When it comes to deciding whether and where to pursue their academic journeys, today's learners have some very distinct priorities.

Specifically, legislative policies related to gun control, reproductive healthcare, curriculum restrictions, and inclusivity matter a great deal, according to a new Lumina Foundation-Gallup State of Higher Education survey.

Illustration: The Chronicle

The newsletter seemed innocuous. In January, the chief diversity officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine kicked off her “Monthly Diversity Digest” with a list of nearby events for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Then, Sherita Hill Golden outlined a “diversity word of the month”: privilege. Amid blowback, she apologized. Now she has resigned.

What happened to Golden highlights just how much the diversity, equity, and inclusion landscape has shifted: Understandings of power and privilege that once dominated campus discourse for years are now coming under a microscope.

The obstacles to retraining adults in rural areas are many. Almost every day last semester, for example, Lindsey Flather had to commute two hours round trip to Missoula College just to take an hour-long chemistry class that wasn’t offered at the school's local satellite, Bitterroot College.

Can more flexible, skills-based education systems that quickly adapt to workforce needs help? Leaders in Montana and other states are counting on it.