Daily Lumina News 030524

As issues with the "new" Free Application for Federal Student Aid form continue, institutions are trying to do all that they can to process applications and get aid letters to students as quickly as possible. The stakes are high: Without those letters, families are in the dark about their options to pay for college, and college-access advocates worry the challenges will discourage low-income and first-generation students from pursuing higher education entirely.
So how did a bipartisan effort to overhaul an outdated federal aid system become a political and logistical fiasco for the already-embattled U.S. Department of Education?

The fallout from the University of Florida's decision to eliminate all positions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion has been fast and furious, with students, professors, alumni, and even football legend Emmitt Smith expressing disappointment and outrage.
The move by UF comes following a new state law banning DEI initiatives at public colleges. After Florida and Texas, more Republican-led legislatures around the country are pushing about 50 similar anti-DEI bills this year, according to a recent Associated Press analysis.

Nearly 11,000 high school students in Arizona aren't anxiously waiting to find out what universities or colleges have accepted them. They received letters telling them they had been accepted to attend one or more of Arizona's three state universities next fall—before they officially applied.
The early acceptance letters are part of an expanding effort in Arizona and other states to get more students to attend college after high school at a time when college and universities are battling to shore up enrollments and businesses are clamoring for more workers with higher education.

As more states restrict the kinds of programs college employees can organize, students will more often carry the burden of cultivating a sense of belonging on campus. For LGBTQ students, who report worse mental health and greater mistreatment in college than their non-LGBTQ peers, that community is crucial.
Case in point: When the University of Houston eliminated its LGBTQ resource center, an LGBTQ club at nearby Rice University opened its doors to affected students. Two Rice PRIDE leaders discuss that decision in this interview.

Hopeful parents in Alabama are watching and waiting for Gov. Kay Ivey’s signature after Alabama’s legislature pushed through bills meant to protect in vitro fertilization. The two bills, from both the House and Senate, were introduced less than two weeks after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos were children, making their destruction, a common byproduct of the IVF process, illegal.
But experts agree that it isn’t just IVF patients who might suffer because of this ruling. Regional medicine as a whole could also take a hit as medical students might decide to pursue fertility studies in other states.

As much as Matthew Wallace loves his work as a preschool teacher, he says it’s tough to get by on his salary. Right now, even working full time at about $25 per hour, he relies on public assistance to pay more than half his rent.
But Wallace isn't leaving his profession any time soon. Instead, he's getting additional training through a new apprenticeship program to become a lead preschool teacher. Binal Patel, the group’s chief program officer, says the effort serves as an alternative to college for early educators to advance their careers—and it’s completely free for apprentices.