Mississippi Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Thomas C. Meredith has been selected by the U.S. Department of Education to head a working group responsible for developing recommendations on how to make information about college costs more available to the public. Commissioner Meredith is one of five working group leaders who will present action steps to approximately 300 academicians, elementary and secondary school leaders, business leaders, and philanthropists at a national higher education summit scheduled for March 22 in Washington, D.C. 

“The ability to more effectively communicate the cost of a college degree is one part of an important national dialog on the accessibility of higher education,” said Commissioner Meredith. “I am pleased to represent Mississippi in this initiative.”

In addition to Commissioner Meredith’s working group on college cost and openness, other groups are focusing on such topics as aligning K-12 curricula with college and university requirements; increasing need-based student aid; measuring student-learning outcomes; and providing higher education to nontraditional students. 

The working groups and the corresponding summit, “A Test of Leadership – Committing to Advance Postsecondary Education for All Americans,” have been convened by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to directly address the recommendations made by the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The Commission, which was appointed in September 2005 to develop a plan for postsecondary education that would address the economic and workforce needs of the future, released its recommendations in September 2006 in their report, A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education.

The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning governs the public universities in Mississippi, including Alcorn State University; Delta State University; Jackson State University; Mississippi State University including the Mississippi State University Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine; Mississippi University for Women; Mississippi Valley State University; the University of Mississippi including the University of Mississippi Medical Center; and the University of Southern Mississippi.

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