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Claremont Discourse: The Truman Commission
Linda Perkins, Associate University Professor and Director of Applied Women's Studies, Claremont Graduate University.
In 1947, nearly sixty years ago, President Harry Truman commissioned a report on American Higher Education. The study, entitled Higher Education for Democracy: The Report of the President's Commission on Higher Education, and referred to as the Truman Commission Report, recommended massive expansion of access to college. To achieve this goal, the report called for an end to racial and religious discrimination, the introduction of generous financial aid programs for needy students, the creation of a network of community colleges, federal aid to the states for higher education, and new curricula to appeal to a broad range of American youth. While much of the Commission's agenda has been accomplished, particularly in the areas of racial and religious diversity, recent data indicate that intellectually gifted, low income students are significantly underrepresented in highly selective institutions of higher education. As a result, numerous elite colleges and universities have instituted special financial aid programs for truly low-income students. Linda Perkins, Associate Professor and Director of Applied Women's Studies at Claremont Graduate University, an historian of education with appointments in the departments of Educational Studies, History, and Applied Women's Studies, will discuss the history of access to higher education after the Truman Commission as well as discuss current challenges to the tenets of this report.
Please join us in the Founder's Room of Honnold/Mudd Library, this Thursday, April 27th, at 4:00pm*, for a Claremont Discourse Lecture, sponsored by The Libraries of The Claremont Colleges.
*Please note that this lecture, originally scheduled for 4:15pm, was re-scheduled for 4:00pm.
— michael | April 26, 2006 05:09 PM | @ the Libraries
