Dr. Richard Vedder
Café Conversation presents Dr. Richard Vedder on “America’s Leaders: You’re Harming Our Future,” at 5 p.m. on Wed., Sept. 30, in the Baker Center Front Room.
Vedder is director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and Professor Emeritus of Economics at Ohio University.
Young Americans have accrued a trillion dollars in college debt. According to Vedder, 24 percent of recent college graduates live with their parents, and about 60 percent of graduates still receive some financial support from their parents two years after graduation. Individual prosperity is in danger, he says, as the younger generation will have a tougher time moving up the economic ladder in the future as economic growth has slowed dramatically.
“Some say our education system as it has operated has failed us,” Vedder says, noting that more than 40 percent of college graduates take jobs that traditionally belong to high school graduates, including baristas, taxi drivers and janitors. “Taxi drivers with bachelor degrees isn’t a bad thing, but these people went to college and undertook their debt in good faith (to get a job in their career field).”
Café events are free and open to students, faculty and staff. Café Conversations and Science Cafés are both venues for students to share their interests informally during a conversation exchange in a friendly setting. The Science Cafe is hosted by Dr. Sarah Wyatt, Professor of Environmental & Plant Biology and Vice President of the Ohio University Chapter of Sigma Xi. The two series are sponsored by the Ohio University chapter of Sigma Xi and the Office of the Vice President for Research. Find the Science Café on Facebook and Twitter.
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