Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
Over the past few years, higher education leaders have noticed stark differences in how today’s students learn compared to their peers, with some disparities directly attributed to the pandemic and others a symptom of isolation and online learning.
Rather than asking students to catch up and mold to higher education’s traditional structures, experts in the field are asking, are colleges set up to help learners succeed?
Four days after pro-Palestinian protesters began occupying a building at California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt, campus officials seemed to throw up their hands: They closed the institution for the rest of the semester.
The unpredictable situation and continued break-ins, vandalism, and theft by protesters made it difficult to reopen other buildings, university officials stated in a campus alert. But as some faculty members saw it, the administration’s message was a big mistake.
Christina Westman dreamed of working with Parkinson’s disease and stroke patients as a music therapist when she started studying at St. Cloud State University. But her dreams were upended in May when the Minnesota school announced a plan to eliminate its music department and slash 42 degree programs and 50 minors.
It’s part of a wave of program cuts in recent months as U.S. colleges large and small try to make ends meet. Among their budget challenges: Federal COVID relief money is now gone, operational costs are rising, and fewer high school graduates are going straight to college.
Teachers see something in Tim Walz. They notice how plainly he speaks so that everyone can follow along. They watch as he ad-libs to comedic effect on the stump. They say he exudes empathy, and not just in the “I feel your pain” way of many politicians.
In the newly minted vice presidential candidate—a former high school history teacher and varsity football coach—they see themselves. Many of them also see an opportunity.
Marie Adele Grosso, a student organizer at Barnard College and Columbia University, was arrested earlier this year for taking part in on-campus pro-Palestinian protests. Like many students, her criminal charges have since been dropped. And her school suspension was downgraded to probation.
Now, Grosso is among scores of students around the nation using the summer to strategize and plan for what their activism might look like in the fall.
The premise of “free college” programs popping up around the country in recent years is that bringing the price of higher education down to nearly nothing will spur more students to enroll and earn degrees.
But is that what actually happens? David Monaghan, an associate professor of sociology at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, has been digging into that question in a series of recent research studies.
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