Illustration: Derek Brahney

Current events—the end of race-conscious admissions, the unrest over the Israel-Hamas war, and the wave of state laws banning diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts—have created a unique opening for colleges founded to serve certain identities. These institutions are making a provocative pitch: If your institution has failed you, come here, and we will protect you.

Campus leaders insist that what they’re doing isn’t some thinly veiled enrollment hack. Identity-based marketing is a way of spelling out what they stand for, they say, at a time when brand matters more than ever. Will students take them up on the offer?

Incarcerated learners are all too often an afterthought, encountering limited access to the internet and scarce funding and support for higher education in prisons. JSTOR wants to change those circumstances.

At the end of 2023, JSTOR—a vast digital library of secondary and primary sources to support teaching and learning—reached a once unimaginable goal: providing JSTOR access in 1,000 prisons. Spread across four continents, the JSTOR Access in Prison initiative now supports the education and growth of more than 550,000 incarcerated people.

Photo: Laure Andrillon

As California’s cost of living goes up, community college has become unaffordable for many students. Thanks to a $30 million pilot program, some California community college students will get paid for every hour they spend in class and on homework. 

Hire UP is modeled after the state’s guaranteed income programs. It focuses on students who are formerly incarcerated, former or current foster youth, and those receiving CalWorks benefits, the state’s cash aid program for low-income adults with children.