Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
Normally, an ambitious college president coming to a place like Northern Arizona University would seek to make the school “better” in certain prescribed ways. One is to admit a “better” class of students—that is, become more academically selective, which also brings students from wealthier families and hence more tuition dollars.
José Luis Cruz Rivera is putting NAU on the map by doing the opposite.
David McCuan is no stranger to strong disagreements in his political science classes. This year will be no exception.
Over the past two decades, McCuan has easily guided 400 budding politicians through an election-year course that teaches them not only how to unearth the money and power structures behind state ballot measures but also asks them to register voters, educate fellow citizens on the election, and, quite frequently, work with a student from the opposite end of the political spectrum.
As students make their way back to college and campus demonstrations about the Israel-Hamas war resume, the central conflict isn’t likely to be student-to-student, but between the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom from hostile environments. Whether it’s possible for both to exist on college campuses this fall remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, many colleges are strengthening their policies on how and when students can protest. Some say their “fear-based” approach goes too far; others believe they haven’t gone far enough.
Crisis. Crisis. Crisis. Even before the pandemic, college counseling centers described being overwhelmed, not nearly able to meet students’ need for help handling mental-health challenges. Amid rising overall rates of anxiety and depression, researchers report an increase in social anxiety, among college students in particular. That’s contributed to what has been described as an epidemic of loneliness.
But an intriguing news release from Richard Shadick of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors takes a different tack.
A local philanthropy is giving tens of millions of dollars to advance short-term workforce training programs at Maine community colleges.
System leaders say the surge of funding comes at a time when employers face significant workforce gaps as aging workers retire and the state confronts a decline in young residents. Maine has the oldest population in the country, with a median age of about 45, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In 2013, many higher education watchers questioned the decision to appoint former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels as president of Purdue University. He quickly won over his skeptics and remained in that position for nearly a decade until stepping down in 2022.
In this interview, Daniels discusses the challenges facing higher education today and the issues that deserve to be under the microscope.
