Daily Lumina News 020821

At least 95 percent of people in prison will eventually be released—and their ability to access and complete some form of a college degree or credential will increase their chances of overcoming post-incarceration barriers.
A new report offers insight on how college leaders and policymakers can help. The study is written by Danny Murillo, a one-time Pelican Bay prisoner who started a program to help counsel formerly incarcerated people going to college.

The Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia spreads out over multiple cities with its biggest industries being defense, tourism, and shipping. The area includes three community colleges that, among other priorities, have workplace development initiatives in place to serve local employers looking for workers in manufacturing, welding, and electrical maintenance.
To leverage their programs, the institutions are collaborating together to serve as a single point of contact for shipbuilding employers.

Counselors and teachers across California have similar stories to tell: One describes a senior at Oakland High School who, before starting to work full time this year, had a 3.9 GPA, but is now failing almost all of her classes. A counselor at South L.A.'s Communication and Technology School worries about a student there who works two jobs, from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m., five days a week.
The students’ families—undocumented and first-generation Americans, essential workers and people of color—have been disproportionately hit by the ravages of the pandemic, losing jobs and contracting the virus. Now their teenagers are stepping in to help, often carrying overwhelming workloads that can bring on anxiety attacks, bouts of depression, and failing grades.

Michael Ellison is the co-founder and CEO of CodePath. His nonprofit is working to dramatically change the pathway to opportunities for underrepresented minorities in computer science careers.
And he’s right. There are a lot of opportunities ahead. An estimated 3.5 million computing-related job openings are expected to become available over the next five years. Ellison and a graduate of CodePath explain what it will take to break down the barriers to entry for underrepresented populations.

The mass disruption of the workplace because of the pandemic is accelerating employers’ investment in job-displacing automation, and neither the government nor the American labor force is prepared for the sweeping fallout.
The hemorrhaging of jobs is refueling a national debate over how to give workers the skills to survive the brutal market and fill the millions of positions that automation will inevitably also create.

Colleges and universities closed out 2020 with continued job losses, resulting in a 13-percent drop since last February. It was a dispiriting coda to a truly brutal year for higher ed’s labor force.
Since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, the U.S. Labor Department estimates that American academic institutions have shed a net total of at least 650,000 workers. Put another way, for every eight workers employed in academe in February 2020, at least one had lost or left that job 10 months later.