Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
Clinton Community College was facing an existential crisis three years ago. With slumping enrollment and serious financial woes, the college in New York’s North Country region needed to get creative to survive.
It found its answer—and created positive ripples in the regional workforce—by moving in with the public university across town. Students and faculty members officially arrived at their new location last fall, and now they’re getting better facilities and services while maintaining the community college’s identity and mission. Meanwhile, the money the college is saving on facilities and supplies has taken the campus out of its deficit. And enrollment is up 23 percent over two years.
A year ago, it seemed the sky was falling for American scientific research. The Trump administration slashed thousands of workers at federal science agencies, restricted grant money to universities, and attempted to reduce funding for research overhead costs. In the months that followed, it targeted elite universities over allegations of antisemitism, clawed back grants on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and proposed a budget with drastic cuts for agencies like NASA and the National Science Foundation.
To many, science appeared under assault. But thanks to Congress and several lawsuits, scientists’ worst fears haven’t come to pass.
In addition to providing fiduciary and legal oversight, college trustees also safeguard an institution's mission, set policies, and approve long-range plans.
In this interview, former Brown University trustee Lauren Zalaznick offers insight into the governing boards of U.S. colleges and universities—including the unique role of trustees and why they matter in times of uncertainty and change.
Since 2017, California’s community colleges have slowly expanded the number of ways that students can get school credit for their prior work experience, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it a priority, in part by approving over $34 million in related state funding recently. By 2030, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office wants at least 250,000 students to have earned college credit for their work or other “prior learning” experience, and in January, Newsom proposed putting an additional $37 million toward it.
But many colleges use their own internal methods to track the credits they award, so there’s no definitive system showing how many students across the state have actually been served.
When President Donald Trump took office last year, America’s research universities were in the midst of an aggressive quest to hire more Black and Latino professors. All but three of the 187 most prominent schools had made public commitments to faculty diversity, pushed by years of student protests and demands.
Deploying a wide range of strategies, these schools made modest progress toward their racial diversity goals. Now, however, most of those efforts are on ice or abandoned as the Trump administration attacks higher education for its diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
James Sanford has spent 20 of his 38 years in prison. During that time, he says education became his salvation, giving him an opportunity to grow and learn and the hope and understanding that he was part of something much bigger than himself.
In this essay, Sanford describes how college-in-prison programs have the power and potential to change lives, families, and entire communities.
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