Daily Lumina News 020722

For some students, lack of affordable and reliable transportation can derail their college plans altogether.
To address that barrier, many community colleges are re-upping bus passes and other programs that were set aside during the pandemic. Others are initiating new partnerships with regional transit systems. For students who can’t get to bus lines, schools are offering help with car repairs and fuel expenses.

The demand for cybersecurity professionals is getting bigger. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 16,300 workers are needed every year until 2030; some data analysts say almost 600,000 open jobs exist today.
In Maryland, a training and certification organization is joining forces with a woman-founded cybersecurity career and staffing firm to help the state develop homegrown cyber talent.

The pandemic forced many colleges to make standardized entrance exams like the SAT optional. Now, some institutions are choosing to make the tests optional longer term.
On this podcast, the Wall Street Journal's Douglas Belkin explains some of the forces motivating their decisions. Dan Robb, an admissions officer in South Carolina, joins the conversation to describe how the latest trends affect his school.

Inflation is pushing up college tuition and fees while staff shortages are forcing wages and benefits higher. It’s a squeeze that comes at the worst possible time for colleges everywhere.
Experts do cite one bright spot, however: The money pressures on higher education are beginning to force spending reforms long considered but not actually made.

Louisiana Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed has few peers who look like her. She is a Black woman in a field still dominated by white men—and she’s the only woman serving as a top state higher education official who has held such a role in more than one place.
In this interview, Hunter Reed discusses her ascent from a small town in Louisiana to the halls of power, plus her vision for the millions in additional state funding that she secured for Louisiana’s colleges and universities.

Two rough years of the coronavirus pandemic have exposed big cracks in Colorado’s health care system, with overworked and overwhelmed hospital workers leaving their jobs in droves.
To help with staffing shortages, one of the state’s biggest systems is launching a multimillion-dollar effort with Guild Education to cover 100 percent of tuition for select clinical and degree programs.