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.
Amid an escalating anti-DEI movement, students, alumni, and off-campus advocates are hustling to fill the gaps left by shuttered and rebranded identity centers, DEI offices, and programs across the country.
Some students and alumni involved in these efforts say they feel a renewed pressure and responsibility to provide the services colleges are shedding as institutions are caught in the crosshairs of state DEI bans and the Trump administration’s sweeping anti-DEI campaign.
As climate change alters the environment and economies, there is a growing need for jobs that help prepare for, respond to, and lessen damage caused by fires, floods, and other natural disasters. That’s led schools and community colleges to explore how to prepare students for careers in such fields as fire science, protecting and restoring watersheds and other ecosystems, forestry management, and search and rescue.
In some cases, student interest is driving the new courses; surveys show teenagers and younger adults are more environmentally conscious than older people and more likely to support action on climate change.
The Trump administration has attacked the University of California system’s research funding, launched a swarm of investigations, and demanded that it pay more than $1 billion.
But people across the 10-campus system are at odds over how to fight back, stirring a war within about countering President Trump’s tactics. In many ways, the conflicts reflect academia at large, which has not mustered a consensus about how to fend off the White House’s campaign to remake American campuses.
For Ohio to thrive, the state needs to keep education accessible and workforce-aligned, invest in adult learners, support employers who create meaningful upskilling pathways, and double down on the civic and economic infrastructure that makes people want to stay.
Investing in its people lays the foundation for stronger communities, resilient industries, and long-term economic growth, write Steve Stivers, president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and Western Governors University's Kyle Utter in this op-ed.
It’s the beginning of the school year at Kimball County High School in Kimball, Nebraska, and the senior class is starting to think about college. Seated together in one classroom, 25 students weigh their options.
They check off core college classes in dual-credit classes, free this year through the community college 45 minutes north in Scottsbluff. They go on college visits and take ACT prep classes. And they’re thinking about how expensive—and far from home—college will be.
Senshay Lofton woke up at 5 a.m. last month to help load boxes into her family’s car and then watched as her mom, dad, and older sister drove past the bungalows of the city’s Southwest Side toward the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Lofton then walked through Little Village to Farragut Career Academy. It was the first week of her senior year. She thought she’d spend the next months stressing about getting in—and especially paying for—college.
