Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025. | Jack Stripling, College Matters SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn During his first weeks in office, President J. Donald Trump has waged war on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. But the effort to stamp out DEI on college campuses has been years in the making across state legislatures. How did DEI take hold in higher education? And what does it really mean to “ban” this kind of work? On this podcast, two higher education reporters discuss how DEI offices are being dismantled across the country and what that means for students, faculty, and the ever-brewing culture wars. | Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn As demand for AI-literate employees soars, an army of tech giants is partnering with the California State University system and the governor’s office in a large-scale effort to produce an AI-ready workforce for the nation’s most populous state. The ambitious plan, which entails a public-private partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and other big-name companies, will give 460,000 students and 63,000 faculty and staff across all 23 campuses access to AI-powered tools, including CSU’s entire curated library of training and development resources and ChatGPT Edu.The effort will also provide students with apprenticeship opportunities at AI technology-enabled organizations. | Nicole Cohen, Jonaki Mehta, Elissa Nadworny, and Cory Turner, NPR SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn President Donald J. Trump and his colleagues have repeatedly cited the U.S. Department of Education as an example of government overreach. In fact, Republicans have been calling for the department's dissolution ever since its inception. That effort reached a new level this week, as the president began exploring dramatic cuts to programs and staff at the department, including an executive action shuttering programs that are not protected by law and calling on Congress to close the department entirely. | Liann Herder, Diverse Issues in Higher Education SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn As the country witnesses the shuttering of multiple diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and as businesses retract their plans to intentionally diversify their employees and leaders, one college-based program in New York City is celebrating a milestone anniversary with no signs of slowing. The Black Male Initiative officially began in 2005. Since then, the program has spread to all but one campus of the City University of New York system. There are 31 different BMI programs, but each has the same overall goals: increase enrollment, retention, GPAs, and graduation rates of underrepresented students. | Alan Blinder and Stephanie Saul, The New York Times SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn The opening weeks of President Donald J. Trump’s second term have cast America’s campuses into turmoil, with upheaval that threatens to erode the financial foundation of higher education in the United States. As the administration orders the end of diversity programs and imposes cuts to foreign aid, university presidents and their lawyers fear that millions of dollars in federal funding could ultimately vanish. But many college leaders seem wary of provoking a president who has glorified retribution. | Tiffany Camhi, Oregon Public Broadcasting SHARE: Facebook • LinkedIn For "Paul," a college student in Oregon without an immigration status, higher education is everything. His goal is to study environmental science. But since the threat of federal immigration officials coming onto campus has become a very real possibility, his education goals are on pause. Oregon’s higher education leaders aren’t standing idly by. Community colleges and universities are preparing faculty, staff, and students on how to respond to federal immigration agents, with the hope of slowing down enforcement actions. | Holly Zanville, The EvoLLLution | Tabitha Whissemore, Community College Daily |
Ray Schroeder, Online: Trending Now | Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive | Mathew Miranda, The Sacramento Bee |
DeRionne P. Pollard, Inside Higher Ed | Courtney Everett, Wisconsin Public Radio | Kevin Richert and Ryan Suppe, Idaho Education News | Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal | American Enterprise Institute | The Chronicle of Higher Education | |