Photo: Stephen Brashear

For decades now, men have trailed women in college completion. Some campus leaders are creating dedicated programs to retain more men, hiring student success coaches, and even holding pop-up advising sessions in the gym. 

But much more needs to be done, experts say. And the pandemic, which has led to a disproportionate enrollment decline among male students, is expected to further deepen the divide.

Photo: Raquel Natalicchio

Despite enrolling more low-income undergraduate students than any other University of California campus last year, UC Riverside is also the least-funded UC campus. 

Some policymakers are pushing to include hundreds of millions of dollars for UC Riverside and several other campuses with historically less funding in the upcoming state budget that begins next month. Supporters are now waiting to see if Gov. Gavin Newsom agrees. 

Illustration: Delphine Lee/NPR

A short-lived program in the early 2000s allowed married couples to consolidate their student loans for a lower interest rate. But there was a fundamental flaw: The program had no way to separate the initial loans once merged. Even in cases of divorce or domestic violence, these debts cannot be unraveled. 

Now, many borrowers are missing out on thousands of dollars in loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.