COC Chancellor Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook has been invited by The Bipartisan Policy Center to join its Higher Education Task Force, according to campus officials.

Van Hook — who has been the Chancellor of the Santa Clarita Community College District since 1988 and, therefore, the longest serving community college CEO in California — has said that she plans to bring her three decades of experience to the task force.

“It is an honor to have been selected to be part of The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Higher Education Task Force,” said Van Hook. “I look forward to working with other leaders in education to make data-driven recommendations to Congress for the much-needed reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.”

The task force will consist of more than a dozen former policymakers and high-profile individuals in the higher education community to make recommendations towards the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, according to college officials.

The project is set to focus on key emerging national issues that are currently impacting higher education, such as state financing policy, accountability, affordability and student loans, according to a statement.

The Higher Education Act was created in 1965 with the intention of strengthening the educational resources of higher education institutions to provide financial assistance for students seeking higher education.

Since then, the act has been rewritten and reauthorized eight times, and continued to function as a primary funding mechanism for a number of tuition grant and assistance programs for disadvantaged students, according to officials.

However, the longevity of those programs is now in jeopardy as the deadline for reauthorizing the Higher Education Act expired in 2015, according to advocates of the 1965 law.

For more information about the Bipartisan Policy Center, visit the website here.

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