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MCC Daily Tribune

President's Wednesday Message

We are just a few days away from the start of the new academic year at MCC, and as always, we will come together for All College Day to begin the fall. This year's program has been designed by the Student Resource Committee, a growing group of faculty, staff, and administrators dedicated to a holistic understanding of the non-academic factors that influence student success.

One of these factors is housing insecurity, and last spring, a number of us met in a book group to read Matthew Desmond's Eviction: Poverty and Profit in the American City. We gained a better understanding of the role race and gender play in housing insecurity; the economic drivers behind the dramatic increase in evictions; and the impact of evictions within Rochester. Thanks to the leadership of PathStone, we also got to hear from Professor Desmond, who visited Rochester to talk about his book and the Eviction Lab, a nationwide database for research and action which grew out of his research.

Another is the very structure of financial aid policies and programs, themselves. So, I am proposing a 2018-19 reading group (or reading groups) centered on Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream. Written by Temple University Professor and founder of both the Wisconsin HOPE Lab and the new Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, Sara Goldrick-Rab, Paying the Price has influenced conversation, policy, and action across the country. Based on Goldrick-Rab's groundbreaking work on student financial insecurity, the book follows six college students, using their stories to illustrate the struggles with college affordability that face even those who receive aid.

As with the last reading group, I will buy a number of copies of Paying the Price to put in the MCC Brighton and Downtown campus libraries. It is also available in paperback for about $11 or Kindle for $9.

If you are interested in joining the reading group, please send me an email.

Late in Paying the Price, Goldrick-Rab writes, "The first step in addressing the college affordability crisis is taking the problem seriously." My thanks go to our incredible faculty, staff, administrators for their leadership in taking this problem seriously and for their commitment to our students' success.

Please share your thoughts on the blog.

Anne Kress
Office of the President
08/22/2018