Yesterday, Cal State Fullerton President Mildred García, along with the presidents and chancellors of 10 other public universities and the president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), met with U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The university leaders were in Washington, D.C., for a meeting of the board of directors of the APLU.
García serves as secretary of the Council of Presidents for the organization.
In a statement released by the APLU, Secretary DeVos was thanked for taking time to meet with public university leaders to discuss key issues affecting public institutions, students and faculty. The meeting, characterized as productive, focused on such topics as how the Department of Education can work with public universities to increase access and affordability, boost degree completion, improve transparency and accountability, and better prepare students to enter and succeed in the workforce.
Meeting with national leaders is nothing new to García. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics and was recently elected the next chair of the board of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), beginning her service in 2018. She is an expert in equity, diversity and education policy.