Daily Lumina News 122220

COVID-19 has altered college life for students everywhere—from incoming college freshmen excited about the first day of classes to college seniors planning for their first job.
Three college students from Florida share details about their unusual and stressful semester—and how COVID-19 affected their mental health, online instruction, and future career pathways.

They came like gifts from a Secret Santa: game-changing sums of funding for higher education. But these donations did not go to elite universities that usually garner all the attention. These donations went to institutions that many people have never heard of—and that tend to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott revealed last week that she is the one behind a $4.2 billion donation to organizations that need it most. Recipients include lesser-known historically Black colleges, community and technical colleges, and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban and rural students.

Colleges and universities across South Dakota were facing long-range financial, logistical, and access challenges even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a much-needed holiday break approaches for students, faculty and staff, followed by a spring semester still tinged with danger from the virus, key stakeholders in South Dakota higher education assess how the pandemic affected teaching and learning, how it may alter higher education in the short term, and whether this unprecedented time may lead to fundamental, long-term reforms.

Even before the COVID crisis, higher education was struggling to keep up with the skyrocketing demand for nurses. Now it’s falling further behind as health protocols limit in-person instruction and hospitals are stretched too thin to provide required hands-on clinical training. Nursing instructors are also leaving in droves.
Experts worry that the next year or two could devastate nursing—and nursing quality.