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.
As president of Princeton University, Christopher Eisgruber is among the highest-profile college leaders to publicly criticize the Trump administration for its attacks on higher education. He is a defender of the sector, arguing that colleges are far better at upholding free speech and more welcoming of diverse viewpoints than critics suggest.
The recent killing of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, has energized a national debate about the state of free speech on college campuses—both for conservatives like Kirk and for faculty who have been sanctioned for speaking ill of Kirk in the wake of his death. None of this, though, changes Eisgruber’s fundamental view that colleges, for the most part, are actually quite effective at facilitating tough conversations at a particularly polarized moment.
Inside a cavernous industrial space in Portsmouth, the rhythmic hiss and spark of welding torches fill the air. Twenty-five students work simultaneously in individual booths, learning skills that will transform their economic futures in just three weeks.
This is the Skilled Trades Academy, the centerpiece of Tidewater Community College's ambitious workforce development initiative and a model that's now expanding across Virginia's Hampton Roads region.
College enrollment has finally recovered, thanks in large part to the surge in enrollment at community colleges. Two-year career and technical education programs are feeling this growth acutely, with some of the largest enrollment increases of any sector in higher education.
How are the students fueling higher education’s recovery faring financially? Compared to their peers at four-year universities, two-year community college students have higher financial needs. They are more likely to come from low-income households with less financial support from family, and they often face gaps in financial aid packages. The result is a risky balancing act: Many community college students work long hours, take on debt, and sacrifice essentials like food just to stay enrolled.
A new lawsuit against Brown University has renewed questions surrounding the secrecy afforded to many law enforcement officers employed by private colleges and universities across the United States.
Unlike public campuses, private higher education institutions are largely exempt from disclosing arrest records, incident reports, and other documents even as they employ officers who have the authority to detain students, as well as, in some cases, use force. This lack of transparency has long raised objections from watchdog groups and open government advocates who say such records are critical to holding law enforcement accountable.
The federal government has spelled out a set of precepts for how higher education should operate and made a select group of nine universities an offer: If you adhere to these principles, you will gain an advantage in receiving federal funding.
At least, that’s the pitch. A White House official told campus leaders in a letter that if they agree to the terms of the deal, called the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” their institutions will garner “multiple positive benefits.” Among them: “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships.” However, not every college leader on the short list of recipients appears enthusiastic about the proposal's conditions.
The Trump administration had for months been expanding its nationwide attack on higher education. But Duke University still made for an odd target. Leaders of the school, North Carolina’s largest private university, embraced a stealth strategy as other elite colleges fell into the Trump administration’s crosshairs, avoiding showy standoffs with the government for interfering in academic affairs. The campus is a relatively conservative place, and it had begun dialing back some diversity efforts.
But as it turns out, the Trump administration came for Duke anyway.
