Daily Lumina News 032924

It’s no secret that Compton College has faced its fair share of challenges, including a loss of accreditation and financial instability.
Today, construction crews are sprawled out across the 83-acre campus just 15 miles south of Los Angeles. There’s been more than $118 million in renovations and new building construction projects, along with millions of dollars for equity-focused student success initiatives. It’s a testament that the community college is thriving, thanks in large part to the school's most vocal cheerleader: Keith Curry.

The loudest story about American colleges is disconnected from what college students actually care about, says New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom in this op-ed. Even so, the nation’s diverse, aspirational college students are trying to make college choices that align with their political values.
McMillan Cottom highlights a new Lumina Foundation-Gallup report that shows how state policies related to gun laws, reproductive health, and divisive issues impact where students choose to go to college.

The debate around legacy admissions is heating up after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against race-conscious admission policies last year, overturning decades of legal precedent and forcing some selective colleges to reevaluate their admissions decisions.
Higher education experts say the Supreme Court ruling will make it more difficult for colleges to create a diverse student body and make it harder for historically disadvantaged students to gain entry to selective institutions. In turn, some lawmakers are paying increased attention to policies that give alumni-related students a leg up when applying to college.

In the endless chase for good publicity, some colleges don’t hesitate to shell out thousands of dollars for positive stories, even if doing so might seem contrary to their truth-seeking mission.
For $3,500, college presidents can garner the cover of a magazine and have full control over what the story says. It's a pretty sweet deal for college PR officers. But for some journalism-ethics experts, these puff pieces may do more harm than good.

Colleges' "test optional" policies, many of which were adopted during the pandemic, are coming under increased fire from supporters of the SAT.
For the College Board, the stakes could not be higher. The SAT is, after all, the test company’s signature exam. But this is not just about saving the test. It’s also about protecting the lucrative businesses that the company has built off the exam, capitalizing on its enormous database of test-takers.

Hundreds of community colleges are embracing the “guided pathways” model as a way to give students a clearer path to reaching their educational goals.
In this interview, two experts in the guided pathways movement discuss the growth of guided pathways, what iterations of the reforms work best, and what it takes to bring about this kind of sweeping, “whole college” change at institutions.