Pace Now

As I talk to students around our campuses—on new student move-in days, as part of undergraduate convocations, even in the law school seminar I’m teaching this semester—what I hear consistently is that students are ready to move on.

"Welcome to the Fall 2022 semester, and welcome to what is shaping up to be our first post-pandemic academic year at Pace University. I’m proud of how this community came together over the past few years," writes President Krislov.

They used to say it’s not what you know but who you know that helps you to get ahead. It’s an axiom from a different era—a less egalitarian, less meritocratic, clubbier time. But a major new study on economic mobility is once again proving, albeit in a very different way, that who you know can make a real difference in outcomes.

The lingering pandemic transformed the American labor market. Employers from fast-food restaurants to airlines to rec departments with swimming pools are confronting sometimes-crippling staffing shortages. The most recent employment numbers showed 11.3 million job openings nationwide, or nearly two open jobs for every unemployed worker.

We are facing a mental health crisis on campuses across the country. And at a time when it often can feel like the federal government is too divided to address any of the many other problems facing us, Congress is actually taking steps to address this crisis.

Pace University’s mission is captured in the Latin word “Opportunitas,” which the school defines as “Providing all students, regardless of economic background, access to the transformative power of education.” As evidence that it lives up to its word, Pace has been ranked as the best private, four-year college or university in the nation for upward economic mobility.

College can change the trajectory of a young person’s life. That’s something I say a lot, because the data back me up. As Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce has reported, college graduates will earn 75 percent more over their lifetimes than those with only a high school degree.

Marvin Krislov, the president of Pace University, is one of the very few presidents who still teaches classes – and he is one of the teachers of this 101-level course. Krislov’s recent article explains the link between this course and the level of kindness and compassion for students that he thinks is necessary, especially right now.

Our country is in a mental health crisis. And our colleges and universities are in a student mental health crisis. This was true before the pandemic. And I’ve written before about how it’s getting worse. May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, and before the month ends it’s time for us all to commit to giving our students the support and resources they need.

As debates continue about how to solve the student loan crisis in our country, one federal program with significant benefits doesn’t get enough attention. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was created in 2007 to help federal student loan borrowers who choose to go into nonprofit or governmental careers, which typically pay less than jobs in the for-profit sector.