Daily Lumina News 020320

One of the most prominent ways colleges and universities provide an advantage to certain students is through legacy preferences, giving the children of alumni an edge in admissions. This month, Johns Hopkins University disclosed that over the past decade it had stopped legacy admissions entirely, and taken other steps to help diversify its student body.
The end of legacy admissions is not the only factor that changed in the university’s demographics. Tweaking just one dial wouldn’t open the gates to the less advantaged. But one reason to do it is for the signal it sends to the public.

The University of Texas at Austin is partnering with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to expand the Dell Scholars program to all students at the university who receive Pell Grants.
For participants in the program, the university will cover tuition costs, while the scholarship will provide wraparound supports. Pell recipients with an expected family contribution under $1,000 will get an additional $20,000 for up to six years for basic needs and other education costs.

Increasingly, civic and business leaders are alternately helping and compelling higher education to up its game. For example, churches and other organizations in Greensboro, North Carolina, are driving young people to enroll in and older adults to return to college by providing not only inspiration but also such practical support as day care and money for books and unanticipated costs.
More than 2,700 volunteers are helping high school students apply to college in Tennessee as part of tnAchieves, and 242 unpaid coaches are doing the same thing through ScholarMatch, a San Francisco-based nonprofit founded by author Dave Eggers.

For decades, higher education has come under public scrutiny for rising costs. But there is at least one other sector that seems to feel even more heat from policymakers and ire from the public. That sector is health care.
Peter Ubel, a physician who is a professor in Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, has written a book about the economics of health care—and he thinks there may be a few lessons for higher education in there as well.