Today we welcome John Brooks Slaughter who continues our discussion of California’s Master Plan. Dr. Slaughter’s career began as an electrical engineer. He formerly headed the National Science Foundation as its first African-American director. He is president emeritus at Occidental College, and a former chancellor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
A Master Plan for Students
by John Brooks Slaughter
Professor of Education and Engineering, University of Southern California
Nearly seventeen years ago I wrote an op-ed piece which called for fundamental changes in the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education. That landmark legislation had led to years of unprecedented growth in quality and prestige of the three sectors of California higher education and assured an opportunity for all qualified students to have access to higher education.
Even more than was true in 1993, the economic, social and political landscapes of the present call for a new public policy framework for making higher education affordable and accessible for today’s students. These realities require that we think of students first in setting funding priorities, putting their interests first and making need-based financial aid the top priority in the state’s higher education budget. This inevitably means that tuition and fee policies in all three sectors will have to be changed to require those students who have the financial wherewithal to pay for an education to do so in order that funds can be made available to assist those with demonstrated need.
The issues of access and affordability are even more crucial today than before because of the dynamic demographic changes (and the reactions to them) that have occurred in the past two decades. Anti-affirmative action legislation and the fervor over illegal immigration have had significant impacts on higher education in California. It is imperative that political leaders implement rational funding policies and recognize the need to assist our institutions in their efforts to educate present and future students in order to meet the pressing needs of the state for a well-educated citizenry.
About the author: John Brooks Slaughter is Professor of Education and Engineering at the University of Southern California. He served as director of the National Science Foundation, is president emeritus at Occidental College, and a former chancellor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
