Daily Lumina News 032422

The growing need for mental health services on college campuses has revealed that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work for all students.
While many colleges are still trying to figure out exactly how to care for students from underserved groups, institutions like College of the Holy Cross have been able to rely on systems and partnerships they built before the pandemic to help students through a particularly difficult time.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, entire industries were decimated overnight. Workers were left to survive on unemployment benefits. But for some, the COVID-19 crisis presented an opportunity to change course.
Six people describe how they transformed their careers during the past two years. For some, it was a financial imperative. For others, lockdowns became a chance to rethink their path. For each, it was a big risk on a new future.

During a sabbatical in 2019, two economics and criminal justice professors at Holyoke Community College wanted to come up with a way to put their commitment to social justice and equity into action.
That commitment resulted in the creation of Western Mass CORE, a program designed to build a pathway to college for incarcerated people.

Early colleges can play a key role in bridging the gap between high school and higher education. In addition to allowing students to earn transferrable college credits for free, these schools boost students’ chances of applying to and earning a college degree.
This pertains especially to students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education, including students of color, low-income students, and first-generation college goers.

College-in-prison programs can change lives. Just ask Nicholas Brooks.
Brooks is currently incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility in New York State; he will see his first parole board in 2035. In this essay, he writes about his friend, Daniel Sanchez, and how after nine years and nine different prisons filled with violence and solitary confinement he found salvation in education.

In a 15-year period starting in 2001, more than 120 four-year colleges made a small but significant switch: They dropped “college” from their name, and added “university.”
In many cases, that change has paid off in the form of a near-immediate bump in enrollment, according to a new study.