Transcripts For CSPAN3 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20141104

Bit differently this time. Well start with pat, pat, good morning. Im curious to know in your institution in burglar, and all institutions across the country, the ratio of people in the classrooms to other employees, by administrators, researchers, whatever. And how that has changed over time and what percentage of the tuition costs will be paid. Actually its to pay the salary of nonteaching employees of the university. So the university of michigan has about 3,000 fulltime tenure scre stream faculty that teach our students. We have clinical faculty that help train future physicians and residents and interns in our hospitals. We probably have on the order of 2,000 or so of teaching faculty. The total number of employees of the university is approaching 40,000. We have a very Large Health Care system, were a major provider of Health Health care in the state. If you put aside the Health Care System, we probably have two or three fold the number of employees providing all the Services Necessary to run a residential campus. We have the health services, so because this is a residential community, it requires a lot more than just a professor standing up in the classrooms, i think a lot of the learning that goes on at the university of michigan, also throughout residential Higher Education, occurs outside the classroom, environments where students can participate in groups and Student Activities and can learn by others and learn by doing. The fraction of people that look at like me, like president s and Vice President s, although were very visible, we make up only a handful of the number of employees at the university and only a modest fraction of salary commitment. Were in a very people oriented business. And we showed a stat just now talking a little bit about different expenses from the university of michigan, one of those expenditures in 2013, michigan spent 1. 3 million on research efforts. Thats one of the things that attracted me to the university of michigan. Its one of the Top Research Institutions in the country if not the world. Of that 1. 3 billion, almost a billion of that comes from outside sources. It comes from foundations and the federal government. Our generous donors really is key to the future economy of our country, im really proud of it. Phone lines for students, parents, educators and michigan residents in this last segment of todays washington journal. Mike is in bouie, maryland. Mike. I had a question concerns the comments earlier about affordability. It seems interesting to me that we can talk about affordability when i just heard that the tuition for out of state is at 40,000, and this is a question that goes beyond the university of michigan, of course, just the education system, and public universities, but i recently read an article where the Median Income of College Graduates at the highest level was somewhere near 60,000. And so if you have a student paying 4 40,000 a year for an education that goes upward about 300,000, when you total all expenses, i would say that thats pretty expensive, when you compare that also to the me Median Income of an average family in this nation. I have to add, how is it that we can consider that affordable to the average american . I think thats a very important question, and i think the way we make it as affordable as possible. For example for an instate student, if u youre Family Income is less than around 60,000 a year, the out of pocket costs are almost zero. Between scholarships, work study jobs, summer earning expectations and a modest amount of loans, we have managed to make it so that students from families of pretty typical income can afford to get this spectacular education. And although the income levels that you cite may be National Averages, michigan is a spectacular university, employers are queued up to employ our graduates. The significant number of them become enormously successful, so once again, i think its a good investment. Its more of a challenge for out of state students because to the tuition is higher, and isles higher because theyre not receiving any stubsidies from Te University of one thing were doing now in our new campaign, our fundraising cam pain, is we have set a goal of 1 billion to raise for supporting scholarships, needbased aid and support for graduate fellowships to try to work on this affordability problem. But i share with you the notion that if were not successful making a College Education affordable, based on merit, based on willingness to work hard, then the future of our country is in trouble. Michigan had one of the largest endowments at 4 million. Is there any thought about using this endowment to help with the affordability problem . Sure, we already do, a significant amount of that endowment is supporting our Financial Aid system, thats where a lot of the money comes from. And were trying to raise additional endowment. Were just not there yet financially. Phowhat their lifetime needs will be. Were also educating citizens, so one of my goals as an educator, is to graduate students that are prepared to actively engage as good citizens and as leaders in their community. As an engineer, you have to know more than engineering, you have to be able to communicate clearly, i think you should be able to write well, you should have cultural sensitivity, you should be educated to lead and be a professional that can attain a series of good jobs throughout a lifetime. And thats what we really continuously endeavor to do. We have the phone lines open, if you have a question about Higher Education, you can talk to mark schlissell, the president of education at the university of michigan. Teresa, good morning. Caller thank you so much for taking my call and thank you to csp cspan. I just want to say, today, i think college is not affordable for american families. When you see the numbers, like they were just showing for out of state students. 50,000 . Thats just the initial costs, thats not for the day to day expenses that the students have, and eventually if they get through college, theyre lucky if they can do it in four years, thats the cost of a house, most families if they can afford a 200,000 home, get a 30year commitment as far as a mortgage payment. And look at the interest you have to pay over 40 years for that house. Now were putting our students in a situation where thats what they need to get through college. Its just a difficult situation. And a part of this equation are the Interest Rates, when these students try to pay these loans back, it could be 500, plus the actual loan itself, again, as a country, its just crazy to me what were charging kids for college. I dont know why we cant figure out a better system to educate our kids. Dr. Schlissell . Yes, teresa, those are all excellent points and as i have said, i agree with you, that there is an affordability problem confronting all of Higher Education. The fraction of students that actually pay 50,000 and 200,000 over four years, to attend the university of michigan is less than half. So as i mentioned earlier, we are need blind in state, and were attempting for out of state students to use Financial Aid and work study jobs and loans in combination to allow students from any background to attend the university. I think to the Biggest Challenges are rare at the borders of our Financial Aid formulas, where you make enough money where you dont qualify for tremendous amounts of support and it really is a struggle and i think families do have to make a conscious decision on value. I was the oldest of four kids from a very middle class working family and my parents sent me to a privaTe University. I took out a combination of loans, scholarships, i worked during school, i worked in the summertime, i graduated with debt. And in hindsight i would do it all over again in a heart beat. Its enormously challenging, we do our best to help. I appreciate that you pointed out that this is a national problem. I think it would be a wonderful thing to provoke a National Discussion of how the public as a whole, this is a common goal for our society. I think we have to tie the ability to take on debt to student outcomes. We have to take a look at make sure that this debt is being taken on by students that are going to graduate, and are going to graduate with zegs that will help them be employable or pursue their future ambitions and not one into trouble and never complete. I think we need to cap the amount of Student Loans you might expect a stunl to take on. I think one thing that people forget, half of the students here at the university of michigan graduate with no loans, so the data youre quoting is for students who take out loans, your quoting averages, and for instead students, the students that do take out loans, its about 25,000 for out of state debt. For out of state students, its about 35,000 for four years of attendance. Carol said, my daughter received her phd from the university of michigan and received a job immediately. Ann arbor is lovely and faculty great and always helpful. Bernies waiting on our line for parents, bernie is in columbus, ohio, good morning. Caller good morning. Sir, would you havhat you have to steal. If you subsidize babies, you where have the colleges worked at holding down the costs. Their prices have gone way past the rate of inflation for the last ten years. The government keeps subsidizing the loans, you keep raising your prices, the excuse is usually given is that we have to keep up with the other colleges, theyre taking our professorsor theyre taking our talent. Just because theyre stealing, doesnt mean you have to steal. Dr. Schlissell . There isnt really incredibly much new to say, i understand the frustration that people feel when they look at a cost of education that sounds out of reach. I think there is an issue that we have to do our very best to constrain the cost of higher ed, and in particular, to use Financial Aid and judicious amounts of debt to make sure that students can attend. I really dont accept the argument that the cost, at least here in michigan has grown dramatically beyond the rate of inflation. If you look hard at the data over the last decade, the university by cutting costs has managed to mitigate a lot of the consequences of diminished state support, and the rate of increase in tuition, roughly parallels the rate of decrease in state support. We are in a very people intensive business, there are gains to be made by instituting technology that replaces a teacher, or a teacher manages a class discussion, but we havent discovered those yet. I dont think well be done until our universities look like the society that theyre serving and that students can come to School Without mortgaging their future and their familys future. So we have to keep working on this. Dr. Schlissell, considering for a moment only the sciences, what do you consider as important growth areas over the next ten to 30 years, and then adding in go blue. Thanks for the go blue part. Thats reassuring, the sciences fuel discovery. We have got an enormous and fantastic academic medical cent center, that includes a hospital and medical school, but also schools of nursing and pharmacy and public health. Where the potential of the university to affect thats a tremendous area for furl investment and growth that will have a real and obvious upside for society. We have an absolutely spectacular school of engineering, that educates students at