Daily Lumina News 020124

Thirty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico are seeing declines in the share of residents who have industry certifications and college certificates with significant wage premiums.
This unusual decline highlights the importance of paying attention to the labor market payoff of such credentials, writes Lumina Foundation's Jamie Merisotis in this piece on Lumina's newly released A Stronger Nation update.

The passage of House Bill 8 sets aside $683 million for Texas community colleges and rewards schools based on performance metrics like the number of job credentials, degrees or certificates students complete, college courses they take during high school, or transfers to four-year schools.
Higher ed leaders gathered last week to discuss the law's impact and how the change will help schools better meet the needs of students and prepare them to enter high-demand industries. This is what they had to say.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some colleges dropped their SAT requirements as many students could not attend the exams. Now, four years after the start of the pandemic, more colleges are sticking with that decision.
Some see the move as a sharp relief from the harsh, stressful exams that can sometimes make or break a student's college opportunities. Others, like David Leonhardt of The New York Times, have a warning: It may not all be good news, and it may not help those who are disadvantaged.

Supporting their neighbors isn’t always a priority for universities and colleges. Even when it is, it often happens so quietly that it isn’t widely noticed.
But advocates suggest that such help is one way to counteract crashing public confidence in higher education, an issue that has been worsened by political attacks and self-destructive missteps by even the most elite universities.

Professors at the University of Pennsylvania have begun to organize, fearing what they view as a plan by billionaire Marc Rowan to upend academic freedom.
A Penn alumnus and a major benefactor of the university, Rowan deployed his formidable resources in a relentless campaign against Penn’s former president, M. Elizabeth Magil. But it's what happened next that spurred the protest: a four-page email sent by Rowan to university trustees titled “Moving Forward,” which many professors interpreted as a blueprint for a more conservative campus.

Curtis Jackson has endured a series of setbacks in life, including a visual impairment caused by congenital glaucoma, limited financial resources, and a string of low-wage jobs. Still, he's never stopped dreaming big.
Jackson is now training for a position in cybersecurity—and it's all thanks to a program designed to address the untapped potential of those with vision-related challenges.