Daily Lumina News 051024

Samual N. Brown, Allen Burnett, Charlie Praphatananda, and Dara Yin have stories to tell.
Three of the four men faced charges of murder and received life sentences without parole. It’s what one of them, who entered prison at age 20, describes as death by incarceration. It turns out that education would set them on a path to redemption.

Waterloo, Iowa, faced a wake-up call in 2018 when it was ranked as the worst city for Black Americans. Hawkeye Community College immediately took action, leveraging federal funding, community partnerships, and local elected officials to make Hawkeye’s workforce program a nationally recognized model.
Today, the work continues as community leaders, employers, partners, and educators unite to reverse trends, close racial gaps, and expand opportunities for all citizens eager to learn and earn.

As employers increasingly seek out applicants with artificial intelligence skills, community colleges are well-positioned to provide the training and education these workers need.
Collaborations with groups like the AI Incubator Network, a partnership among Intel, Dell Technologies, and the American Association of Community Colleges, are helping more two-year schools get the resources and funding they need to overhaul programs and create new AI-focused ones.

The American Association of University Professors recently denounced the militarized response to student dissent on college campuses, accusing administrators of failing in their duty to students and faculty, as well as their central obligation to a democratic society.

Irene Mulvey, president of the AAUP, answers questions about recent campus crackdowns on student protesters in this interview.

At a recent summit in Lexington, Kentucky, educators and advocates gathered to answer the question, "Why do rural students have to “beat the odds” in order to get to college?"
The answer is multifaceted. But speakers at the convening agree that collaborations between K–12, higher education, local government, housing, and criminal justice systems can make a significant difference in ensuring better outcomes for rural students.

The term "divestment" has come up a lot over the past few weeks. However, 40 years ago, there was another divestment movement when students wanted to end minority rule known as apartheid in South Africa.
The University of California, Berkeley, was a focal point of that movement, and the school's student body president, Pedro Noguera, was also one of the anti-apartheid movement's leaders there. Noguera, now a college dean, reflects on his role in leading the protests at UC Berkeley in the 1980s and the protests happening on college campuses today.