the engineering, at a masters and doctoral level, we have an Automotive Research center, other efforts that really fuel the local economy. A biotech industry, a great bioengineering department. Not just by training students, but by aproducing new knowledge that spurs new industries. Lou is a parent, good morning. Caller good morning. Just a comment, my son goes to a local university in washington, d. C. Metro area. And hes a senior and what i have noticed about his classes over the years is that his major is economics. But i have noticed that a number of his classes are just pure fluff. Im not just talking about a broad based education, where you take a literature class or take a class in something you normally would not take to round you out. Im talking about classes that are pure fluff, theyre just filler. And im shocked that there arent more substantive classes. Sometimes when i talk to my son, it seems like, im not really working that hard at this particular subject, hes fulfilling the major, but there arent enough substantive classes. So i would like to talk about the requirements for a bachelors, maybe engineering particularly, or maybe, you know, premed, where theres very structured classes, and theres not a whole lot of fluff. But i just think in a lot of other areas, theres not theres a large percentage thats not substantive, and can be eliminated, i appreciate hearing your comments. Dr. Schlissell on fluff. Thank you very much, i never thought i would be able to make a definitive comment on fluff. A lot of the universities do teach very pragmatic practical things where you can see an obvious connection between what a student is studying and their first job or where they want to go on to graduate school. A lot of our class taking an english class, learning how to read an appreciate literature, u how to write well, how to communicate clearly, taking a Foreign Language class, taking and and and an throw pollee glass. There are hard stills that people need to learn. What people call fluff often turns out to be enormously impactful. And im not going to admit to any fluff at the university. But we do educate our students both broadly and specifically. Im a University President , i studied biochemistry as an undergrad, i studied medicine and biochemistry as a medical student and as a doctoral student. But as an undergrad i took classes in religion and history and bopolitics and government a music and all those things it turns outs have affected how i live my life and its also affecting how i look at the leadership of a Great University. I think we have to educate broadly and thats not fluff and we also have a responsibility to educate with specificity. Allan is on our line with educators. Good morning. Caller i appreciate you taking my call. My question goes backs to the Student Loans that are funding the nations universities. I just want to point out the fact, and hopefully youre aware of this. Student loans are the only types of loans to be specifically vacated of the most fundamental student protections that exist forever other type of loan, this is bankruptcy protections, this is statutes of limitations, and other protections that people take for granted and they assume are in place for their Student Loans when they sign for them. I have been looking at this for over a decade. I have not heard one University President say anything about this very unique exemption and to say nothing about the structurally predatory behaviors that this enables. So if i could just get your comments, i i would appreciate it. What do you teach . Caller im actually in charge of a group called student loan. Org, i give talks across the country at colleges and universities. Dr. Schlissell . Those are excellent points. I have to educate myself more because im not expert personally in the laws and practices that govern Student Loans, but i think this is a really interesting area for universities to organize and for our government to act. Ill speak to our Government Relations people, ill speak to our student loan folks, so i understand this better, particularly in the state of michigan, we have caps on the amount of debt that we allow the students to take on under the universitys auspices, the practices that youre talking about are important and i think i need to understand them better. Frank is a student, good morning. Caller good morning, i have a question or a comment about it seems like the elephant in the room that has not been addressed and as costs rise, in the educational system, the costs are not evenly spread. The universities are hiring more and more adjuncts, as a grad student, im right now writing my thesis, i expect to finish it next month. But every not one fulltime professor, and obviously i dont want to mention the school. But i am here in central florida. So you can pick the schools. But nonetheless, every professor was anned a jujts. They do receive pen uys on the dollar, many of the professors have secondary or two or three jobs outside of the Academic Field to make ends meet, but still the universitys costs are going up exponentially. U how do you justify that . What you eere pointing out certainly a national problem, its not an issue here at the university of michigan because we employ very few adjuncts and thinkre normally professionals that have degrees in law or they aisle come and teach a course for us because they love to teach, its not their real job. The problem youre pointing out is a real one across the breadth of the academy, but here at the university of michigan, its tenyear stream factuality members and professional lectures that affect our curriculum. I do applaud you, thats a real problem that deserves scrutiny, one university at a time and perhaps discussion more broadly. And as we are talking about spending by universities, can you comment on Athletic Department spending, do you think the spending is in line with the goals and the missions of the university . Sure, so, i think athletics certainly a major public universities have become bigger and bigger, through the years, with more attention from the public, more attention from the media, the size of the program has grown, not the number of students, but the dollars flowing through them, here at the university of michigan, were very fortunate that because of the attention of our alumni and the involvement of the community in supporting some of the major sports are athletic programs are selfsupporting, in fact, the football and mens basketball as a matter of fact, no disrespect, i just want to ask a couple of quick questions. I wonder how much it costs per credit hour currently at the university of michigan . Youll have to forgive me, but i dont have per credit hour numbers in my head. I certainly know that the cost of attendance of tuition for an undergrajs watt student, for a full year is approximately 13,000 instead, and approximately 41,000 out of state. But i dont have the credit number hours broken up in my head. Jason it sounded like you had a followup . Caller yeah, 13,000, how many credit hours is that . Typical students will take between 12 and 18 credits a semester, so for fulltime students, you can do the math, its 24 to 36 credits over the course of a year. Caller but that doesnt include housing or food or anything else . Thats correct, students have to have a place to live and they have to eat while theyre studying. Several folks calling in to talk to dr. Mark schlissell. Lets go to amy whos been waiting on our line for parents. Caller actually im a grandparent oh. But i am wondering if maybe as parents we need to rethink our idea of wanting to give our children this experience of, yoiyu you know, going off to college. You go to college when youre 18, you graduate when youre 22. Why is it a problem if it takes longer than four years . I mean if you go a semester, work a semester, go a semester or take night classes, most colleges have a lot of students who have been in the workforce and are returning to school while continues to work. And so theyre taking classes on the weekends or whenever. But as parents, we want our children to have this kind of carefree college experience, except that it is hurting them later and so i dont think that its really harmful to a child to deprive them of that if for the whole rest of their life they are not saddled with debt. Dr. Schlissell . I think those are very good points, i think there are many ways for students to make their way through college. I think there are its wonderful that in the United States, there are thousands of colleges and they cater to students of different interests, students of different means, students with different types of ambitions. But i have tremendous respect for students that in effect work their way through college if it takes longer, you know, thats okay, the important thing is that they get their education, and their education sets them up for a successful future and to fulfill their ambitions. The university of michigan also has campuses in flint and dear born, where the pathways youre describing are much more common, where students come in and out of school over the course of longer than just four years, ultimately heading for a degree. I think its great that we provides those kinds of opportunities and that type of access for students. Lets go to mike in detroit, michigan also a student. Mike, good morning. Caller hey, i wanted to know if you see any way to reverse the dangerous trend of our Higher Education facilities deinvolving into sports faciliti facilities. Well, yeah, i think the issue of sports and intercollegiate sports, i think theres wonderful opportunities for intercollegiate sports at the university of michigan. It provides entertainment for students, its provides a connection for alumni. The alumni culture that i meet, they care tremendously about our sports programs and they also care about their academic programs. Its about striking the right balance, athletics is a wonderful activity, its a cultural activity, but its not the core mission of the university, the core mission of the university is doing research that will fuel future opportunities in our economy. So sports just have to occur in the appropriate balance with the rest of the things that are on mission for the campus. Well try to get to as many calls as we can in our last five minutes or so with dr. Mark schlissell, phils waiting in fairfax, virginia. Caller doctor, i was recently reading a book and an interesting observation that the average student at harvard, his Family Income is over 400,000 i was wondering if you know what it is for university of michigan students and if its really possible for middle income students to attend a school like the university of michigan. I think has had tremendous ous influence on thought across the whole institution, one of the missions of public universities is to in effect address the mall distribution of income across our society. To me, the most tried and true way to do that is through Higher Education. So the challenge is to identify students regardless of their background, who are talented enough to benefit from the level of education we provide here. And we have to be creative in how we look for talent, talent is absolutely everywhere, opportunity certainly isnt, so its an obligation we have to identify people who would benefit, to bring them here to the yourt of michigan, to support them educationally and to provide the Financial Resources they need to attend. And in the long run, i think thats the surest