Daily Lumina News 022624

Rural colleges deliver value, according to a new analysis by researchers at Boston College. While median earnings at rural-serving institutions are typically lower, their accessibility, shorter time-to-degree, and affordability create equitable value for many students, the report says.
The study is part of a new research series from the Institute for Higher Education Policy that addresses crucial questions about student outcomes and the economic benefits of higher education. The papers draw on IHEP’s Equitable Value Explorer, an interactive data tool to compare post-college earnings across student populations and institutions.

The troubled Eastern Gateway Community College, in Ohio, is “pausing” registration and enrollment after the spring of 2024. In other words, the college will not hold classes starting this summer and hasn’t announced any timetable to resume them.
While few public colleges ever close, Eastern Gateway’s announcement of an enrollment “pause” comes after years of scrutiny from its accreditor, which raised concerns about academic quality and corruption following the institution’s meteoric growth in online programs.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced instructors around the world to try online education, something unexpected has happened: Professors are discovering that some online teaching methods work better than what can be done in the limits of a physical classroom.
And now with campuses back from pandemic restrictions, many instructors are trying to incorporate those remote practices into their in-person teaching.

Because of delays and glitches, fewer students have been filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 17.5 million people (both high schoolers and older students) completed the FAFSA last year. So far this year, only about four million have successfully done so.
On-going issues with the new FAFSA form could result in students walking across the stage at high school graduation (which in the South can be as early as the second week in May) not knowing whether they will be able to afford to attend the colleges they were admitted to.

For more than a century, thousands of acres of land expropriated from Montana’s Indigenous peoples have been managed to generate revenue for Montana State University and other campuses.
Among them is a roughly two-acre parcel along Missoula’s Reserve Street corridor, advertised as available for lease by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Dana T. Weekes is the founder of Thrive Architects, a public policy and professional development firm. She says her interest in advocacy, particularly on issues related to community colleges, adult learners, and student parents, was shaped early on by her experiences of being a child of a student parent.
Weekes explains more about those experiences in this interview, plus how philanthropic, non-profit, and advocacy organizations can further center student-parent voices in policy conversations.