Photo: Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Jodie Parks works full time as an occupational therapist at a Michigan state psychiatric hospital. But now she has a second job: chasing down paperwork to prove that she previously served in the military.

She needs that proof to have her student loans forgiven under a federal program that pledged to erase students’ debt if they took lower-paying but critical jobs with nonprofits and the government. It’s a promise that, for most borrowers, has yet to pay off. 

Freeman Hrabowski III is something of a legend in higher ed circles, rising to national prominence for his transformation of the University of Maryland Baltimore County and establishing it as one of the country’s top producers of engineers and scientists of color.

Hrabowski will step down from the presidency of UMBC in June. In this interview, the new president—Valerie Ashby—talks about about taking over a storied legacy, leading through listening, and what it takes to make a top-tier university welcoming to all. 

Later this month, proposed data collection changes by the U.S. Department of Education will classify undocumented students attending colleges and universities that receive federal student aid funding as either “race/ethnicity unknown” or, for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students, as “nonresidents.”    

In practical terms, the change under consideration is good, bad, and potentially ugly.