way to change this mall distribution of income issue. Im quite sure the demographic here is different than 400,000 a year. But we certainly are not yet representative of the distribution of income in our society, and we wont be able to stop working on this issue of access and affordability until we are representative of society as a whole. A twitter question for you in our last couple of minutes here. What efforts does michigan make to ensure that the degrees offers are marketable . Sure, so as i mentioned a bit earlier, we offer over 250 different programs and in addition to that, students can design their own program in a variety of ways, so we have tremendous flexibility. We make sure that all of our students learn a common set of skills as well as a particular areas they happen to be interested in. We have got great interest in education here in engineering and business and economics, in skills that students who are looking for careers in those areas can find education here. And we also provide such a broad array of things that allow students to pursue their interests in an uncertain future, where you dont know what the basis of information is going to be 10 or 20 years out. The things driving the Economy Today barely existed 20 years ago. So we offer a breadth of displungedi disciplines as well as education, as quell as marketable skills for a lifetime of personal satisfaction and employability. Wanda is a parent. Good morning. Caller i just want to know why my husband and my income has affected the amount of money that my son is able to get on a student loan. Its ridiculous. Hes working, but my income and my husbands income affects those loans and the Interest Rates are too high and the governments making a lot of profit on these kids. And its shameful. Elizabeth warrens got the answer, we need to listen to her. Thank you, good buy. Dr. Schlissell, if you have some comments. Yeah, other than feeling the challenge of families that struggle to pull together the resources that their children need to get educated, and the fact that loans and the way we distribute loans are challenging here, i dont have much more to say. I think were struggling because we dont have or devote adequate resources to make sure that everyone in this country has access to affordable Higher Education. I personally think its a responsibility of society to our children. And we have to work towards that in many ways, through government means, through private philanthro philanthropy, through the activity that goes on through each institution at a time. We wanted to give you a chance to talk about foreign student at the university of michigan rank, among the highest number of foreign students at a u. S. University with 8,895. Well, many of those students youre talking about are also doctoral or professional students. So we have over 43,000 students on the ann arrebor campus loan d another 8,000 in dear born. But i think its a wuchonderful thing and Higher Education not just in michigan, not just in the state or in the coin try but around the world. Thatre able to atrablt students here from all corners of the world to come and study. In addition to serving a brotder population of students, it affects the quality and the nature of the education we provide here on campus, were heading unarguably towards an increasingly globalized society and having our students here from in state and in the United States to be educated in different parts of the world makes their education richer as a whole. Its actually a wonderful thing, and its one of the comparative advantages of the United States that im very proud of. Dr. Mark schlissell is the president of the university of michigan, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much, and thanks again to cspan for their focus on higher ed, its very important of course. Throughout 2014, cspan has brought you more than 130 candidate debates from across the country, in races that will determine control over the next congress, and this tuesday night, watch cspans live Election Night coverage, to see who wins, who loses and which party will control the house and senate. Our coverage begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern with results and analysis, youll also see candidate victories and concession speeches in some of the most closely watched races around the country. Tonight and tomorrow morning we want to hear from you, with your calls, facebook comment s tweet. 2014 election coverage on cspan. Here are just a few of the comments we have recently steved from our viewers. Calling to comment on a debate that i saw between bruce fine and a man named john ewe, regarding the declaration of war and the war powers act. Quite interesting to watch the legal debate and it also demonstrated some of the ineptitude of the neocon proposition that from the beginning of any war, the president is the ultimate hearsay of the countrys ability to go to war. Caller i would like to commend cspan 2 for airing the information from the writers on greece and the military. It was excellent information that gave Different Levels of interaction and dynamic and nuances and the reality, for instance that posttraumatic stress disorder can climb up and can be resolved if you continue to try various interventions. Caller i think American History tv on cspan is one of the best programs available. I wish we could do it more than once a week. And continue to let us know what you think about the programs youre watching. Call us at 2026263400 email us at comments cspan. Org. With northwestern University President morton shapiro, he looks at highwow universities a preparing students for life and the challenge of keeping top notch faculty. This week here on cspan, we are doing a month long series of interviews with University President s in conjunction with cspan buss Big Ten College tour. And this morning the cspan bus is on the campus of Northwestern University in evanston, illinois, this is near chicago, now joining us on the bus is morton shapiro, mr. Shapiro, lets just begin with challenges that you see to Higher Education as the president of Northwestern University. Thank you, greta and welcome to you, i wish you were here in person, its a Beautiful Day here on the north shore of chicago. Challenges are funding challenges, we are a very big Research University. We get about 600 million a year in sponsored research. I saw earlier before i got on, francis collins, of the National Institutes of health was on, they alone are one of the major funders, you worry about keeping the labs going, you worry about affordability for the most talented students in the country, indeed in the world regardless of family circumstance. The tuition for Northwestern University in state and out of state is 46,836 room and board, comes in at 14,389, why is the price tag over 46,000 to attending Northwestern University . As you just said greta, the Sticker Price is 46,000. But you add in room and board, it goes up to 60,000. We have about they come from families sufficiently wealthy that they can actually afford it. We use a very generous Financial Aid formula. Why do we charge a third of our students as much as 60,000 . Because you look at the data, we spend about 80,000 to educate each undergrad each year, so everybody gets a subsidy. Those the only private universi in the big 10 conference. Whats the differences between them . Our viewers who have been watching us do these interviews will notice one difference. That is seems to be the price tag, northwestern much more expensive than the public universities that weve talked to. Well, were not subsidized by the taxpayers of illinois. We get a little money from the state of illinois to do new construction and keep Research Labs going, et cetera. But generally we have to pay for ourselves. Fortunately at northwestern, we have a very large endowment and we get a lot of money through philanthropy. So your annual budget is about 2 billion, as you said, endowment makes up about 9. 8 billion and Research Awards 550 million. What should parents, students look for in deciding between a Public University and a privaTe University like yours . Well, there are a lot of great publics out there. As you pointed out, were proud be in the big ten. Theres 14 universities in the big ten. Its funny that its still called the big ten. Its an iconic brand so we still call it the big ten. 13 of them are publics. Theyre the public ivies that go along with the private ivies. Theyre great schools. Were a lot smaller, as i said. We have 8,000 fulltime undergrads. If you look at some of the larger ones, penn state, the ohio state, they have almost 40,000 undergrads. Its a little bit of a difference once you get on campus. Theres more of a smallcollege feel. We like to call ourselves Great Research university with the heart of a small college. What about outcomes . Are the outcomes the same . Graduation rates, job placement . Yeah. Im an economists, so ive written a lot about this. I know a little bit about educational outcomes. I could say a few things about northwestern, our Graduation Rate is about 95 against a National Average of close to 60 . We did a survey of the graduating class of 2013. We found most of them within a year of when they graduated and everyone was 22 were in graduate and professional school programs. Everybody else was working fulltime. Were happy to say that. We have a large group of engineers and of course your field, the school of journalism and great Theater Program and on and on and on. So, its probably not that surprising that they all got fulltime jobs. But were proud of those educational outcomes. How many students do you get applying to Northwestern University for their freshman year and how many do you accept . Well, last year we had about 34,000 applicants and accepted more than 4,000. The 13. 0 . The sad thing i can tell you and ive been a college University President now for 15 years, you get many more really highly qualified people who could contribute greatly to life on campus than youre able to admit. Thats clearly the case here with an admit rate of 13 . Whats your criteria . Well, we look at you know, we do look at standardized test scores, a. C. T. And s. A. T. Scores. We know people can take review courses and take it many times. We care a lot about High School Grade point average and really read the essays and we care deeply about teacher evaluations and trying to think about who not only can succeed in the classroom but who more broadly could added to a very diverse, very energetic campus. Its expensive and competitive as you said, so how do you maintain diversity . Its expensive from the people from the top income brackets. Its not expensive for people in the bottom half of the American Income distribution. If you take 60,000 and below, you know, some of those people pay 15,000, some pay 10, some pay nothing including room and board. So you have to be careful when you say its expensive. Its expensive for the people who come from families who can actually afford it. Were a needline, fullneed institution. Theres only about three dozen left in the country out of 4,700 colleges and universities. What are your thoughts on your neighboring state in michigan the top court recently here in d. C. Upheld the michigan ban on college affirmative action. Whats your take on affirmative action for colleges, universities . Well, we have, as you just illuded to in your previous yes, were a very diverse campus, we have a lot of International Students and students from relatively lowincome backgrounds. We do that because each of the applications its hard as we say we have 34,000 applicants. We look at them in the context in which they were able to succeed. Some people come from relatively lower income backgrounds, for example, who didnt have the access to standardized test score review courses and the like. What you do is you look high school specific, family specific and you say, you know, this is what this this is the record this person has produced. Is it good enough to justify being admitted to northwestern. And so far with the Supreme Court rulings and texas and michigan were able to look at people in the context in which they had to succeed. Were talking with morton schapiro, he is the president of Northwestern University in evanston, illinois. Our big ten tour, cspan tour rolls on today. And so we were our top today is at Northwestern University and a border bus is the president , morton schapiro. Hes taking your questions, your concerns about Higher Education. You dont have to have any experience with Northwestern University. We just want to get your thoughts on Higher Education this morning. And so weve decided the lines like this. Students 2025853880. Parents 202058583881. 