Daily Lumina News 012021

With his historic win in Georgia to become the state’s first Black senator, the Rev. Raphael Warnock reinforced a narrative building over the past few years: A new generation of leaders has emerged from the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities.
HBCUs are uniquely equipped to train new leaders for a nation grappling with a pandemic of racism. Like the HBCU graduates who were inspired by civil rights leaders, today’s students will call a new set of names heroes. They are being shaped by the successes of political and social leaders like Warnock, Keisha Lance Bottoms, LaToya Cantrell, Randall Woodfin, and Chokwe Lumumba.
And, today, they will witness one of their own, Kamala Harris, become the first woman and first woman of color to hold the country's second-highest office.

Nationally and in Maine, young people of color were at the forefront of demonstrations against the police killing of George Floyd last year. In the months since, many have continued to push local leaders to keep the promises they made over the summer to root out systemic racism. They have met with both success and red tape, support and reluctance.
They are the latest generation in a historic fight for racial equity.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is getting solid reviews for his postsecondary budget proposal, with many applauding the additional investments to improve student success outcomes and eliminate equity gaps.
College leaders, students, policymakers, and advocacy groups weigh in with their thoughts—what they like and the changes they want to see happen.

As public and private institutions and organizations look to a post-pandemic recovery, there’s a lot of emphasis on what kind of skills are needed to get people back to work—and how to make this recovery equitable to everyone.
In this interview, Spencer Overton, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, discusses the issues facing Black Americans in the workforce today.

The pandemic has laid bare inequities in education across the country, and access to college admissions tests is one of the latest examples.
Even though many colleges scrapped SAT or ACT requirements this year because of the pandemic, students are scrambling to take the exams anyway—including the PSAT—as they chase lucrative scholarships and attention from some selective colleges that still require test scores.

When Debrin Adon and his male classmates talk about going to college, it always comes down to one thing: heading straight into the workforce vs. taking on debt to pay for school.
That’s among the many reasons the number of men who go to college has for years been badly trailing the number of women who go. And the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the ratio even more off balance.