Daily Lumina News 080823

For high school seniors and their families, August marks the official beginning of college application process. This is the first application season since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action policies by restricting colleges' ability to consider race in their admissions decisions.
In this interview, Minnesota college officials and admissions experts discuss what has changed and how students should approach this year's application season.

Discussions of diversity are not “nice-to-haves.” They sit at the core of what it means to be an institution of higher learning, contends Nathan Long, president of Saybrook University, a private graduate school in Pasadena, California.
In this essay, Long calls on leaders at institutions everywhere to step up and make their voices heard as politicians attempt to muzzle public colleges on issues of diversity and race.

Victoria Trice, Sharahn Santana, and Ed Allison are teachers who share at least one thing in common: a devotion to deeply exploring the history of Black people in America—a topic that has often been downplayed, or simply left out of, general history lessons.

Such classes are under a microscope after the political skirmish set off when Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida rejected portions of an African American studies course piloted by the College Board. At least five other states are examining the course to see if it is contrary to similar state laws.

Gen Z believes education after high school is necessary. They’re just not so sure about going to a four-year university.
It isn’t that the generation born between 1997 and 2012 doesn’t want to get a bachelor’s degree. The cost of tuition, student debt, and not feeling prepared keep them from heading to a university. Some are more open to certificate programs, apprenticeships, two-year degrees, and on-the-job training as viable paths to a career.

He was arguably one of this generation’s most astute legal minds. But Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. was more than that. Like Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston, and Oliver W. Hill Sr., Ogletree used his legal prowess to significantly advance the cause of Black Americans.
Ogletree—who was affectionately known as “Tree”—died last week after an eight-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. The prominent Harvard Law professor was 70.

Since 1993, North Carolina has allocated money to the community college system to help students afford child care. The state Senate’s budget proposal would give an additional $1.2 million in recurring funds each of the next two years to the program.
But the program needs more funding and wider eligibility, and communities need more child care investment to address systemic supply issues, say local education leaders.