Molly Broad, former UNC system president and now president of the American Council on Education, was on hand in Detroit today to hear the president outline a plan to increase spending on community colleges.

President Barack Obama today proposed spending $12 billion over 10 years on workforce training at the nation's community colleges, which are being bombarded with new students as the recession grinds on. Obama said he wanted to graduate five million additional community college students by 2020.

"I applaud the president for his effort to enhance the good work being done at our nation's community colleges," Broad said in a statement. "This investment will go a long way toward meeting our nation's work force needs at this critical time when the economy is struggling."

Broad said higher education leaders will be watching the proposal closely, and don't yet have a detailed understanding of how it will work. Congress would have to approve the money, which would come from the elimination of an education loan program.

UNC-Wilmington Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo is a member of a new national higher education cabinet formed by the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The group is made up of presidents, trustees and leaders from 76 universities, colleges and associations. Members will  participate in discussions of the most pressing issues facing higher education.

The panel has other members with North Carolina ties, including former UNC President Molly Broad, who is now president of the American Council on Education; former UNC-Chapel Hill provost Robert Shelton, who is now president of the University of Arizona; and former UNC system senior vice president Gretchen Bataille, who is now president of the University of North Texas.

Former UNC President Molly Broad on Tuesday was named president of the American Council on Education, the major higher education association in the United States.

Broad, a professor in the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill, will become the twelfth president and first woman to lead ACE, Jane Stancill reports. The organization is the unifying voice in American higher education, representing 1,800 colleges and universities, organizations, associations and corporations.

It is a major lobbying group for higher education in Washington.

She will leave her faculty position at UNC-CH but said she hoped to return someday. She will spend most of her time in Washington but will keep a home in Chapel Hill.

More after the jump.

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