2025853883 for residents. Morton schapiro, what sort of majors is Northwestern University known for and the job placement of the kids that are coming out of Northwestern University. We have a very big and very large Engineering Program this year about 21 of the 2,000 or so freshman are in that. Were very famous for the school of music, one of the conservatory liberal arts experiences in the country or indeed the world. Our school of journalism, right, were very famous for that are undergraduate and graduate program. A very Strong College of letters of arts and sciences. A great school of education and social policy. Very well known school of communications where our famous Theater Program among other things are. Among others. So we i dont know. Were known as a large fairly large Research University with expertise and excellence across the body. Morton schapiro, you said earlier youre an economist. Do you ever reach out, do you ever hear from companies about what sort of job skills they need from workers that are graduating from Northwestern University . Yes, we do. More so in the preprofessional majors in journalism and engineering and the like, but we do. The data speak for themselves. I mentioned that before when we did a followup of the students who graduated, the seniors in june of 2013. And we found them found almost everyone. Everyone who wanted fulltime employment basically had it. So it made us feel pretty good. Well go to first phone call. Go ahead. Caller yes, good morning. I am a lawyer in new jersey. One of my para legals came to me with tears in her eyes telling me that her little brother who was a student in Manhattan College was short of about 11,000 dollars because his tuition for the year is 54,000. So he had some partial scholarships and all that. The family doesnt have a lot of money and they are basically distraught. Im not sure that this young man is going to be able to continue this year even though he is a very accomplished athlete, but he wasnt very limber about getting signed up on an athletic scholarship. So my question is apparently the family has exhausted all funding sources. I myself am going through some im fine but its a little complicated. Im not sure exactly what options a family like that when they cant get a loan after theyve been admitted into school, what can they do on an emergency basis . Well, you know, first of all i would say in general its a sad story. Im from new jersey myself, so its even sadder to hear somebody from new jersey to tell that story. I mentioned before, were a needblind, we meet full need. That situation would not happen here or at a number of the peer institutions. The only thing i can say as an economist who has done a lot of work in this area is that Higher Education typically the best Financial Investment anyone is going to make in his or her life time if you look at the rates of return, theyre at record levels. They rebounded beautifully from the financial chaos of 2008. So generally for most people who do take out those loans the economic evidence is very clear thats a very good investment. I cant comment in that particular case about sometimes we call economists call imperfections in capital markets. You can get a great return but you cant always get the access to capital and that sounds like thats exactly the case and unfortunate circumstance. Would you say college is worth it across every major, as an economist . I love the way you added across every major, but yes. The data is pretty clear. The Federal Reserve bank of new york released a study two weeks ago and talked about how long it takes in your Work Experience to make up for the cost of college, not just the money you spend in tuition, but also the fore gone earnings when youre in college as opposed into the labor force and look at the differential earnings you get. When i graduated college in 1975, it used to take about 23 years to make up for all those costs, the opportunity costs and direct costs, now it takes less than ten. Its not only a great investment, its a better investment than it ever was. Its not always an equal investment as you eluded to across major. Theres a myth out there if you major in se business, accounting youll make a lot more money over your life time than if you major in classics. The interesting thing is if you look about 15 years after entry into the labor force, classics majors, believe it or not, make even more than accounting majors. Keep that in mind if youre interested in the humanities. Well go to shaun in cambridge, a student up there. Go ahead, shaun. Caller thank you for taking my call and thanks for cspan. Im a graduate student and im actually blind. I was interested in asking question related to accessible materials for students with disabilities in Higher Education. I just was wondering if you could speak to efforts underway to make sure that technologies that are developed, course management interfaces, electronic textbooks, tablets things like that used in the classroom are accessible to people with disabilities and in particular, i was interested in commenting on a bill thats in Congress Called the t chat to set out voluntary guidelines to achieve that. The American Council on education came out in opposition to that bill. Im just wondering if you could speak to where northwestern stands on that and if theres any possibility that the university that apprise the council on education might reach out to them that this bill is important. All right, shaun. I didnt know about the bill, but i am going to reach out. I feel very strongly about this. I think that in many cases, as you know there is a legal obligation, even if there isnt, theres a moral obligation. You get the most talented people and you make sure they get every access to education. As you eluded to with changes in technolo technology, its much more cost efficient and practical to do so. Sometimes people worry about the legal aspects. We ought to worry about the moral aspects as well. Were taking your questions, concerns about Higher Education in this country. Students parents 2025853881 and educators 2025853882 and residents 3883. This is morton schapiro. Roger green on twitter says this for profit schools like northwestern, should not have access to federal education loans guaranteed by the taxpayer. Mr. Schapiro . Well, were not for profit. Were private but were not a proprietary school, were not for profit. Of course we should have access to loans and pell grants. If you look at the fault rates at loans, northwestern, its less than 2 . If youre thinking about Public Policy, whats the best investment the federal government can make and pell grants and guaranteed Student Loans, i mean, the Graduation Rates at the selective privates are in the 90s. At the publics theyre in the 50s. So i think its it would be terrible Public Policy to exclude private not for profit sector. Its very different for the private for profit sector. Thats a different question. Weve seen the Student Loan Debt go up and Interest Rates are higher for some loans for Higher Education. Well, theres a lot of attention to the fact that when Student Loan Debt crossed the trillion dollars and lot of reporters got very excited about that very large number and they talked at length that its now exceeds generally Credit Card Debt depending on how you measure it, but thats the sort of more sensationalistic headline. The reality is that Credit Card Debt, for example, is basically paying the price of con sujs goods. Where as i said before, the best Economic Investment and theres enormous literature not just my work but a lot of other economists have worked on this forever, its the best economic decision one can make. You dont want to con Florida State Credit Card Debt which is paying off tvs and cars for consumption goods and Student Loan Debt, which is basically the best investment anyone is ever going to make. John in illinois. A parent there. Hi, john. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Mr. Schapiro, i have a question rega regarding student admission. My son is a junior currently in district 204 out here in naperville. And hes averaging approximately a 3. 75 gpa, but hes really not involved in sports or outside interests. If he was interested in attending northwestern, what would he need to do to increase potential chances to get in . Well, we get a lot of really good kids from naperville, so first of all, i want to tell you we love the schools out there. So it sounds like your son congratulations to you and to your son. Your son sounds like hes very, very successful. To get into any single selective private or indeed selective public, its a little bit of a crap shoot to be honest. When youre only admitting as we do 13 of the applicants. You never know. Thats why i tell children of our friends, apply to a lot of different places. Generally if you apply early it increases your percentages and theres a big data base based that shows that. So i would tell him to it always sounds trite but to find a passion. But i would also tell him to enjoip high school. I just spoke to the 2000 entering freshman and 100 transfers on monday and one of the things i did is apologize for them. For some cases i hope its not the case for your son that the process of getting in to a very prestigious, very Selective School such as northwestern, sometimes ruins their love of learning. You know, maybe they take too many advanced placement courses, they take too many a. C. T. , s. A. T. Review courses. For some of those kids i teach freshman, you have to rekindle their true love of learning. If the price for your son to get into a highly selective private or public is to ruin his childhood, its not worth it. What about legacy . Is that a factor in admissions into northwestern . It is. It is. You know, we dont have the same percentage legacy. Its a little slightly south of 10 . There are a number of institutions where its about 20 . But it is. But, you know, we dont i think its overplayed in the press sometimes. You know, there are a lot of ties. Theres 34,000 applicants and probably 10,000 of them are really not ready to prosper and to contribute widely to the campus here at northwestern. But of the rest, you know, youre taking about half of them. And one of the things that breaks