University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank attended a White House conference Thursday with the goal of improving higher education accessibility for low-income students.
The conference consisted of university presidents from across the nation, discussing the possibility of increasing academic success for students.
One area of focus is expanding the Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence, according to a statement released by UW-Madison. PEOPLE provides aid to students in low-income areas of Wisconsin, reaching nearly 900 pre-college students.
"While we have worked hard to make sure that students from lower-income families have access to UW-Madison, there is more we can and should be doing," Blank said in the statement.
The statement also notes the creation of an Institute for Science Education, with aid from The Posse Foundation.
Posse is a program currently partnered with UW-Madison that helps students who may normally be overlooked in the traditional application process apply and get accepted to colleges.
With a $500,000 grant from the program distributed over the course of the next five years, the ISE will promote degrees in science, technology, engineering and math fields to K-12 schools with programming centered on those subjects.
In addition, the statement said ISE would provide advising on STEM-based careers to college students unsure of their majors.
Blank also said there will be an increase in staff in both the office of Admissions and Recruitment and the office of Student Financial Aid in order to accommodate the heightened focus on student aid.
