“It’s (the RSA agenda) made its way into the (legislative) conversation and into legislative language,” says Tom Rudin, senior vice president for advocacy, government relations and development at the College Board. “Yes, it’s (this week’s forum) the capstone event but also the next phase of some serious work,” Rudin said.

 David Longanecker, president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, urged the forum participants to move the RSA agenda into a “redoing” stage at the federal, state and institutional levels, asserting that the opportunity is at hand to pursue meaningful change. Longanecker said higher education now has “friendly folks” in the White House and on Capitol Hill and “our system is broken; it’s got to be repaired.”

 Longanecker asserted that more and more colleges and higher education systems are increasingly cash strapped and know their goals and needs are facing the harsh realities of the nation’s ailing economy. “We don’t have the money to meet the financial needs we’ve identified,” Longanecker said.

 Forum leaders steered participants away from trying to develop a new action agenda, saying they wanted the ideas set forth in the 2008 RSA report to work their way through the system, even if they evolve over time in the process. Baum, Rubin and others urged participants to focus on the long haul, declining to put a time frame around it.

 Baum, an independent higher education policy analyst and professor emerita of economics at Skidmore College in New York, did offer some headlines of what she would be doing to keep the dialogue and agenda alive.

 Baum, with the support of the Indiana-based Lumina Foundation and others, said she will be leading a small team that will soon begin working with several states on reforming state-level financial aid programs.

 A not-for-profit membership association that connects students with college, the College Board administers the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT® and the Advanced Placement Program®.