The conference consisted of a series of workshops, panels and speakers, among them President Tony Marx and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Tom Parker. Among the topics discussed were the challenges and importance of having socioeconomic diversity in elite institutions as well as the challenges students face when attending those institutions.
Professor of Sociology Ronald Lembo, as well as several College students and an alumnus, attended the conference. Of all the schools represented at the conference, the Amherst delegation was the largest one with a contingency of 15.
The majority of the College's students who attended were part of the Amherst's Telementoring Program, a program that helps low-income or first-generation College students navigate through the college application process. The program pairs high school students with work-study eligible college students to help them with their application forms and financial aid questions. Students in the program are of high academic standing and are encouraged to apply to a variety of institutions of higher education, not necessarily just Amherst.
"There was definitely an overwhelming presence of telementors at the conference," said telementor Anaid Reyes '08. "I think we were all eager to learn about admission policies on the national scale to better help our mentees through the application process."
However, the students' interest in the issues goes further than the purely professional aspect. "I basically wanted to know what was going on with admissions, financial aid and other education policies," said Hyowoun Jung '08. "I wanted to take part in the discussion and contribute my own perspective as a student receiving financial aid."
Reyes added that the event's participants addressed current topics of concern. "The issues that the conference grappled with are very timely to the national conversation on socioeconomic diversity in today's top universities, but also extremely relevant to the conversation taking place here at Amherst, and it's important for students to take part in it, that is to say have 'a seat at the table,'" he said.
In addition to Marx and Parker as participants, several Amherst students also played lead roles at the conference. At the opening plenary on Friday, Eduardo Garcia '08 helped moderate the discussion on equity and excellence in higher education along with University of Michigan student Virginia Bailey and Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale Jeffrey Brenzel. The keynote address and response were conducted by President Emeritus of the Mellon Foundation William Bowen and Yale President Richard Levin.
The plenary session was followed by a reception and dinner after which there was a student address by a Yale alumnus and former president of Yale College Council, Steven Syverud who discussed Yale's recent reform on their financial aid policy. A roundtable discussion followed, as well as student-led workshops which outlined basic guidelines for building student power to affect policy change, using Yale's financial aid reform campaign as an example.
The events continued on Saturday with a series of breakout discussions called "Financial Aid and Its Discontents," which consisted of three different panels addressing specific issues regarding federal financial aid policy, financial aid at selective public institutions and financial aid at selective private colleges and universities.Telementor Claire Rann '08 was among the panelists along with Director of Federal Relations of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education Ted Bracken and President of the Education Conservancy Lloyd Thacker.
Other speakers included professionals in the academic world and policy makers from various institutions, such as the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Connecticut Public Interest Research Groups, the Vermont Assistance Corporation, Harvard University, University of Virginia, University of Illinois, as well as student representatives from these institutions.
The event also addressed obstacles to selective higher institutions, besides the economic ones. At the plenary session on Saturday, Marx discussed the non-financial barriers to access along with Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley and Director of the Berkeley Project on Equal Opportunity Jerome Karabel.
Millard described Marx's talk as passionate, stating, "Marx was fired up! His passion and knowledge about privileged and elite institutions was impressive. It was refreshing to hear him speak."
Further discussion on other non-financial barriers to access followed the speakers. Among the topics discussed were outreach and advising, evaluation and selection during the admissions process and providing campus support to students.
The conference, organized by Yale undergraduate students, also included workshops and information sessions on how to start a Roosevelt Institution chapter, which has sparked interest among members of the College. "A chapter would give us the tools to be effective policy advocates and lobby for some of the issues that we see at Amherst as well as in the surrounding community, such as Holyoke," said telementor Tahnee Tangherlini '08.
Like other participants, Tangherlini believes that a local chapter will enable students to effect policy change to address larger problems, such as the troubled public education system. "The increase in access of low-income students to selective colleges is a step in trying to alleviate this larger problem," she said. "But it will not solve it alone."