Maruti Seth wants to increase the number of students who are attending college after high school.
The owner of 17 Burger King restaurants in central Illinois, including Danville, the Indian-born and community college-educated businessman is one of three candidates running for two seats on the Danville Area Community College board on the April 6th ballot. He says that the college should be reaching out to younger students, including on the lower-income east end of the city where it is located.
Audio Player“If I could get students who are in eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade, them and their families to come to school and visit the campus and meet a few people…in the long run they would feel comfortable,” he says.
Seth says that he had to run for the seat based on his involvement with DACC before. He says he has been involved with the college since moving to Danville in 2003, including a nine-year stint on its foundation board. He says that the college should be constantly improving, particularly in the area of technology, to compete with the rest of the world.
Audio Player“If technology, if the overall campus is not up to the standards, what good is getting that degree?” he explains. “When you go in the job market, you have people all over not only the country, now all over the world, competing against you.”
Seth says that he thinks online classes can be a future way to increase DACC’s enrollment, since it is cheaper. In terms of affordability, he says that many of the foundation’s scholarships go unused because students do not apply for them, and he also says that the state should fund community colleges at the correct level in order to stop that money from being burdened on students.
You can check out the full interview at VermilionCountyFirst.com or by clicking on the link here.
