Arcadia President Carl (Tobey) Oxholm III was able to spend a few minutes speaking with Vice President Joe Biden at Central Bucks High School West in Doylestown on Friday, Jan. 13, after Biden gave a speech on the critical need to keep college affordable.

President Oxholm was invited by U.S. Congresswoman Allyson Y. Schwartz ’10H to attend the event, which focused on the increasing costs of higher education and the efforts that the Obama Administration is making to keep college affordable. “I am widely regarded as an expert in foreign policy,” said Vice President Biden, “but if I had only one thing I could do, it would be to make college affordable for every American. There is nothing more important to our future than being the best-educated country in the world.”

After hearing the Vice President talk about the importance of Pell Grants, Oxholm took the opportunity to urge him to support TEACH Grants—federal grants for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing careers in education, of up to $4,000 a year. “He told me that TEACH Grants were very important to the Obama Administration,” says President Oxholm. “He also urged Arcadia to remain steadfast in our commitment to remain accessible to the middle class.”

President Oxholm also had the opportunity to discuss accessibility with Tony Miller, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education. “I told him that 32 percent of our first-year students are the first in their families to come to college, 38 percent are receiving Pell Grants, and over 50 percent come from families with Adjusted Gross Family Incomes of $80,000 or less,” says President Oxholm. “He was quite impressed.”