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.
The Trump administration’s broadside attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion—as well as legislation passed in several states—have already upended a wide range of programs and services for minority and underserved college students, from LGBTQ+ centers to summer bridge programs for first-generation students to scholarship offerings for Black students.
Much of this is happening quietly, in the form of program name changes, website scrubbing, and revisions to eligibility requirements. Some programs once administered specifically to benefit underserved students have received orders from university administrators to broaden their reach. Others are slated for complete elimination.
On February 14, the Trump administration's wave of federal job cuts arrived on the campus of Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute without warning, wiping out nearly a quarter of the staff. For this small tribal college, the day was described as traumatic.
Tribal colleges and universities have endured decades of chronic underfunding, relying heavily on federal support to stay afloat. Now, the Trump administration’s broad cuts to federal programs are hitting hard, posing a serious threat to the future of these vital institutions.
More than two years after Gov. Ron DeSantis installed a slate of conservative members on its governing board, New College of Florida has seen transformations large and small. In some of the first shots of what became a wider war on so-called "woke” education, New College’s trustees ditched gender studies, endorsed a curriculum focused on the Western canon, and made the Sarasota, Fla., campus inhospitable to some faculty and students.
New College is now flush with money appropriated by Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature. But what does all this mean for the quirky institution that had long been known as “Barefoot U.”?
Florida A&M University alumni, students, and faculty are outraged after the university’s Board of Trustees last week tapped a former political appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to lead the state’s only public Historically Black College and University.
In petitions and in viral social media posts, several members of the university community said that Marva Johnson’s appointment opens the HBCU up to political interference from a governor who is antagonistic toward diversity initiatives and the teaching of African American history.
McPherson College, in the middle of Kansas wheat country, is a small school that accepts the vast majority of its applicants, many from surrounding towns. It is best known for its degree in classic car restoration.
The college might still end up a potential target in a Republican plan aimed primarily at the Ivy League, which would impose billions in taxes on the investment returns of several dozen private colleges and universities.
Data can be a powerful tool for transformation in higher education, but only if institutions stop treating it as a compliance tool and start using it to drive strategic decision-making. Many colleges still fall into the trap of seeing data as punitive, limiting its potential to fuel innovation and collaboration.
In this interview, Yolanda Watson Spiva of Complete College America discusses the importance of reframing data use and why democratizing access to data is essential for meaningful student success initiatives.
