(Feb. 12, 2009) In terms of highest college degree attained, the United States leads the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries among 45-54 year olds, but ranks 10th among 25-34 year olds, says Paul Lingenfelter, president of the State Higher Education Executive Offices. Lingenfelter was the keynote at the Colorado Center for Public Humanities at the University of Colorado Denver’s "The Crisis of Inclusion in Higher Education" Feb. 12 on the Downtown Campus.

Additionally, Lingefelter told about 150 participants, the issue of the aging workforce – 55 and older – population is growing; 6- to 24-year-old population is growing; but 25-54 is not. The combination of those statistics shows part of the problem of inclusion in higher education.

Some fixes in a P-20 system, Lingenfelter explained, could include:

• Early outreach
• Curriculum assessment
• High quality teaching
• Student financial assistance (remove barriers, reinforce aspirations, provide incentives, enable students to focus on academic success)
• Success in college
• Data and accountability systems to monitor progress and chart success

Other speakers at the event included:

• Zen Camacho, vice provost and AVC  for inclusion and diversity
• Paul Teske, dean of the School of Public Affairs
• Christine Johnson, special assistant to the provost

Participants chose to explore breakout topics such as admissions policy, community partnerships, student retention, and undocumented students. The symposium set out to recognize as a university-wide problem (not just an admissions problem) the issue of the university's increasing inaccessibility as a result of feverish competition for prestige, decreases in state spending and the tightening of the student loan market amid the current economic turmoil.

Philip Joseph, director of the Center for Public Humanities, noted the goal of the symposium was to:  

• spread awareness of problem of higher education inclusion, providing reliable knowledge of problem
• engage in dialogue – there were at least 40 groups and institutions represented at the symposium from community, university and government; exchange ideas of what’s working and ideas for doing things better
• create a network to implement ideas and solutions

The symposium concluded with a plenary session by Allan Wallis, assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs, combining the insights from speakers and breakout sessions to prepare a white paper on the topic of inclusion to be presented to administration.