When Virginia Senator Jim Webb visited Piedmont Virginia Community College on January 20, he preceded his formal remarks with a private meeting with a number of students who attend PVCC with the assistance of the GI Bill (one of Webb’s legislative initiatives dating to early 2007) and the “Great Expectations” program for students emerging from the foster care system.
In an interview with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner shortly before Webb’s arrival, PVCC President Frank Friedman noted that the college currently has 102 students enrolled under the GI Bill and 42 students attending under the Great Expectations program. (PVCC's total enrollment is about 4,800.)
Limited opportunities
“If those programs did not exist,” Friedman said, “the opportunity to attend college would be greatly limited for those individuals. Every one of those individuals need financial support to go to college.”
He pointed out that, in addition to financial aid, some students also need “learning support [and] academic support,” which these programs help to provide.
“Without it, I really think very few of them would be here,” Friedman, whose own academic credentials include degrees from Muhlenberg College and Purdue University, said.
Because Webb – a Democrat elected in 2006 who may face a rematch in 2012 with his opponent from that year, former Governor and Senator George F. Allen – was going to be speaking at an open forum for the PVCC community, Friedman offered his thoughts on the type of question he would ask if he were sitting in the audience as a member of the general public.
112th Congress
“I think we’re all interested, with the new Congress coming in,” Friedman pondered, “how is it going to approach higher education?”
He noted that “President Obama has had an initiative to greatly increase the number of college graduates in our country. The question for the new Congress is, how are they going to help implement that?”
As it turned out, that particular question was not posed to Senator Webb, who did, however, address related matters about aid to higher education and financial assistance for students.
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