Last spring’s abrupt, pandemic-induced pivot to virtual learning led to tremendous financial disruption for colleges. The educational technology came with a lofty price tag. So did retrofitting campuses to comply with public-health guidance, extra campus cleanings, and personal protective equipment—to say nothing of smartphone screening apps and the cost of COVID testing itself.

The economic losses have been steep—one estimate comes in at $183 billion. Prognosticators predicted mass shutterings. That hasn’t happened, but other enormous changes are underway.

Anyone who pays attention to higher education policy should know by now the outsized debt burdens shouldered by our Black, Hispanic or Latino, and Native American students. And yet we haven’t moved from admiring the problem to implementing solutions, in part because the space has been dominated by white policy experts (who are, frankly, like me).  

A collection of essays called Changing the Narrative on Student Borrowers of Color aims to bring Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous voices and perspectives to this challenge. Written mostly by experts of color, the goal is to establish the right narrative centered on the dignity of students of color and our responsibility to understand them and design solutions around that understanding.