Top Higher Education News for Tuesday
Lumina

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

Sept. 24, 2024

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Have Americans Actually Lost Faith in Higher Education?

Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed

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In the last year, as colleges throughout the country face sharp drops in enrollment and intense political scrutiny, a growing collection of polls has suggested grim prospects for the public perception of higher education.

 

But Americans still value higher education, according to a new report from New America; the reasons behind enrollment declines are far more nuanced than journalists often frame them to be, and the polls reflect the public’s biases and misconceptions.

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Central Valley Effort Aims to Train Farmworkers to Master the Technology Replacing Fieldwork

Rebecca Plevin, Los Angeles Times

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Angel Cortez, 43, is a Mexican immigrant who always wanted better job options for himself and for his family. When he heard about a program at Merced College that would help him develop new skills for agriculture, he took a chance.

 

Cortez is part of the first cohort in a new certificate program launched last month at seven Central Valley community colleges that aims to ensure farmworkers don't get displaced as California's powerhouse agricultural industry transitions to a more mechanized future.

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Philanthropy Fuels Student Success at CCRI

Rosemary Costigan, Community College Daily

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In an era where the cost of higher education continues to rise, community colleges remain a critical gateway to opportunity for millions of students. These institutions provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality education, enabling individuals from diverse backgrounds to pursue their academic and career goals.

 

However, community colleges often operate on limited budgets, making private philanthropic gifts essential in driving innovation and expanding access, writes the interim president of the Community College of Rhode Island in this op-ed.

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A Decade of Data in One State Shows an Unexpected Result When Colleges Drop Remedial Courses

Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report

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In 2015, Tennessee’s public colleges became some of the first higher education institutions to eliminate stand-alone remedial courses. Now, a 10-year analysis shows how almost 100,000 students fared before and after the new policy.

 

Like earlier research, this study of Tennessee's two-year community colleges found that after the elimination of remedial classes, students passed more college courses, both introductory courses in English and math, as well as more advanced courses in those subjects. However, the extra credit accumulation effect quickly faded.

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New Video Series Showcases Research on Black Males Navigating and Succeeding in STEM

Jamal Watson, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

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Historically, only about two percent of Black males have pursued careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

 

A new video series hopes to shed light on how Black male students develop their perceptions of STEM-related careers, with recommendations and suggestions on the support and resources they need to succeed from primary school through a Ph.D.

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The Case for a 'Wait-and-See' Approach to AI

Jacob Clemente, TIME

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The idea that artificial intelligence will dramatically expand productivity over the next 10 years is a foregone conclusion for many technology leaders and analysts—except for Daron Acemoglu, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

In this interview, Acemoglu discusses the ways in which he believes AI will impact education and jobs by 2030.

HUMAN WORK AND LEARNING

Embracing Student-Centricity: A Paradigm Shift in Higher Education

John E. Cech, The EvoLLLution

AI Puts on a Lab Coat, Heads to Technical Schools

Mike Moen, Public News Service

Local Students Want to Work in the Trades. They Just Can't Find a Teacher.

James Rinker, The Keene Sentinel

More Men in Their Prime Working Years Are Neither Working nor Looking for Jobs—Here’s Why

Juhohn Lee, CNBC

Commentary: Bridging the ROI Gap: Adding Holistic Discourse to the Paradox of Postsecondary Value: A Personal Perspective

Stephanie Breen, The Pell Institute

Commentary: College Teaches Human Skills, Not Just Hard Skills

Lee Maxey, Chief Learning Officer

RACIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY

Supreme Court Costs: How the End of Race-Based Admissions Is Impacting Connecticut Colleges' Freshman Class

Natasha Sokoloff, The CT Insider

Conservatives Play Offense on Higher Education

Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill

A Settlement in the Fearless Foundation Case Should Avert Wider Chilling Effect on Race-Conscious Philanthropy

Abby Schultz, Barron's

Ohio Universities' 'Intellectual Diversity' Centers: Where Are They and Who Runs Them?

Sheridan Hendrix, The Columbus Dispatch

U.S. Naval Academy Says Race-Based Admissions Necessary

Jean Marbella, The Baltimore Sun

Can a College Class Still Be Diverse?

Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker

COLLEGE ENROLLMENTS

Undocumented Student Enrollments Have Plummeted in UC and CSU Systems

Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed

Area Colleges See Mixed Bag of Enrollment Trends

Elizabeth Kelsey, The Telegraph Herald (Iowa)

UCA President Discusses Changes Coming to Higher Ed, ‘Enrollment Cliff’

Roby Brock, Talk Business & Politics

Enrollment Is Up or Stabilizing at Four UW Branch Campuses and Dropping at Five Campuses

Kelly Meyerhofer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Affordable, Flexible, and Local: Enrollment at Community Colleges Continues to Grow

Alicia Fabbre, The Daily Herald

STATE POLICY

Gavin Newsom Vetoes a First-in-the-Nation Attempt to Employ Undocumented Students

Blake Jones, POLITICO

How a Quiet Regulatory Reform Is Being Credited With Generating 600 Virginia Jobs

David Ress, The Richmond Times-Dispatch

State Efforts Provide Models for Workforce Pell

David Tobenkin, Community College Daily

State Board of Community Colleges Advocates for Funding and Prepares to Implement Propel NC

Hannah Vinueza McClellan and Emily Thomas, EdNC (North Carolina)

Career Education Is Redundant and Convoluted. Gavin Newsom Says He’ll Fix It

Adam Echelman, CalMatters

NEW REPORTS AND EVENTS

Webinar: The Social Media Institute: A Four-Part Webinar Series for Community Colleges

Lumina Foundation

California Dreamin': DACA's Decline and Undocumented College Student Enrollment in the Golden State

University of California Civil Rights Project at UCLA and the UC Davis School of Law

Virtual Event: A State-Led Strategy to Enhance the Value of Degrees: The Findings of the NCSL Task Force on Higher Education

National Conference of State Legislatures

Juggling Roles and Achieving Goals:
California’s Undergraduate Student Parents

The California Alliance for Student Parent Success 

Practices to Increase Employer Adoption of Inclusive Apprenticeship

Urban Institute

Webinar: Early Educator Registered Apprenticeships: Learning From State-Based and National Leaders

The Hunt Institute

luminafoundation.org
Daily Lumina News is edited by Patricia Brennan.

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