News and Views

States across the country have proposed or enacted legislation that hampers or eliminates diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on college campuses. These efforts range from removing diversity statements from job posting to outright elimination of student support services. Erin Gretzinger and Maggie Hicks from the Chronicle of Higher Education gives us a national overview and Veronica Selzler from Hattaway Communications talks about a new toolkit designed to help bridge the communications gap.

This could be a challenging year for the 4 million or so people just graduating from college: While the National Association of Colleges and Employers reports that most employers say they will maintain or increase hiring, sizeable job cuts elsewhere mean an overall decrease in hiring.

Waterloo, Iowa, got an urgent wake-up call in 2018. Despite being one of Iowa’s most diverse towns with a major manufacturing hub, a financial commentary site listed it as the worst city to be a Black American.

And my equity journey continues. Four years ago, I wrote a column about sending my son off to college and my fears for him as a young Black man finding his way as a student and citizen. Today, I’m the proud mom of a college graduate. Though the world shut down during my son’s freshman year, and he spent […]

If you want progress, work for justice. That’s a paraphrase of Pope Paul VI from 1972 amid the Vietnam War. Then, the sentiment was about peace. More than 50 years later, we’re still talking about justice—but now in the context of economic mobility and the promise of American progress.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s June 29 decision to end affirmative action in college admissions, a group of foundations quickly issued a joint statement condemning the decision, saying, “The Supreme Court’s decision impedes colleges and universities from selecting their own student bodies and fully addressing systemic racial inequalities that persist.”

What will American colleges and universities look like now that the Supreme Court has upended affirmative action? The evidence is clear: As we’ve seen from states that had already banned race-conscious admissions prior to the court’s recent decision, enrollment for students of color will decline. We can avoid going backward only if institutions embrace new approaches for increasing student diversity and abolish advantages for the privileged, such as legacy preferences.

Not that long ago, higher education advocates regularly complained about the lack of national attention on colleges and universities. A huge win involved a sentence or two in the president’s State of the Union or a governor’s State of the State.

We’re facing a stark educational crisis: 41.9 million people in this country have attempted to earn a college degree or credential but left without one. This represents not only a colossal loss of potential for the individuals involved and the nation's economy, which is increasingly dependent on a skilled workforce.

At a time when bachelor’s degrees are more valuable than ever, only about 62 percent of this year’s high school graduates are expected to enroll in college next fall.

Learning in higher education has always taken diverse forms, but recognition hasn’t always followed. It’s high time that institutions bring all the ways learning occurs to the fore.

Recently released data on Lumina’s Stronger Nation tool shows that the national education attainment rate has reached 54.3 percent. The country has increased in education attainment by 16 percentage points since 2008. Courtney Brown and Chris Mullin of Lumina Foundation share the stories, insights, and considerations under these banner numbers.

It might be the most common question college students get. “What’s your major?” While it may be a great conversation starter on campus, the question isn’t all that effective in predicting someone’s job choice.

Believe it or not, there were more than 144 local time zones in the United States before 1883. This made it difficult for railroads to schedule and coordinate routes, resulting in train collisions. So, the country adopted standard time zones to end the confusion.

This country is in a crisis of confidence in our higher education system.

Students are deeply concerned about college costs and the availability of jobs—but even so, more people than ever are interested in higher education. That’s the news from Gallup’s State of Higher Education 2024 report—and the fact that both those can be true says a lot about higher education in these turbulent times.

Flexible. Supportive. Innovative. Effective. Community colleges are all of these things as they prepare millions of students for in-demand jobs.

Not long ago, a college student said in a focus group that they’d rather fail a class than ask a professor for help. Many students in the group nodded in agreement—and they have plenty of company among students who say they’re reluctant to seek help, often until it’s too late.

Student loan borrowers are confused and frustrated. They are juggling a host of financial obligations and navigating a complex repayment system with rapidly shifting rules.

The college has created an environment that embodies its values and embraces the surrounding landscape as an extension of the teaching and learning environment. From the outdoor classroom where students and community members can learn under the sky to the medicine garden, expertly shaped like a turtle to cultivate traditional medicines and preserve traditional teachings, each step on campus offers more surprises. The rotunda is an architectural beauty that is also deeply spiritual in meaning. Beams fashioned from trees on the land frame the space, and the walls allow light and nature to flood the room—and your imagination.  

A conversation with Courtney Brown, VP of strategic impact and planning, Lumina Foundation and Stephanie Marken, senior partner, Gallup

Something amazing is happening in the Grand Canyon state. Steeped in the rich colors of the Arizona landscape is a multi-campus college with strong community ties and a passion for innovation. Yavapai College is an interesting mix of entrepreneurial thinking, artistic expression, agricultural savvy, and workforce innovation.   

Courtney joins Jules Douge on WHCR 90.3 FM—the voice of Harlem.

In the fall of 2022, gun violence shattered the tranquility of my son's college experience at the University of Virginia. In an urgent call, he said, "Mom, there's an active shooter on campus. I think some people have died not too far from here. No one knows where the shooter is, so we’re all locked in our house."

Welcome to the era of data-driven transformation, where fresh insights pave the way to a brighter future. We recently unveiled new data in Lumina Foundation’s Stronger Nation tool, an interactive map guiding us toward our national goal of helping 60 percent of Americans earn college degrees or other quality credentials by 2025.  Even amid skepticism […]

Adult learners of color lean on trusted family and friends to help them decide if returning to college fits their hectic lives, according to three studies that explored how Americans choose to finish—or not—a degree.

Over the last two years, Lumina has supported the REACH Collaborative, which stands for Racial Equity for Adult Credentials in Higher Education and works with community colleges to help adult students of color attain associate degrees and other credentials.

The road to higher educational attainment runs through every Hispanic household in America. With a population of 63.7 million, Hispanics are the country’s largest minority group, and today one in every five students in higher ed is Hispanic.