Daily Lumina News 022621

Many people are hurting from the massive layoffs caused by COVID-19, but unemployment for someone with only a high school diploma or some college experience is almost twice that of a person with a bachelor's degree or higher. And things are even worse for women and people of color.
The country has entered a time where everyone needs some form of postsecondary education to make a decent living, but not everyone can earn a degree right away. Faster, more affordable, and employer-aligned pathways are needed for more Americans to find their way into high-quality jobs.

A new report from the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University shows that Black undergraduates trust college leaders significantly less than their white peers, and that the pandemic has caused a slight drop in trust in administrators among all students.
Shannon Calderone, co-author of the report, says the findings "speak to the alienation and lack of sense of belonging” historically felt by students of color at colleges. Despite many administrators creating initiatives, offices, and policies directed at improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in recent years, Black students continue to distrust college leaders, especially if those leaders are not people of color themselves.

This week, with a single paragraph, the governor of New Hampshire announced his intention to combine the state’s 13 four- and two-year public colleges into one unified system. New Hampshire now joins a growing number of states that are turning to different forms of public-college mergers in response to ebbing numbers of high-school graduates and increased competition for the students that remain.
But college mergers take many forms and may bring with them nearly as many challenges as they solve. Combining every public institution in a state, marrying the four-year land-grant research university to the two-year technical college, may be especially tricky. And they are rarely a panacea.

Nearly a year after most universities abruptly shifted classes online and sent students home, the virus continues to upend American higher education. When many campuses reopened in the fall, outbreaks raced through dorms and infected thousands of students and employees.
Since students returned for the spring term, increased testing, social distancing rules, and an improving national outlook have helped curb the spread on some campuses. Still, major outbreaks continue.