Leadership in higher education can leverage government programs to promote student success

Leadership in Higher Education is required to help advance the aims of students and faculty. While faculty is there to provide guidance and assistance for students in various disciplines, students must overcome a number of other challenges and obstacles that present themselves throughout their academic career. These obstacles can be financial, directional, career-related, instructional and legislative. Leadership can therefore take steps to help students face these obstacles by leveraging federal and state statues as well as government programs in order to promote student success. In the state of Florida there are many ways this can be achieved. This paper will list and explain five ways that leadership in Higher Education can leverage federal and state statutes to help students achieve their aims.

#1: Enhance Research/Innovation Partnerships between Colleges and the Private Sector

Leveraging state and federal government programs can be achieved by enhancing partnerships among colleges and the private sector in Florida. For instance, leaders can establish state-industry funded programs such as the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA, 2015). Small Business Innovative Research grants can be promoted among colleges and businesses throughout the state, which would help to bring government, business and academe together in a triumvirate of solidarity for the good of students looking to take their academic skills into the workforce. By appealing to the private sector and encouraging more participation on their part, a bridge can be created between the universities and industry. One way this partnership can be better effected is through the common good that such win-win strategies produce: the private sector is able to attract the best and brightest minds coming out of academia and schools are able to attract promising students with the assurance that good jobs will be available for them via the networks established throughout this triumvirate.

#2: Communicate the Value of Higher Education to Lawmakers

By communicating the value of Higher Education to legislators at both state and federal levels of government, leadership bring to the foreground the importance of having more grants and more government funding available for students who stand ready to lead the country in the coming years in various sectors. This can be achieved by using lobby groups such as the Florida Education Association, whose mission is to \"advance professional growth, development and status of all who serve the students in Florida\'s public schools, colleges, and universities\" (FEA, 2016). Likewise, as Ness et al. (2015) indicate, foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or the Kresge Foundation fund \"hundreds of higher education projects...with grants directly to state agencies\" as well as to non-profit organizations (p. 152). Through these interwoven conversations and communications, where academic projects, goals, initiatives and innovations are promoted by foundations and lobbyists, legislators can be brought into the conversation about how to allocate more state and federal funds for the future of the nation via supporting academic goals.

#3: Boost Adult Participation in Higher Education by Easing Funding Restrictions

Adults looking to earn more degrees in college face many challenges, such as cost and time. Financial aid could be expanded to include adult learners via a needs-based grant program as well as a lottery assistance tuition program. Non-traditional students (adult learners) could also be recruited by promoting a \"fresh start\" initiative throughout the state and among various universities that allows adult learners to learn both at their own pace and at a discounted rate. Such an initiative could be supported by state and federal funding based on the idea that more educated adults will help to stimulate the economy, especially as the retiring age for workers increases over the years (Ravenel et al., 2009, p. 22).

#4: Support the Intellectual Infrastructure

Supporting the intellectual infrastructure will require investment, grant opportunities, and bond offerings in order to secure a more united, connected, and interwoven relationship between academia, business and government. The intellectual infrastructure requires funding and the state of Florida can issue bonds to investors to provide the capital for necessary projects like building universities, updating campuses, offering new programs, extending research initiatives and advancing the boundaries of education. Technological advancements are always occurring and constant upgrades require a constant inflow of capital for expenditure. Investing in the intellectual infrastructure should be a top priority and leadership can leverage government advocating policies that draw attention to the intellectual infrastructure. Faculty-consulting firms can also be funded and utilized to reinforce the intellectual infrastructure in the state and create a revitalized sector where Higher Education can receive the focus and attention it needs to grow to its maximum potential.

#5: Create Pathways to Education Goals

Pathways to education goals require an expansion of student aid and scholarships as well as curriculum revisions and expansions. Laws that influence curriculum requirements must be focused on by legislators in response to the lobbying efforts of education-oriented groups. This will help to ensure that universities are capable of offering the kinds of classes and degrees that are in demand from students and that can help to advance the aims of colleges, students, businesses and the overall intellectual infrastructure.

Scholarship offerings can be expanded by boosting state funding via promotion of the aims of students. Academic success translates into private sector success, which stimulates the economic outlook of both the state and the nation and supports the overall goals of legislators. On behalf of advancing their own aims, legislators therefore can redirect or allocate funds towards goals like scholarship expansion that serve to reinforce the infrastructure needed for supporting student aims.