Top Higher Education News for Monday
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Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.

February 10, 2025

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TOP STORIES

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States Should Invest in Postsecondary Child-Care Grants

Stephanie Baker, New America

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Like many parents in the United States, college students with children are in dire need of affordable child-care options.

 

Some states are stepping up to help with postsecondary child-care grants, smoothing the path to and through college for parenting students who often struggle with the costs of tuition and fees on top of trying to find and pay for child care. Investing in this population of students is a smart strategy, say advocates. Increasing degree completion can help states boost tax revenue and reduce state spending on public benefit programs while helping individuals increase their earnings.

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U.S. Education Policy Is at a Crossroads. This Congressional Hearing Shows Why

Cory Turner, NPR

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President Donald J. Trump has made it clear that he wants to overhaul higher education. That includes plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to figure out how to stop him.

 

Amid this turmoil, the House education committee—its members charged with forging consensus on the nation's education policy—held its first meeting of this new congressional term last week. At the convening, aptly titled "The State of American Education," some of the nation's biggest disagreements around education exploded into full view.

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Trump Threatened College Research, Culture, and Funding. Confusion Reigns.

Susan Svrluga and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, The Washington Post

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Colleges and universities are confronting fast-moving challenges these days that touch on almost every aspect of their operations. The Trump administration has threatened their funding, federal agencies are launching investigations, lawmakers may increase the endowment tax, and executive orders aimed at wiping out diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts nationwide could transform the culture at some universities.

 

The latest cause for alarm concerns a new announcement by the Trump administration that the National Institutes of Health is cutting billions of dollars in “indirect” costs for biomedical research funding.

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Relationships Over Resumes: Why Personal Connections Are the Key to HBCU Success

Walter Kimbrough, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

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In a world increasingly driven by connections, Historically Black Colleges and Universities are uniquely equipped to prepare students for success. Resumes may get a second glance, but it’s relationships that open doors and build bridges.

 

For nearly two centuries, HBCUs have been at the forefront of nurturing these connections. It’s a legacy we must protect, celebrate, and build upon—not by becoming like everyone else but by doubling down on what makes these institutions unique in the first place, writes Walter Kimbrough, interim president of Talladega College, in this commentary.

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Is DOGE Digging Around in Student Data?

Liam Knox and Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed

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Last month, Lorena Tule-Romain was encouraging families with mixed citizenship statuses to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Along the way, she and her staff offered reassurance to students and parents that information revealing their undocumented status would be securely held by the U.S. Department of Education alone.

 

That's changed now that Elon Musk’s government efficiency office may have access to sensitive student information—a move that is raising alarms about privacy and threatening to throw the federal aid system into crisis.

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Lawmakers Float Massive Expansion of Oregon’s Tuition-Free Community College Program

Sam Edge, The Oregonian

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Higher education-focused lawmakers are pitching a dramatic expansion of the Oregon Promise, a state grant that provides free community college tuition.

 

The proposal removes a requirement that Oregonians have to enroll in community college immediately after graduating high school to qualify for the program; it also opens eligibility to Oregon residents who graduate from high school in another state. The changes have the potential to expand access to another 35,000 individuals, which is more than a four-fold increase over the current pool of eligible students.

HUMAN WORK AND LEARNING

Weaving Through Micro-Pathways

Kathleen deLaski, Community College Daily

Universities Need a ‘Trump Response Plan’

Caroline Preston, The Hechinger Report

What Is Boost? Fifteen N.C. Community Colleges to Participate in New Accelerated College-to-Career Program

Emily Thomas, EdNC

EQUITY IN EDUCATION

The War on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker

Study Shows Limited Progress in Closing the Gender Gap in Lucrative College Majors

Alex Gailey, Yahoo Finance

University of Minnesota Law School Is Halting Search for New DEI Leader in Response to Trump’s Ban

Sarah Ritter and Maya Rao,The Minnesota Star Tribune

Morehouse School of Medicine Celebrates 50 Years, Affirms Health Equity Amid Federal Anti-DEI Efforts

Meimei Xu, WABE

STUDENT SUPPORT

Funding Student Success: Project Grants From University Advancement

Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed

Technology Initiatives Support Student Mental Health in a Modern Higher Ed Environment

Erin Brereton, EdTech Magazine

Department of Education Program Supports Homeless Students in Their First Year of College

KTVB

University of Alaska Program Celebrates Decades of Supporting Alaska Native Students

Alena Naiden, KNBA

STATE POLICY

How State Funding Models Shape Enrollment in Non-Credit Workforce Training

Iris Palmer and Laura Dawson Ullrich, New America

Tennessee State University Could Run Out of Cash This Spring Without Help

Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive

Lawmakers Back Away From Forcing Colleges to Enroll More In-State Students

Claire Rafford, Mirror Indy

UNO Faculty Frustrated, Frayed Amid Fiscal Fiasco

Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator

NEW PODCASTS

The Lost Boys of Higher Ed

Future U

The Glass Cliff in Higher Education—Challenges Faced by Women University Presidents

Changing Higher Ed

Enrollment Trends & Trust in Higher Ed Reporting

The EduData Podcast

Matt Evans: Julius Education and the Future of Workforce Tech

Work Forces

Working Through the Trump Administration's Latest Effort to Dismantle Education Department

Off the Cuff

What Columbia's Climate School Knows About the Future That Others Don't

The EdUP Experience

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Daily Lumina News is edited by Patricia Brennan.

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