ties, if they basically pretty much have that equivalent gpa and a. C. T. And s. A. T. And indistinguishable, one of the parents went to northwestern, its a way to break ties. Before i talk about the moral obligation, the moral obligation is to make sure that everyone whom we admit can really prosper here and get feel good about himself or herself. And, you know, just because your parents or grandparents went here or were donors, my responsibility is the kid, not to anybody else. Well go to mary in pennsylvania a parent there. Hi, mary, youre on the air. Caller hi. Im the mother of eight children who are educated children and all went to college to become marine biologist, lawyers, doctors, et cetera. I have par kinsons, so thats why im shaking. And im very upset about the moral decline in colleges. I dont want my children going to college and drinking. I dont want them to have to have a job on the side so they can go to these places and have all this noise and all this drinking. Why arent you having more formal relationships between man and woman . Thats just as important as education. And thats why i think our moral ethics and values in our society are declining because we as parents are putting all this money into our children to be corrupted. All right, mary. Well take that up. Well, god bless you with your eight children and im sorry about your medical condition, but you should be very proud of what youve done for obviously your children. I take issue with the premise of the question, i hate to say that. I dont think anything is declining. Again, ive been a faculty member for 35 years, so i showed up on campus in 1971 originally. I never left. So im pretty close to it. Also as a president , ive lived more or less on campus for 15 years. I think this generation of young men and women, those born between 1980 and 2000 are a lot more impressive than my generation of baby boomers. I think their moral character is probably better. As drinking and other aspects of student life a problem, yeah. Is it a greater problem than it was when i was in college, absolutely not. I think we just shine the spotlight on it and no longer have our heads in the sand and are dealing with it. This is a headline from fox. The suspect in the case of the missing university of virginia student is charged with abduction. What is northwestern doing about Campus Safety . Well, were blessed to be here in a wonderful suburban location, evanston, is a fantastic city. Its a city of 75,000 or so. We dont dominate the whole city, but were really blessed to be here. You know, you can look at one of the nice things that the government has forced everybody to do is to disclose your crime statistics. I mean, it could always happen. Uva is a Sensational School in charlottesville is as close to heaven as you can get in this country, but terrible things do happen. Again, i think and this refers to the previous question, there was a time when we swept things under the rug, not specifically northwestern but everywhere, say when i was in college about drinking, about sexual assault, about other aspects of safety. And now we dont. So were very up front about it and we try to deal with it. I think by trying to deal with it and recognizing problems were much more successful. Northwestern is one of the primary founders of the big ten. And you noted earlier, there are actually 14 schools in the big ten. What is the significance of this conference . Well, it stands for academic as well as athletic excellence. So northwestern, were a little bit its a little bit unusual given that were so much smaller than the other 13 universities and were the only private. But were proud to be there. It stands for something. It stands for the student athlete and excellence in everything we do. One thing i really love as president of the northwestern is that just as we tell the music students that they should try to get jobs at the chicago sim pony or new York Philharmonic and tell our theory people whether its Julia Louisdreyfus or seth meyers, they should win emmys. We also tell our athletes that they should compete at the highest National Athletes but theyre student athletes. Whats the value to the members of the big ten . Well, the value, i think, we have an academic. People obviously focus, as you understand, on the athletic side, but were also an academic conference and we have consortium of academics led by the chief academic officers who Work Together so we have tremendous cooperative Research Operations and even some teaching. So its both the athletic side and the academic side. And for us, you know, north western, a relatively small, privaTe University, you know, were on national tv constantly. Were playing football this week at penn state. So were going to be on national tv again. Then we host wisconsin the next week and it goes on and on and on. We have nebraska coming in, michigan coming in. You pick up the paper and theres a big thing about northwestern and were always on tv. So it gives us very nice exposure and what we really like is its exposure about the Academic Excellence as well as athletic excellence at northwestern. Were talking education with the president of Northwestern University, morton schapiro. Hes joining us aboard cspans bus as it continues on its Big Ten College tour. We want to get your thoughts, your comments, your concerns about Higher Education. Students dial 2025853880 and educators 2025853882 and residents 3883. Where do you come down on Football Players trying to unionize . Well, that was a strange day for me. People always ask me as a longtime president , anything ever surprised you . That day surprised me, i have the tell you. If you go back to when our student athletes led by our former wonderful quarterback kain colter came out and said, well, we should try to think about unionizing. You know, they quickly pointed out that we have a Graduation Rate for Football Players about 97 . We dont have special majors. We dont have special dorms and they said but it would be good to do it for everyone, you know, for safety concerns and the like. So, my own sense, alums dont like to hear me say it, im proud that this happened at northwestern. We train people to be leaders. That came out of a class. Kain had a class history of labor unions. He wrote a paper, could you unionize Football Players. Thats where it came from. Im proud it came out of here. That said, i feel very strongly that our Football Players and oir 492 varsity athletes here at northwestern, theyre students. As i said, we dont have special majors or dorms and we lead the nation year after year in Graduation Rates for our athletes. So theyre student athletes. Does northwestern profit off of these athletes and if so, why shouldnt these students be able to get some of those profits . No, we dont profit. Our budget, as i said before, is 2. 1 billion. Our total athletics and recreation part of that budget is 64 million. It generates 64. We spend it on the students. They get scholarships here. No, its not like we make so much extra money, like some schools might be able to do and spend it on academics. No, we do it because we generate the money, we spend it within athletics and recreation. The students who get scholarships, as you pointed out thats worth over 60,000 a year, theyre getting into a Great University and they have the educational outcomes that are consistent with attending and graduating such a great institution. Well go to virginia in illinois. Youre on the air. Caller thank you. I dont have a student in college at this time, but i have had. And i was very disappointed that a university with the standing that northwestern has and also the university of illinois chicago would have people on their staff that have been very subversive in the past and broken laws. And what could a parent do if they dont want their children being taught by this type of person . Well, i dont know youre el lewding to a lot of things. A lot of the listeners arent aware. The faculty, we have 3,000 people or so on the faculty. I think theyre generally wonderful scholars and Great Teachers and proud members of the community. You know, there are a lot of schools. If you really want to say that because theres one professor who might have done something in the past that you dont like, you know, youre not going to send the kid to that school, there are other schools to send the kid. I think if you actually look at that and youre going to find out that there are many people the important thing is what happens in the classroom. Does this professor bring his or her political ideology or whatever into the classroom. Im very proud member of the faculty here at northwestern. I dont think anybody does it better than we do. Well go to evanston, illinois, a parent there. Hello, go ahead. Youre on the air. Go ahead. Caller okay. I have a grandson who is an excellent student. Hes in all advanced classes. He is an excellent athlete. And i would like to know if theres any advantage of his going to eths or applying to northwestern . Yeah, eths is evanston town high school. Its a wonderful school. We have 13 i think eths students in the freshman class and answer is, yeah. Not only do you get if the family is eligible for Financial Aid, we created something when i first came as president five years ago called the Good Neighbor Great University program. Anybody who graduates high school in chicago or in evanston gets a special Financial Aid package where no loan, no summer earnings expectations. If you do work study, you keep it. Its not taxed in Financial Aid sense. We love the kids from eths. We just love them. Ive had the great pleasure of teaching a number of them over the past five years. This is a story from the Chicago Tribune back in march. Northwestern university to launch areas largest Fund Raising Campaign 3. 