Gene Schuster Comments from Selective Service System Press Conference

May 17, 2000 
National Press Club

Good morning. I am Eugene Schuster, and serve as President-Elect of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers while working as Director of Student Information Systems Development at The Ohio State University. I have served higher education for 28 years, including the last 19 years as Ohio State's University Registrar, and am proud to be here today representing AACRAO's 9,400 members from more than 2,300 institutions. Our members work as registrars and student record-keepers; admissions officers; student affairs and financial aid administrators; academic advisers; and enrollment managers.

AACRAO's partnership with the Selective Service propelled our members into a leadership role in educating young men about the consequences of failure to register with the Service on our campuses. AACRAO has worked to educate our members that students who fail to register could be denied access to federal financial aid and it is irreversible once they reach age 26. This of course hurts colleges and students. Access to higher education is our primary goal. Acknowledging that meeting the needs of both traditional and nontraditional students [who enter college long after high school] is essential to the well-being of higher education today. That's why AACRAO partners with the Selective Service System: we don't want anyone to be turned away from a college education due to lack of sufficient resources or failure to comply with the law.

To ensure one's potential higher education, AACRAO encourages our campuses to provide links from institutional Web pages to the Selective Service System site where eligible students can easily meet their obligation by registering online. We recommend that institutions include registering for Selective Service in their "check list" for prospective students, and publish reminders in the admissions and financial aid sections of school catalogues so young men to understand the importance of registration with Selective Service System-- and the consequences if they do not. In these ways, we hope to help our Nation by helping students comply with the law.

Other speakers included:
Richard W. Riley, U.S. Secretary of Education
Gil Coronado, Director, Selective Service System
Rep. Steve Kuykendall (R-CA), HASC Military Manpower Subcommittee
Mickey Ibarra, Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs