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.
Participation in extracurricular activities and campus events is tied to student retention, but a significant number of students don’t get plugged in. A 2024 survey by Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found that 26 percent of respondents had never attended a campus event and 35 percent weren’t involved in activities outside the classroom.
About three in 10 college students said they’d be more involved on campus if they were more aware of the available extracurricular opportunities. The University of Arizona is stepping up to address this awareness gap by surveying incoming students at the onset of their college career, identifying their interests and providing them with tailored resources and support.
Growing up, Salem Carmichael’s family lived paycheck to paycheck, so she never considered college an option. She had always been interested in early childhood education but didn’t think she’d be able to pursue a degree until she discovered that through the state program she could attend Eastern Maine Community College for free.
Students throughout Maine have similar stories as Carmichael. However, the program's future may now be in jeopardy, as it only guarantees enrollment for those who graduated from high school in 2025.
Suzanne Swierc was fired from her job as the director of health and advocacy at Ball State after posting about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk on her Facebook page.
Her experience isn't an isolated one. The rash of firings, which is raising questions about the limits of free speech, has been supercharged in Indiana, where top officials are channeling public anger about posts that criticize Kirk into a kind of internet hotline in which submissions—that can include someone’s name, social-media posts, and the employer’s contact information—are displayed publicly on a government website.
This year, colleges and universities have seen research funding cuts, international student visas revoked, and continued blowback against past campus speech and demonstrations—leading to several higher education leaders resigning or being fired.
For the presidents who remain, silence or neutrality has been the favored stance. Despite moments of pushback, including lawsuits to restore funding and group statements, few have directly spoken out to defend their institutions. The exceptions have been so rare as to be newsworthy: Harvard, George Mason, and Princeton are among a tiny few others.
In the heart of Washington, D.C., a quiet revolution is taking place. At Trinity Washington University, where 85 percent of students are Black or Hispanic and many are the first in their families to attend college, educators are answering one of America's most urgent questions: What do today's graduates truly need to succeed in higher education and beyond?
Their answer challenges conventional wisdom, experts say. It's not just about test scores or college acceptance rates. It's about reimagining education through four transformative pillars that could reshape how we prepare students nationwide.
A new documentary film from The Century Foundation dissects the unequal treatment and funding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities compared to their non-HBCU peer institutions.
Filmed on campus at North Carolina A&T State University, the short documentary puts viewers in the shoes of students, faculty, alumni, and experts who make the case for targeted, equitable federal and state investments and fair access to research funding. Director JD Jones describes the film as “both a love letter to the legacy of HBCUs—and a battle cry for their future.”
