Daily Lumina News 082422

Colleges nationwide are struggling with a housing shortage. But for many Historically Black Colleges and Universities, whose students are already at greater risk of housing insecurity and homelessness, the housing crunch follows decades of inequitable funding.
The historical underfunding of HBCUs has contributed to the lack of adequate student housing. A 2018 Government Accountability Office report found that public HBCUs reported deferred-maintenance backlogs of $67 million for campus facilities, on average, and private HBCUs, $17 million.

Two years ago, at the height of the pandemic, high school seniors were navigating that final year of high school as the world was being upended by COVID. Now they're going into their second year of college.
In this interview, two college sophomores—Aya Hamza and Madeline Muller—describe the impact of COVID-19 on their college experience.

Teacher pay has long trailed behind other professions requiring a college degree, and in Colorado that pay gap is the widest of any state.
It’s yet another grim indication of the tough financial realities hanging over teachers in Colorado, where many pick up another job to make ends meet and struggle to afford a home of their own.

Nearly 6.4 million adults in California have stopped out of college—by far the largest group of the nation’s 39 million total, according to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data.
That number is important to the University of California system, where officials want to grow enrollment by at least 23,000 in-state students—the equivalent of an additional campus—over the next eight years. To help reach that goal, four UC campuses are joining forces to recruit former UC students who left without completing a degree.

“A lot of people would tell you to get to college,” says Christopher Carter, a young Black man at California State University, Northridge. “But the hardest part is staying there.”
The Cal State system graduates Black students at lower rates than other groups. Students, scholars, and advocates say the issue is complex, from a lack of tenured Black faculty role models to inconsistent support for campus Black resource centers that offer a sense of community and belonging.

Several years ago, Jairo Salgado struggled with homelessness, substance abuse, and incarceration. Today, thanks to an internship opportunity through Compton College, he can envision a future of hope and promise.
In this essay, Salgado explains how public-private partnerships are creating new educational pathways and changing lives.