Office of the Chancellor
University of Arkansas
425 Administration Building
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
P 479-575-4140
F 479-575-2361
Human Resource Development Key Note Speech
Chancellor-Elect, Dr. G. David Gearhart presents his keynote speech to the Human Resource Development Cohort Weekend Conference
April 4, 2008 5:00 p.m.
Thank you and good evening. It is a special pleasure to be with you this evening. My thanks to Mike Miller for inviting me to speak tonight. I have the privilege of serving on the faculty of the College of Education and Health Professions with Mike. He is a superb researcher/teacher and we are grateful for his service to the college and broader University.
First of all, I would like to congratulate you all for pursuing a bachelor's degree. Many of you are on the home stretch, just weeks away from a earning your degree. I also know that many of you have other commitments to your jobs and families, and that taking classes has imposed a considerable strain on your time and your life.
Well, I am here to tell you that despite the strain you have made the right choice. In fact, I have been asked to speak on the importance of a college education tonight, a topic I am happy to expound upon.
While there may be some short - term pain associated with getting a degree - which many of you can undoubtedly attest to - over the long term it is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your family. My late father used to tell me regularly that a college education is one of the few things in life that no one can ever take away from you. You can lose a loved one, you can lose your house, your income, your job, but your education lives on embedded in your very soul.
But beyond a personal sense of accomplishment, what will this degree get you? Most people's initial response will be: a better job. That's certainly true, but that is only the start. I'm here to tell you that a bachelor's degree will make your life better, more fulfilled, and it will better equip you to meet the challenges that come your way throughout your life.
But that's all in the future.
Right now, many of you are probably thinking about one thing: college debt. The closer you are to graduation, the deeper in it you probably are. On average, students here in Arkansas and across the country are assuming about $20,000 in debt to pay for college. For many Arkansans, that's a year's salary.
No one feels good with that kind of debt hanging over them. Well, I would like to take some time tonight to make you feel better about that, and to feel better about the degree you'll soon be getting.
According to a recent study undertaken by the College Board, the median income for a person with a high school degree is $31,075 dollars. Completion of a bachelor's degree moves the median up considerably, to around $50,394. The difference, in fact, is almost the same amount of debt that we just discussed: $20,000.
Though you won't see that dramatic of a pay increase in your first year as a graduate, it's clear that the degree will quickly pay for itself - until the difference in what you make is your entire college debt. Conversely, not getting a degree represents a substantial loss of income over the course of your lifetime.
How much?
Those without a bachelor's degree can expect to make around $900,000 less than college graduates over the course of their working lifetime. That's an economic penalty of almost a million dollars for either not going to, or dropping out of, college. For these four or five years of sacrifice, you make almost a million dollars more. From a dollars and cents standpoint, getting a degree is simply a great investment.
It also is a powerful vehicle of social mobility.
According to an article in The New York Times, someone born into a family in the lowest fifth of wage earners - that is say to the bottom 20 percent - has a 19 percent chance of moving in to the highest fifth of earners in adulthood, and a 62% chance of joining the middle class or better if they get a degree. Education is the greatest antidote to poverty ever devised.
So I hope, if nothing else, I've convinced you that from an investment standpoint, you've made the right choice. Let's don't be too materialist, however. The benefits of an education are not purely monetary - that's just the easiest to measure and explain. In my own opinion, getting an education is really its own reward - making money is a side effect. It just happens to be an enticing side effect.