Pascale Charlot
Managing Director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. An Aspen Rising President Fellowship alumna and former president of Miami Dade College’s Kendall Campus, she develops and supports higher-education leaders and institutional reforms focused on student success, economic mobility, and talent development.
Community Colleges Must Organize Around Completion, Not Enrollment
Aspen Institute fellowship leaders and alumni argue that community colleges should organize around student completion and labor-market outcomes, not enrollment alone. Russell Lowery-Hart, chancellor of Austin Community College District, says those measures must shape institutional systems, budgets and decision-making, while Pascale Charlot and Maria Harper-Marinick describe the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship as preparing prospective college presidents with the evidence, tools and leadership frameworks to drive that change.
Colleges Must Prove Their Value Program by Program
College can still be a route to the American Dream, but higher education leaders Pascale Charlot, Ted Mitchell, Josh Wyner and Matthew Gianneschi argued that institutions now have to prove that promise through completion, affordability and post-graduation value. Their case is that declining public trust will not be answered by prestige or average wage premiums, but by clearer evidence that colleges help students finish, manage cost, connect degrees to viable work and sustain the civic and human learning they claim to provide.