Daily Lumina News 012722

Achieving the status of Research 1 institutions by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is a tall order for any university, but for public historically Black colleges, it’s an especially difficult task.
Many HBCUs have suffered from decades of systemic financial neglect, leaving their research underfunded, their facilities outmoded, and scholars underpaid. That may be changing.

The University of Florida is no longer publishing data about COVID-19 case counts on campus.
Florida’s decision to discontinue its COVID-19 dashboard raises questions about whether and for how much longer other colleges will maintain public-facing websites with data about COVID on campus and the relevancy of those dashboards at this point in the pandemic.

A little more than three months. That's how much time is left before some 41 million federal student loan borrowers have to start making loan payments again.
The Department of Education says payments will resume on May 1. What should borrowers be doing to prepare? Betsy Mayotte of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors has some ideas.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law represents a once-in-a-generation investment in building and strengthening the nation’s roads and bridges, expanding broadband access, improving public transit, and more.
The new law offers hope for millions of U.S. workers, especially people of color and women. But community colleges and other partners must step up to make those benefits happen.

When Larry Fordham Jr. learned about the Second Chance Pell program in 2020, he had only one wish: to walk out of a Florida prison with a college degree.
But being locked up in a Florida prison doesn’t make someone a Florida resident. And out-of-state tuition usually puts college out of reach.

The State University of New York, the largest public comprehensive higher education system in the United States, will no longer withhold academic transcripts from students with outstanding debt.
SUNY's move represents a win in the campaign to end these types of transcript holds nationwide. Critics say the holds are often over relatively small amounts of money owed on tuition or fines but that they hinder students from transferring to another college, graduating, or landing jobs.