Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
DeRionne Pollard is president of Maryland's Montgomery College. The campus is eerily quiet these days. Like so many colleges and universities around the country, learning here has shifted from classrooms and labs to bedrooms and living rooms.
Pollard is staying focused on current students, many of whom were struggling before the pandemic. On top of those concerns, students have been deeply affected by recent events surrounding racial inequities.
Facing federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, dozens of cities, and some of the country's biggest tech companies, the Trump administration rescinded a policy directive on Tuesday that would have barred international college students from the United States if their colleges offered classes entirely online in the fall semester.
Amid all the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic for higher education, two things are becoming clear. Most students yearn to come back to campus in the fall, in spite of the risks. And if, instead, students wind up receiving online instruction come September, they don’t want to pay full tuition.
Howard University and the University of California system are returning to “hybrid” teaching this fall, holding many classes online but bringing some students back to campus for in-person instruction and laboratories. Their leaders explain those plans—and how they could change—in this interview.
