News Release - June 22, 2009

Media Contacts:
Lori Jacobs,
Director of Public Relations
lori.jacobs@cnu.edu
(757) 594-8428

(NEWPORT NEWS, VA) - Christopher Newport University President Paul Trible has pledged his support of the Grow By Degrees campaign launched on June 22 by the Virginia Business Higher Education Council (VBHEC). The goal of the program is to promote economic growth in Virginia through higher education.

The coalition’s 2020 vision provides a blueprint for increasing the percentage of Virginians with college degrees to 50 percent by 2020 — a goal that will place Virginia on course to be a national and international leader in educational attainment and personal income.  Coalition members will work with Virginia lawmakers and key decision makers to turn their priorities into substantive policy proposals that can help get Virginia back on the path to economic recovery.

VBHEC Chairman Heywood Fralin noted: “It is a startling reality that 75 percent of voters we polled in Virginia say a college degree is needed to succeed in today's economy, but only 35 percent of college age Virginians enroll in college and only 42 percent of Virginians have college degrees. We need to do something to turn those numbers around and we need to take action now.”

Grow by Degrees policy priorities include:

• Awarding 70,000 more high-quality degrees over the next 10 years
  
• Targeting the new degrees to high-income, high-demand job sectors
  
• Creating cost-efficient new ways to access college degrees
  
• Expanding job-specific training at community colleges
  
• Increasing public-private collaboration on university-based research
• Enhancing economic development and workforce initiatives in each region
  
• Making college affordable for low- and middle-income students and families

The coalition plans to achieve these goals through four major activities:

• Forming a "grass-tops" advocacy coalition with near-term and sustainable impact
  
• Conducting an intensive election-year dialogue on higher education’s impact on the Virginia economy
  
• Encouraging a major higher education legislative initiative led by the new governor in 2010-11
  
• Increasing understanding of higher education finance among General Assembly and executive branch officials
  

“Remarkably, we have done more with less year after year after year,” said President Trible. "That margin of excellence that we have long celebrated in Virginia is in peril. Virginia's next governor and General Assembly must make higher education an explicit budget priority.”

For more information regarding Grow by Degrees, visit www.growbydegrees.org. The website provides an interactive platform for Virginia residents to participate in the dialogue and help shape the future of economic development and educational attainment in the Commonwealth.

The Virginia Business Higher Education Council was founded in 1994 to educate state leaders and the public about higher education’s vital role in Virginia’s economy and to secure adequate state financial support for its excellence and accessibility.

 

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A four-year public university in Newport News, Virginia, Christopher Newport University enrolls 5,000 students in rigorous academic programs through the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, and the College of Social Sciences including the Luter School of Business. CNU offers great teaching and small classes as well as an emphasis on leadership, civic engagement and honor. For more information about CNU and its programs,
please visit www.cnu.edu.

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