ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ability to win and maintain public trust is related to higher education's ability to serve diverse socioeconomic status (SES) students. Public trust can influence both the financial support higher education receives, and the quality of relationships between higher education and its stakeholders. Public trust matters because it influences the funding and relationships higher education needs. Those funds and relationships in turn are assets that can be leveraged to improve the higher education outcomes for low SES students. The body of evidence collected since higher education began in the US demonstrates that higher education will continue to solve the support problems it faces. Remember, the US has been through challenges of inaccessible higher education before. The Higher Education Act (HEA) (1965) was enacted to provide federal support for college students such as tuition grants, guaranteed student loans, and work-study programs.