75 billion. What does it take to raise that kind of money and why is it necessary . Well, its necessary because, you know, you want to keep those laboratories going and pathbreaking, earthshattering scientific discoveries. You want to make sure that all the students who get in here to northwestern have the same experience regardless of family circumstances. And you want to stay need blind, so all that takes a lot of money. Yeah, were in a campaign. Lot of people are in campaigns. So far its going extremely well. Some people believe in our vision. Some people want to associate with the excellence of Northwestern University. And many people are very loyal because they had Transformative Experiences when they were here either as undergrads in graduate school or in professional school programs. The Chicago Tribune notes that if this is successful, it would be among the ten largers efforts by a university in the United States. You said its going well so far. How close are you to your goal . Well, we went we ended the quiet phase only about six months ago on actually march 14th. We had already raised over a billion and a half and now weve raised a lot of money since then. The numbers are daunting when you have that number of 0s on it, but people really love northwestern. And theyre very generous to support us. Whats the donor process like . Do you vet potential donors . Whats it like . Yeah. We spend a lot of time. We have a pretty large Alumni Relations and dwom operation. I spent a substantial portion of my time when im not doing other things on fundraising activities. Its a sophisticated operation as you would expect it could need to be and the success speaks for itself. How much time do you spend fund raising . You know, im a little unusual because i still teach and i still publish, so i do a lot of travel. Im on the road almost every week. Im not teaching this quarter, but i will be teaching next quarter, a large course with a lot of freshman in it. I would never miss it. So i teach tuesday and thursday and generally what happens is i go right to ohare from my class and i almost never fly in again thursday morning because if theres a delay, there will be a lot of students that might notice im not there. I might try to fly back wednesday night. Im gone tuesday and most of the day on wednesday and quite often i leave again for the weekends. It depends on what time of year and what i can do. I spend a fair amount of time fund raising. But my faculty colleagues dont understand how gratifying it is. When you have something you really care about and you raise the money to support it, its as good as teaching a great class or publishing a great article. You do teach, as you noted. What is the tenure rate percentage at Northwestern University . And how is that achieved . Well, yeah. We have about two thirds or so of our faculty, you know, in the tenuretrack line positions who have tenure. Its a standard sort of thing. The prevalence of tenure in american Higher Education has really changed over the course of my career, you know, when i got my ph. D. Back in 1979 and began my faculty career teaching at university of pennsylvania that year. Used to be that almost two thirds of all the fulltime faculty were in the tenure system. Now its below 30 . So, thats changed. But within the tenure system, the way to get tenure hasnt really changed. Do you think that reduction has impacted Higher Education negatively . Thats a very good issue. I mention i continue to do some publi publishing. I had an article that came out about a year ago and got a lot of coverage. It looked for the first time at contingent faculty and contingent faculty at northwestern are people who teach here full time, they teach here for a long period of time. The average tenure is eight years, but theyre not on the tenure system. We look at their teaching effectiveness and that of the tenured track and tenured faculty. We were very surprised what we found. We found that their teaching excellence is easily supported by the impeer kal data. If you treat those people right and you recognize their value in american Higher Education, its a little less worrying than the in your opinions going from two thirds tenured track to under 30 might lead you to believe. Mr. Schapiro, what do you think of online courses, being able to attend college, get a degree without having to pay for the room and board . Yeah. I think its overblown in the media, frankly. Again, as i said, ive been a faculty member for 35 years. Technology really helps. There are certainly places where s and similar kinds of vehicles are very effective, but doesnt change the magic of what happen nps a classroom and certainly doesnt change the experience of what happens outside the classroom. Before i became an administrator 20 years ago, i was blissfully unaware that lot of the College Education we provide takes place in the dorms. Its what happens in a student involvement group, a Public Service group, what happens in an ok pel la group, what happens on a saturday night in the dorms when people sit around. Thats a lot of the education. And that doesnt happen when youre sitting in your bedroom in your pajamas on a mook with a Graduation Rate of 2 of the people who enroll in the class. As we wrap up, here, president schapiro, you mentioned at the top of the some of the greatest challenges of Higher Education, one of them being affordability. What else do you see happening in Higher Education that worries concerns you . Well, we want to create wellrounded individuals. To a certain extent, it goes back to the question of somebody before talking about what it takes to get into one of our places. I think theres an undue specialization for young people in order to get into the most selective colleges and universities. Thats why i said before when i welcomed the students, i think they were surprised that i apologized for the process not all but for some of them to get into a school like ours. The challenge to create people who are citizens of the world. You want them to have a love of learning so they educate themselves. I think of how little i knew when i graduated college in 1975. I still dont know all that much but i know a lot more than than i did in 1975. You want to em bu in them a real civility and a respect for others and for difference. The world i think were leaving the millennials a more difficult world than we were left by as a baby boomer by our parents and i want to think that american Higher Education and a place like Northwestern University is part of the solution not still another part of the problem. Morton schapiro is the president of the Northwestern University. We want to thank you and your staff for joining us for this conversation, talking to our viewers and allowing the cspan bus there at Northwestern University. Appreciate it. Its an honor to be here. Throughout campaign 2014, cspan has brought you more than 130 candidate debates from across the country, in races that will determine control of the next congress. This tuesday night, watch cspans live Election Night coverage to see who wins, who loses and which party will control the house and senate. Our coverage begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern with results and analysis. Youll also see candidate victory and concession speeches in some of the most closelywatched senate races across the country. Throughout the night and into the morning, we want to hear from you with your calls, Facebook Comments and tweets. Campaign 2014 Election Night coverage on cspan. Here are just a few of the comments we recently received from our viewers. 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Or send us a tweet at next a forrum on Mental Health care and legislation. Former congressman, Patrick Kennedy of rhode island. Virginia state senator and singer demi lovato spoke about their experiences with Mental Health. The National Alliance on Mental Health hosted this event in september. [ applause ]. Hello, everyone. Welcome to our national convention. I am so excited to see all of you here today. And welcome to our national day of action. I hope youre ready to take some action. We Want Congress to act. And so today, our supporters here and around the country are going to be calling, emailing, tweeting and visiting capitol hill. And when you visit capitol hill, i want you to remember that you are part of the nami movement. We are a movement of people dedicated to providing help and hope to all of those effected by Mental Illness. A movement that demands a more caring and better Mental Health care system that provides help to us when we need it and where we need it. A movement [ applause ]. Thats right. A movement that rages against homelessness, emergency rooms, jails and prisons. Weve had too much of that and we want it to change. [ cheers and applause ]. And a movement that fights for recovery for people with Mental Illness, for jobs, for homes, for family and for friends, for the ability to use all of your gifts and all of our talents. [ applause ]. This movement will Tell Congress today that its time to act and we will be supported and inspired by our speakers today. The first probably needs no introduction, but im going to give him one any way. Patrick kennedy served eight years in congress until 2011, representing Rhode Islands first district. He was the leading champion of the national Mental Health parody bill which was passed in 2008. He has been [ applause ]. Yes he has been the recipient of namis highest honor, our distinguished service award. He continues to be a leading voice for Scientific Research and the transformation of Mental Health care and patrick is all of those things, but he is so much more. He is a beacon of hope for all of those who struggle with Mental Illness and addiction. I had the privilege this summer of visiting a peerrun dropin scepter in chicago on 47th street. I got a really warm welcome, but they couldnt wait to tell me about their visit from Patrick Kennedy. And what a difference he made by telling his story in such a heartfelt way, the way he always does. And one of them said it best, they said, he is one of us. And thats how we feel at nami. Patrick is one of us. Hes been a great friend to those in the Mental Health community and we want to welcome our great friend, Patrick Kennedy. [ cheers and applause ]. Thank you very much. Well, when i was in congress, you know, i got used to that standing ovation. Now that im out of congress, im just going to stand up here and soak it in because im in recovery. And not only recovery from [ applause ]. Im in recovery from being in politics. [ laughter ]. Let me just say from the outset how great mary has been in terms of hitting the ground running and really coming in. Talk about trying to drink water from a fire hydrant. She came in at a time that is going to be the most formative time in Mental Health advocacy in the last 50 years. And we couldnt be more proud to have you as executive director of nami, mary. [ cheers and applause ]. And ron homberg and andrew sperling, terrific policy team who are getting you all ready to go to go to the hill, your whole nami team is exceptional and ive had the honor of working with them for many years. Let me just first say to demi lovato, i told her back stage, she is already a hit. We know shes produced lots of hits, but shes already a hit star with all of us because shes willing to stand up in the lights and say, shes one of us, too. [ cheers and applause ]. My daughter my 6yearold daughter loves skyscraper. I tell you, demi, youre our skyscraper when it comes to standing up tall when things are falling around us because of the stigma and discrimination against Mental Health and to have someone like you willing to take a stand means something to all of us. And were really grateful again that youre here. [ cheers and applause ]. Now, most of you have heard of my uncle, president john kennedy. But one of the things that president kennedy was known for was his book profiles in courage. And if he were alive today and were adding another chapter to that historic book, he would include senator and mrs. Craig deeds in that book. [ applause ]. Senator, like my family, your tragedy was exhibited in public in a way that should not have to be for any family. And instead of running away from the problem, you ran towards it and you took your own devastating, incomprehensible personal tragedy and you showed the light of your own familys experience facing a fragmented, uncoordinated Mental Health system which was the responsibility of all of us to do better on and showed what the ultimate consequences of that failed system is through the loss of your son. And you, more than anyone, have helped america understand what is at stake if we do nothing to repair this broken Mental Health system. Senator deeds and mrs. Deeds, we owe you a debt of responsibility to fulfill your mission, to fix the system so that it doesnt have to befall any other family like it did your own. And for that, we are very grateful for your leadership. [ cheers and applause ]. President kennedy in 1963 talked about the Civil Rights Act this way he said, who amongst us would trade the color of their