The nation’s 17 million college students have confronted a new and chaotic reality on campus this fall: a fast-changing legal landscape and entirely new norms in the wake of the Dobbs decision on abortion.

For some, the changes are joyful, a protection of human life. For others, they are terrifying, pushing them to consider scenarios that would have been unthinkable just months ago, such as having to drop out of school if they became pregnant.

Photo: Vanessa Leroy

As enrollment erodes and public skepticism mounts about the need for a college degree, the pace of annual increases in tuition and fees—which for years rose three times faster than the cost of everything else—has for the first time since the early 1980s slowed to a rate that’s well below inflation.

Now some higher education institutions are starting to lower their prices.

Maria Garza and her classmates are all enrolled in Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program. Garza, however, is the only one zooming in from the outside.

The number of incarcerated people in degree programs is low. But as the Illinois Department of Corrections seeks to increase opportunities for higher education behind bars, it's having to figure out how to allow students like Garza to complete their education even when they’re released from prison in the middle of a semester or degree program.