearly, finding ways to reduce the rising cost of college is a vital part of fulfilling that mission.

That’s why the Foundation has launched College Costs: Making Opportunity Affordable, a major national effort to find shared solutions to the problem.

As part of the College Costs initiative, and in partnership with the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy, we have invited hundreds of stakeholders to attend a national summit in Washington, D.C., in early November. It is our hope that the summit – and this issue of Lumina Foundation Focus – will help stimulate a national dialogue that leads to innovative and lasting solutions to the college cost crisis. Such solutions are crucial if we hope to increase college access and success among the students who embody America’s future.

Thank you for joining Lumina Foundation in that important effort. As always, I welcome your feedback on this issue of Lumina Foundation Focus, and on all of our work.