skin and be content with those who counsel patients and delay . See, at the time, many people said we can take another 10, 15, 20 years to implement civil rights. Its okay. Lets take our time. That means one thing to a white american. It means something entirely different if the color of your skin is dark in this country. And you are discriminated against simply because of the color of your skin. Who amongst us would trade places with that person and be content with those who tell us, just wait. Now is not the time. We face a similar moment in History Today because this is an issue that is a civil rights issue. Its about the discrimination against our brothers and sisters simply because of immunable fact that theyre illness [ applause ]. That their illness, as immunable as the color of their skin, is an illness of the brain as opposed to an illness of any other organ in the body. Shortly after president kennedy put the civil rights bill before congress, he took on another civil rights bill, the community Mental Health act and he said the mentally ill need no longer be alien to our affections or beyond the help of your communities. [ applause ]. Have you ever heard something so clear in terms of what we need today . The mentally ill need no longer be alien to our affections or beyond the help of our communities. Pretty simple, isnt it . Pretty basic. Now, youre all going to go up to the hill today and youre going to advocate for simple things, making sure that families are part of the treatment plan, planning for their loved ones, just as they would be if their loved one was coming out of the hospital for any other physical illness. [ applause ]. Youre going to go up there and say, dont those with brain illnesses deserve the same coordinated care as any other chronic illness that is out there . And why shouldnt our Health Care System reflect the desire to optimize care by making sure that its coordinated for the benefit of the patient . This is Pretty Simple stuff, my friends. [ applause ]. Youre going to go up there and talk about the fact that this is simply about treating the brain like any other organ of the body. [ applause ]. Now, i could we could spend all day, as you often do at your nami meetings, going through the litany of discriminatory practices embedded in federal law and federal regulation. I mean, its replete with discrimination. So, rather than letting the congress get lost in the details, make sure as mary did in her article in role call we keep it simple, my friends. This is not complicated. Treat Mental Illness the same as every other illness and we will make an enormous difference in tackling the challenges that face us. [ cheers and applause ]. But how do we treat it . If this were cancer, there would be a revolution in this country. This would be if this were diabetes, there would be a revolution in this country. The way we pay for Mental Health care today is we say to the mentally ill and those with addictions, come back when you have stage 4 cancer. Thats what we would be saying to them. Say, come back for treatment when you need your legs amputated as a diabetic. We wouldnt think of saying that to anybody with diabetes or anyone with cancer. And we shouldnt think of saying it for those who are suffering from Mental Illness and addiction. [ cheers and applause ]. And then and then we say, well, these problems are too great. We cant get our arms around them. Theyre intractable and theyre uncurable. Wait a second here. If you let cancer metastasize to stage 4, yes, its pretty difficult to treat. If you let diabetes get to be where you need an amputation and e you lose your sight, yes, its a pretty terrible disease to cure and fix. But if you intervene on first on set of schizophrenia, first on set of addiction and put in place the kind of preventive measures that we would put in place if it were any other chronic illness, we would have a different trajectory and people would not be forced to have their illness pathologized because of lack of care and the untreatment of the mentally ill that goes on for too long and creates too much disability and too much mortality. This is a simple issue. [ applause ]. So, we need to be clear with congress on our vision for a new Mental Health system. We cannot allow them simply to move deck chairs on the titanic. You understand what im saying . We cant let them make this decision about commitment and forced this or that. You know what, if you treated someone early in their illness, they wouldnt be forced to take the high levels of medication that they end up having to take because you never take care of them until their illness becomes pathologized and then they wouldnt have the side effects and then they wouldnt have the compliance issues. This is a simple issue. Treat it like every other issue. Treat it early. Treat it aggressively. Youll save lives. Youll save disability and well all as a society be better off for it. [ cheers and applause ]. Now, on the commitment issue, because its the most controversial out there, commitment to what . Okay. Why dont we have the same expectations and standard for care for the mentally ill that we expect for every other physical illness . We shouldnt be committing people to substandard care or lack of evidencebased treatment. But on the issue of commitment, i know about it personally. My brother and sister took guardianship of our mother. So no one needs to talk about these issues to me because like my mother, i have serious depression and bipolar and like my mother, i struggle with addiction and alcoholism, and like my mother, some day, god forbid, my children have to save my life, i want them to step up to the plate and save their fathers life like i saved my mothers life. [ cheers and applause ]. So, i come back to it. You got my refrain. This is simple. Just treat these illnesses as if they were any other illness and apply those standards to this set of illnesses. The biggest challenge were facing and ill wrap up with this is political will. And that political will is a reflection of the lack of understanding and its the result of cultural indifference and bigotry, which feeds the prejudice and discrimination that effects those with Mental Illness, like myself. So, my proposal would be lets, like the Civil Rights Act, we had to pass the Voting Rights act to define what we meant by civil rights, then we had to pass the Fair Housing Act to define what we meant by civil rights, then we had to pass the fair employment act to define what we meant by civil rights. I hope we dont have to go around and begin to define what is common sense, what is basic, and that is like my friend tim murphy said, treat one another with dignity and respect. If you do that, the rest of it will fall into place. [ cheers and applause ]. And ill conclude with this my father was known for compromises. Now, no one said that my father okay . My dad was a champion and a stalwart for the liberal cause. But when it came to advancing the national interests, not just his party interests, he worked with orin hatch and mike dempsey and john mccain and all of them. Because at the end of the day this is about making progress. Not making perfection the enemy of the good. So i would say lets make sure hhs and departmental labor enforce, okay, implement. Monitor compliance of. Health insurance plans to make sure that they are meeting the federal laws requirement. This is simple stuff. Follow the law. Okay . And lets make sure the federal government follows the law. So not only are we going to hold Insurance Companies accountable to law, we need our own medicaid and public Health System accountable to the federal law. So you know, to my republican friends, this is easy. Just do what everyone says. Follow the law. You know, you pass laws now you got to live by them. Apply it to medicaid. If youre you know, my democratic friends say apply the law to these managed Care Organizations who like to impose higher treatment and financial limitations on those suffering from Mental Illness. Follow the law. Lets implement it. Lets monitor compliance. And then lets do the other things that we know is going to make a difference in deinstitutionalizing people from the new institutions. The jails and the prisons so that we can finally treat people with the dignity and the respect that they deserve. And we have a moment of time now because the newest population that are within our ranks are returning veterans from iraq and afghanistan suffering from the quote unquote invisible wounds of war. So any member of congress who said oh, well, those are the mentally ill and those people with addiction, they are not a very Popular Crowd around here. Because you know, they dont stack up in the measurement of political, you know, power in this town. Tell them that what we have been fighting for our whole lives is now what is necessary to save the lives of our returning heroes. And there should not be a democrat or republican out there who says no to the agenda that you take up to capitol hill today. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, patrick, i told you our speakers today were going to be inspiring. And im happy to introduce to you now, a wonderful leader, namis leader, jim payne. Good morning, im so happy to be here, and i join Patrick Kennedy on behalf of the board and say how glad we are that you are serving as executive director. Im very indebted to our special guest here and of course saddened that circumstances at times bring any of us in this room together. I will say that i am happy at this particular moment to in a moment to introduce my dear friend, betsy greer, i do serve as the interim president of nami, i am from virginia, hello to everybody out there from virginia, and betsy, the lo longtime leader, affiliate, im going to introduce betsy to take it from here, to jointly introduce our next speaker. Named in honor of betsys late husband who was namis first legislative director. Good morning. 