AMHERST — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, an advocate for affordable higher education, will be the keynote speaker for the 2017 University of Massachusetts undergraduate commencement on May 12.
Since her election in 2012, Warren, D-Mass., has been pushing to alleviate some of the financial burden college students face as they enter the workforce. College loan debt in the country totals $1.4 trillion dollars, according to the Federal Reserve.
The first-term Democrat argues that effective reform must include both a renewed commitment to investing in higher education at the state and federal levels combined with an effort to strengthen accountability and realign incentives so that colleges are encouraged to keep costs down and provide a high-quality education.
Warren highlights ways to change incentives to ensure that colleges put students first, such as requiring colleges to share in the risks of student loans, implementing a rule against taxpayer waste, and rewarding colleges that keep costs down.
She also calls on states to refinance student loans in the face of inaction in Congress, and to end cuts to higher education or face federal requirements to do so.
UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy says Warren is a strong role model for students.
“We are inspired by her staunch advocacy for equitable access to education, environmental resource conservation and support for economic justice,” Subbaswamy said in a statement.
Warren serves on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the Special Committee on Aging and the Senate Armed Services Committee.
She graduated from the University of Houston and Rutgers School of Law.
In addition to higher education reform, Warren has assumed a high profile in national politics as an advocate for consumer protection and as an expert on the financial industry.
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, she served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Boston Globe selected Warren for a Bostonian of the Year award and Time magazine called her a “New Sheriff of Wall Street” for her oversight efforts.
Prior to her election to the Senate, Warren was a law professor for more than 30 years at Harvard Law School.
The undergraduate commencement ceremony at UMass will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 12, at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.