Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder
Aspen Institute
Blog Posts
College Excellence Director on How Government Shutdown Affects Students
October 10, 2013
In a new series that aims to promote the restoration of civil discourse, experts at the Aspen Institute weigh in on the consequences and policy ramifications — social, fiscal, and otherwise — of the US government shutdown of 2013.
As the federal government shutdown enters its second week, the list of people and sectors affected continues to grow. With a mostly shuttered US Department of Education comes a litany of concerns of how colleges and universities, as well as students and parents, will be impacted as time goes on.
In the video below, Aspen Institute College Excellence Program Executive Director Josh Wyner explains how the shutdown could immediately affect students, from active military members and veterans planning to attend college to Pell Grant recipients.
While Wyner believes the shutdown itself will not greatly affect the federal government’s progress in dealing with education issues, he explains that crisis environments like these increasingly pull focus from helping to solve the challenges the US education system faces during a time when the sector is rapidly changing.
For colleges and universities, one concern administrators have is the possibility of not receiving the grants they typically get from the federal government for research projects and initiatives. Another concern is the welfare of their students, as Wyner explained in the video below.