2014 marks namis 35th anniversary. Richard greer served as snai na fulltime employee, back when nami was a onebedroom apartment on massachusetts avenue. Those were the days when our loved ones were being discharged from state psychiatric hospitals and returned to their home communities. They were extremely ill but their families had no skills or support to care for them. In those times, Richard Greer usually didnt come home for supper until 8 or 9 00 in the evening, answering calls from across the nation for people seeking help for their loved ones, what do i need . Where do i find services . What programs help . Whom should i call . It was through those phone calls that Richard Greer found nami foot soldiers to carry the message for better needs for services and programs. He sent them to capitol hill just as you are being asked to go today. Are you ready . This year, through the award is Virginia State senator using the power of his own familys story as a force for change. He used it to educate the virginia General Assembly about the need for better services. He has spoken out national ly hs wo words helped with nami. He lost his son, gus, who struggled with bipolar disorder. As with many families, he tried to get help for his son, but not in time. I want you to know, creigh, i will work hard to help support you and other families. I will work with you so that loved ones in our community with live safely and to their highest level of independence possible. Nami and i share your loss and we honor your courage. Welcome to the nami family. As Richard Greer would say, you are not alone. Congratulations, you are a worthy recipient of Richard Greer advocacy award for your outstanding work, your leadership and service for all People Living with Mental Illness. Smirm. Thank you all so much, i just have a couple of things to say, and before i get started i want to acknowledge my wife, chavon, and my partners in the legislative process from virginia, i see George Barker in the senate with me, ken plum and charnell herring and ken pope, who are in the house of delegates. And don bauer right here. I hope i havent missed anybody. But thank you so much, thank you to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Thank you, jim payne and betsy greer, im honored to receive the award and im humbled. Although i never met mr. Greer his reputation lives on and his commitment endures through the work of everyone here. I served in the state legislature for almost 23 years, hard to believe, don bauer, you were there at the beginning, it is hard to believe it has almost been 23 years, throughout my tenure i fought for help for the mentally ill. And was always ashamed by virginias lack of funding and help. Mental health was never my top priority, i was involved in economic development, education, transportation, public safety, environmental issues. There were lots of things that were at the top of my heap. I promise you that i would do anything, i would give anything to not be in this position today. When my world changed forever last november i knew that i had to do something to make a change, to prevent future tragedies. My family had been dealing with my sons illness for some years. But i never truly understood what gus was going through or how he suffered. I determined to devote my life and my efforts to change the law to reduce the likelihood that such tragedies would occur in the future, to discuss Mental Health openly and honestly in an effort to remove the stigma and to work to ensure that my son was remembered for who he was and what he did. Not how he died. I couldnt do that while sitting on the sidelines or working behind the scenes. My son was unbelievable. He remains in every respect my hero. Gus was exactly what i wanted to be. He was smart, and handsome, strong, and inquisitive. Confident. Such confidence. He was helpful and kind and generous, he was brilliant. And he was so talented. He could master any musical instrument, he could sing and dance and had deep faith in god and was indeed his brothers keeper. He could do anything he wanted to do and do it well. His life was just not long enough. I determined to make what changes i could this past legislative session in the crisis intervention area of the law and the things that immediately failed gus just trying to his death. But i know that so many people and families live in crisis or live crisis to crisis. And as you in this room know the problems inherent in the system in virginia are not unique. People have reached out to me, desperate for help, desperate for help from throughout the country. I know that many people are engulfed in Mental Illness, including our neighbors and friends and coworkers and they have so much to share and so much to contribute to society. Who knows whether the cure for cancer or the next big idea to save the earth or unlock the secrets of the universe is locked in the mind of someone who now struggles with a disease of the brain. And how many of those bright minds are locked away in our criminal justice system. You know, i represented five people recently one afternoon in the Circuit Court of Allegheny County in a small rural area that i represent in the legislature, but also im a lawyer. Because legislative services are parttime in virginia, five people charged with criminal offenses, three of them went to the penitentiary that afternoon. All five struggled with three of them had serious Mental Health diagnoses, one was less serious but not unserious at all. Depression, and also had an addiction problem and another was just a complete alcoholic. All five struggled. It is just unconscionable that so many people are locked away in institutions that simply struggle from Mental Illness. Im not finished with the work weve done in virginia, what weve seen is the beginning of the work that must be done, not the end. In the words of mike scott of the water boys, that was the river. This is the sea. Im determined to make virginia the leader in Mental Health. Im determined that everybody in virginia who is in need, no matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter what the circumstances of their birth. No matter whether they have health insurance, every virginian will receive the services they need and we intervene as quickly as possible to make sure they can lead the life they need to live and families can feel safety and real hope. This morning you will depart to visit your congressional representatives on the hill. Dont stop there, take this conversation back to your state capitals, to your governor, to your state representatives. Share your stories and experiences, continue to shed light on an issue that is too often left in the shadows. Everyone in this room knows at a personal level just as i do that people remain ignorant about Mental Illness. Rather than responding with compassion and understanding, people fear and minimize and deny that which they do not understand. The stigma that results from this illness holds us back. We have to educate and put names and faces on the issue. They will remember you. Help me to help others understand that the time to act is now. We cannot afford to wait for another crisis or tragedy. Too many lives have been lost, too many families changed forever already. We need to be in the prevention business and longterm recovery business. We need to provide as wide a range of services as the uniqueness of the individual warrants. The Current Crisis system is failing. The energy, innovation and ideas to fix the system are here in this room. We have no other option but to act. Thank you for your excellent work, thank you for this tremendous honor. The work goes on. Thank you so much, senator deeds, as the speakers have shown this morning, the power of our advocacy flows. The next speaker is an especially powerful voice participating in namis call to action. Recording artist, author, actress and advocate. Demi lovato is an incredible talent, like her current album, unbroken, last year she was honored for her mentorship of young adults with Mental Illness and Substance Abuse issues. And this year, her book, staying strong 365 days a year made the the New York Times best seller list. This year she embarked on a tour to share her story and to learn from leaders in the Mental Health advocacy community. We are especially grateful to her for coming here today, because in just two days she starts a world tour and will make stops in 28 cities, across the u. S. And in candidate. Yes. Her fan base includes over 24 million diehard twitter followers and 36 million facebook fans. Many of whom we hope will join us today in our day of action. And two of those millionings of fans live in my home in arlington, virginia, and are ages 12 and 15. And i am very grateful to demi as a Mental Health advocate, but im especially grateful to her as a mom. I cant tell you how much it means to have a celebrity who is a real role model. Who takes her fame and uses it to help others, to raise awareness. To help young girls and all of us battle the prejudice that keeps so many from speaking out and getting help. Demi is one of us at nami, she brings help and hope to all of those affected by Mental Illness and were thrilled to have her here today. Thank you so much. The introduction was really overwhelming. And in the most positive way. So thank you. Hi, everyone, my people. It is an honor and a privilege to be here today. At namis national day of action. Looking out at all of you is so inspiring. It is great to see so many people that are dedicated to improving Mental Health and lives of others. Seeing people of all ages from all over the country come together gives me so much hope that change is really possible. Those of us here today know that Mental Illness has no prejudice. It affects people of every race, age, gender, religion and economic status. It doesnt discriminate between republicans or democrats either. That is why we are here today. We need to send a simple message to our nations leaders. Mental Health Matters and needs and must be taken seriously. It is time to act for Mental Health. And pass comprehensive Mental Health bills this year. Were here because groups like nami help us understand that our voices really do matter. Our stories really do matter. We have the power to make a difference and we have the personal experience needed to be taken seriously. We know what it means to have our lives or the lives of people we love get off track because of Mental Illness. We understand that Mental Illness is serious and can be absolutely devastating. We also know that Mental Illness can be treatable when we have the access to appropriate comprehensive care. I know that it is largely because of our personal experience with Mental Illness that each of us is here today. As i learn more about my own illness and the experience of others i realize how much we all have in common. Even if Mental Illness has made a few headlines because of my career. There is a number of ways in which i have been very lucky. Yet, even with access to so much my journey has not been an easy one by any means. During my darkest times i didnt know why i was alive and i definitely didnt like myself. I had very low periods that were so emotionally draining that i couldnt find the strength to crawl out of bed in the morning. I was withdrawn, disconnected and very angry. There were stretches of time where i felt nothing but shame. I would medicate myself with alcohol and drugs in order just to feel normal. Not better, just normal. I didnt understand why somebody like me with all the resources and reasons in the well to be emotionally well i couldnt find happiness. When i finally got diagnosed with bipolar disorder it was a relief in so many ways. It helped me to start making sense of my bipolar depression and all the harmful things i was doing to cope with it. Getting the right diagnosis didnt happen overnight. Through the process of being misdiagnosed and misunderstood i learned how important it was to be open with your doctor so you could get to the root of what was going on as soon as possible. The treatment involved a therapist, being honest with myself and others, following my treatment plan and taking care of my body. It requires comprehensive care. Living well with bipolar disorder takes work and it doesnt all happen at once. There was not one day when the lights simply came on and i said im cured. Im better. Sometimes the first, second or even third medication we tried is not one that works the best. But we owe it to ourselves to keep trying. The reality is that youre not a car who goes into the shop and gets fixed immediately. You need ongoing maintenance. There will always be work left to do. I can only do the work now because i truly believe that im worth it. And today, im so grateful for my life and i want to preserve and protect it. It is my personal mission to share with others of all ages, people who are children that are fans, people that dont know my music at all but hopefully my speech today can have some impact. Its my mission to share this