Ohio University President Roderick McDavis will be one of more than 45 Ohio college presidents attending the second annual Ohio College and University Presidents' Conference hosted by Sen. Sherrod Brown.
McDavis will travel to Washington, D.C., tomorrow to meet with Brown, Arne Duncan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN).
This year's conference will focus on establishing state-wide partnerships to maximize federal funds, and will include breakout sessions centering on expanding higher education access and affordability, supporting opportunities for research and education and connecting higher education with the needs of the workforce and high schools.
The senator uses these sorts of meetings and roundtables to influence the higher education legislation he proposes in Washington
said Meghan Dubyak, a spokesperson for Brown. Many of the ideas he got passed into law came from roundtable.
Dubyak said one specific example is Brown's successful efforts to establish veteran's centers on university campuses, an idea given to him by a Cleveland State professor at a roundtable.
Because last year's meeting took place during the campaign season, the upcoming meeting will provide a better opportunity for presidents to discuss current legislation, McDavis noted.
What I'm really excited about is that this is really the first opportunity the presidents of the public and private [institutions] will have to meet with our U.S. senator and even have a conversation about what some of our common issues and concerns are McDavis said.
The idea is to do this each year in addition to the regional meetings with each year focusing on a different item. Dubyak said.
Executive Vice President and Provost Kathy Krendl, who will become president of Otterbein College in July, will also attend the conference.
McDavis said he is excited to work with Krendl as a fellow president.
Forty-six Ohio college presidents attended the first conference last April, which was followed by a series of six roundtable discussions focusing on how to train college students for 21st century jobs as well as how to create and retain good-paying jobs in the state.
McDavis said he is excited at the prospect of coming up with some real good solutions that we might be able to work on at a federal level.
- Emily Grannis contributed to this report
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Wesley Lowery
