The American Talent Initiative (ATI) is a collaboration between high-graduation rate colleges and universities dedicated to expanding access and opportunity for high-achieving, lower-income students. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ithaka S+R, and the Aspen Institute, the alliance set a target of enrolling (and ultimately graduating) 50,000 additional talented Pell-eligible students by 2025, and together ATI schools actually enrolled roughly 75,000 new Pell students by that date.
The University of Dayton was invited to join this group in 2017, and I was asked to serve on the Steering Committee the following year. The focal point for the alliance is an annual “presidential convening” hosted in Manhattan by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which attracts 75+ presidents from the Ivies, flagship publics, elite liberal arts colleges, and more — the full spectrum of high-quality American colleges and Universities. This year, I was asked to share opening remarks at the April 20 dinner hosted by Mayor Bloomberg.
Thank you, Mayor Bloomberg and to Bloomberg Philanthropies, especially Patricia Harris and Howard Wolfson, for hosting us this evening and for your leadership and support of ATI’s goals.
And thank you to all the presidents and chancellors in attendance. You are doing the tremendously important work that is making a real change in the lives of students and in the ways our institutions operate. The gift of your presence at this summit —despite all the demands on your schedules — illustrates why ATI has been so successful.
I’ve had the honor of being a member of ATI’s national steering committee since 2018, working alongside you in this effort to activate talent and expand opportunity for high-achieving, lower-income students. It is — very simply — the most important, powerful, and humbling work of my nearly 40 years in higher education, and I am proud to have a chance to share a few words this evening.
I’d like to focus my remarks on why we do this work — especially in a historically challenging era for higher education.
It’s popular today to talk about “knowing your why.” In a more classical frame, we might call this telos — the deeper purpose that orders our work. In the Catholic tradition that animates the University of Dayton, that telos is expressed as a commitment to create conditions that allow all people to flourish. We all have different traditions, perhaps, but a common understanding: that our institutions exist in service of something greater than themselves.
First, there is a national imperative. The widening gap between wealth and poverty sits at the root of many of our country’s most pressing challenges. Expanding access to high-quality education — for students from lower-income and first-generation backgrounds — is not simply good institutional strategy; it is essential to the health and future of our nation.
Second, for us at the University of Dayton, there is also a moral imperative. As a Catholic and Marianist university, our charism calls us to advance the common good — ensuring that every person, especially those with fewer resources, has the opportunity to reach their full potential. It is this commitment that has led Dayton to double down on Pell enrollment, even as it creates additional financial headwinds for a university with a modest endowment like ours.
And third, there is an educational imperative. Our responsibility as leaders is to create the strongest possible learning environments. We know that socioeconomic diversity brings with it additional forms of diversity and a richness of perspectives and experiences that deepen learning for everyone. Inclusive excellence is not aspirational —It is real, and it benefits every student, our faculty, and our institutions as a whole.
If that is our shared purpose — our telos — then the question becomes: What does it require of us as leaders?
As Princeton’s Chris Eisgruber framed for us early on, success in this work results from a president making it a priority and developing a clear plan.
I can share that Dayton’s path in ATI parallels the trajectory of this alliance. Fifteen years ago, our Pell enrollment was less than 10 percent; this past fall, for the second year in a row, our incoming class was 22 percent Pell-eligible. As a result, UD is stronger — richer in perspective, more creative, more dynamic as a learning community — and, even in a challenging environment for higher education, better positioned for the future.
And the same is true across ATI. As a group, we have made real progress.
Each of you has advanced concrete strategies tailored to your institutions — all by targeting the *opportunity gap*. Together with the expansion of Pell eligibility, ATI institutions alone have created opportunities for roughly 75,000 students since our founding as an alliance. One of ATI’s founders, Michael Drake, would be so very proud that together we have filled a football stadium full of young people who might otherwise never have entered or graduated from college who will now contribute to our economy, our democracy, our scientific innovation, and our cultural life.
At this summit, we celebrate your leadership, which has been essential:
- You have created new pipelines into your schools, including through community colleges.
- You have increased institutional grant aid.
- You have brought greater transparency to pricing.
- You have invested in wraparound support programs — from mentoring to career preparation.
- You have built cohort-based programs, like the Kessler Scholars, that create community, deepen engagement, and improve retention.
And ultimately, all of this — our purpose, our plans, our progress — leads to one thing: the lives of individual students and the opportunities we help make possible for them.
About this time last year, it was my great joy to attend celebrations for our first class of Kessler Scholars, a program UD launched in 2022 through a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation. Rebecca Gonzalez, a psychology and Spanish double major, was one of those transitioning from community college to classes on UD's campus. Once a high school student uncertain about even attending college, she is now filled with the belief that she WILL succeed in college. And she is sharing herself and her self-confidence by serving as a peer mentor, helping other Kessler Scholars navigate campus and academic life as successful first-generation students.
This virtuous circle is what success looks like…and ultimately this story times tens and hundreds of thousands will be the legacy we as ATI presidents and chancellors bequeath to our institutions and to the nation. Our efforts are enriching our learning environments, contributing to the common good, and enhancing our communities. Please, recognize your successes, and let’s keep working hard, together, to expand access to the world-class education available on our campuses.
Thanks again to our host and sponsor, Mayor Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and thanks to each of you for making this convening a priority in your very busy schedules.