Daily Lumina News 071423

How soon should colleges change their policies in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmative action in college admissions is illegal?
Students for Fair Admissions, the group that filed the lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, sent an email this week to 150 colleges and universities containing a series of demands. Leaders of several higher education associations are urging colleges to rely on their own legal advice, not SFFA.

The Biden administration calls it a “student loan safety net.” Opponents call it a backdoor attempt to make college free. And it could be the next battleground in the legal fight over student loan relief.
Millions of Americans with student loans will soon be able to apply for a new repayment plan that offers some of the most lenient terms ever. Interest won’t pile up as long as borrowers make regular payments, and millions of people will have payments of $0. In as little as 10 years, any remaining debt will be canceled.

Mildred García is taking over the California State University system at a unique time.
The nation’s largest public university system faces a $1.5 billion budget deficit, a potential 6 percent annual increase in student tuition, the threat of strikes by employee labor unions, and declining enrollment. But García, named as the CSU system’s 11th chancellor and the first Latina to lead the nation's largest university system, says she’s more than ready for the challenge.

Mary Ann DeMario never imagined that her work on a grant application for on-campus child care centers at Monroe Community College would eventually position her as an integral part of the student parent movement. But it did.
In this interview, DeMario describes her research to support parenting students and why the use of data is at the heart of transforming programs and services to better serve this population.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ban on the consideration of an applicant’s race raises difficult questions for many of the nation’s most-selective colleges. One concerns the role and meaning of application essays in the brave new race-neutral world.
The court carved out room for colleges to consider what applicants might write about their racial identity and experiences. This nuance is prompting many intense conversations among admissions officers and high-school counselors as they assess the implications for their day-to-day work.

Sometimes the only choice is to evolve. That was the case for Lorain County Community College in northeastern Ohio, in the heart of the rust belt, when the surrounding manufacturing industry began to crumble in the 1990s.
It didn’t happen overnight, but Lorain leaders consulted with 80 regional employers, updated the curriculum to align with industry needs, and ultimately developed bachelor’s, associate, and certificate programs that prepare students to work in a new world.