Chancellor Zimpher, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Discuss 'The Future of Education' at APLU Convocation

Washington, DC – State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher today joined U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, and education officials from across the country in Washington, DC, for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Convocation, held in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act of 1862.

Hosting a panel discussion on “The Future of Education” with Secretary Duncan and Under Secretary Kanter, Chancellor Zimpher called on the membership organizations of APLU to embrace their sector’s capacity to have a collective impact on the delivery of education in America.

“The Morrill Act we commemorate today was visionary legislation that fulfilled a great American need for highly esteemed research universities, with public service at their core,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “Today, with this vision at our back, we need only to embrace our potential for collective impact to become the world’s most formidable higher education enterprise in the 21st century.”

Chancellor Zimpher urged APLU members to be more disciplined, finding ways to keep costs down and shift administrative spending to greater investments in student services. She cited SUNY’s rational tuition policy and New York State’s parallel commitment to maintain funding for public higher education as a means to keeping college affordable.

She also urged university leaders to be more transparent about the costs of college, calling for 100 percent adoption of President Obama’s Financial Aid Shopping Sheet, which was announced in recent weeks and would provide prospective students with the type and amount of financial aid they qualify for, and easily compare for them the costs of college at every participating institution.

Finally, Chancellor Zimpher urged APLU members to embrace the capacity of their institutions to help solve the country’s biggest problems, by adopting some of the six big ideas at work in SUNY’s strategic plan to mend the education pipeline, address challenges in healthcare, and capitalize on the energy-smart ideas and resources of their campuses.

A transcript of Chancellor Zimpher’s remarks is available online.

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating nearly 468,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses with nearly 3 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu.