Daily Lumina News 112520

Across the country, students who had planned to begin college this fall are at home instead, waiting out the pandemic. For Native American students, freshman enrollment at public, four-year colleges is down 22 percent; at community colleges, it’s fallen by almost 30 percent.
In response, colleges and access groups are scrambling to get students back on track, with some offering discounted or free tuition. Along with extending its 50 percent discount, the Navajo Nation’s Diné College plans to improve access by offering evening classes at high schools this spring to avoid long commutes to the college campus.

The pandemic has brought to life the fact that not only do we have a deadly virus running rampant through our nation—and the world—but the U.S. postsecondary system is ailing, as well. It was ailing before the pandemic, and the challenges facing postsecondary education have grown as the coronavirus disrupts both delivery and economic models.
The good news? We have a chance to redesign our system—to make it operate better for students, employers, institutions, and policymakers. One Rx for change is “credential as you go.”

Jessica Orozco is a good student. In her family of six siblings, she’s the studious one. But this unpredictable semester has broken Orozco’s good habits. Like so many other students, she’s just trying to get through it.
Indeed, if this past spring semester was defined by the sudden shift to remote instruction, the theme of the fall has been sustained uncertainty. The usual patterns of living and learning are gone, and students know any new routines they create are subject to the trajectory of the pandemic and colleges’ changing policies.

Three weeks after the historic election of Kamala Harris as vice president of the United States, Black college students, presidents, faculty members, and others are still celebrating and assessing what her win means to them individually and to Black women collectively.
The political ascendancy of Harris has led to a sense of hope for similar trends in professions in which Black women are underrepresented. It also has led higher education leaders to renew their commitment to helping Black women assume leadership roles in their fields.