Daily Lumina News 022122

Like many student fathers, Jesus Benitez worked full time while he went to college. Unlike many of them, he managed to stay in school and finish.
Benitez found his way through the Fatherhood Academy, a City University of New York program for Black and Latino fathers. It prepares men with children for high school equivalency tests and college by providing classes, tutoring, counseling, and parenting seminars. The program also includes weekly stipends.

Adjuncts say the path through community college districts to full-time jobs is steep, perilous, and often fruitless. Designed as steppingstones toward a better life for Californians, community colleges often don’t give many of those who teach students their own way ahead.
The final installment of a special investigation on adjunct faculty takes a deeper look at this gig economy in higher education.

Instead of being called upon to prepare job seekers, community colleges are now stimulating and spurring economic development.
It’s a big expansion of community colleges’ role, but in many places—including in rural America where new jobs are especially needed—the institutions have come through in a big way.

There are plenty of conversations happening in higher education these days about the importance of equity on campus and how it can help students from underrepresented groups succeed.
But New York’s Rockland Community College has moved beyond talking about it or simply asking students what they need.

An ordinary visit at Paul Quinn College turned into something else for hundreds of high school seniors from Fort Worth high schools last week: college acceptance letters for themselves and two family members.
The move is part of the Historically Black College's efforts to reimagine the higher education admissions process by targeting multiple generations.

Critics of legacy admissions say the practice gives a boost to the children of alumni—and adds an additional barrier for the underrepresented students striving to navigate higher education.
More policymakers, students, and others are calling for a ban on legacy preferences, and a senator and a congressman want their legislation to do just that.