Daily Lumina News 033020

Unable to sleep one night, Dustin Marrow scrolled through his Facebook feed. He stopped when he saw an ad for an Ojibwe-language program at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus.
Marrow is among a small but growing number of Native students attending the school, and he’s on track to be among those who graduate there. Between 2008 and 2018, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ six-year graduation rate for American Indian and Alaska Native students more than doubled, from 27 percent to 69 percent. Nationally, Native students have a six-year graduation rate of 39 percent.

The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a cloud of uncertainty over higher education. Colleges around the country have shut down and moved teaching online, and no one knows when it will be safe to reopen and resume normal operations.
Education experts and professors address higher education's new reality in this podcast, with insight on what colleges have learned from campuses in China and whether the pandemic could intensify the adoption of microcredentials and other alternative higher-ed models.

As instructors across the country move to remote teaching, many are worried about students who are already at a disadvantage. How can professors support them during this challenging time?
Maybe these students come from underresourced high schools or are the first in their family to attend college. Maybe they need additional academic support as they struggle to manage their time, devise good study habits, and engage in class. Two experts offer advice on how to support students throughout their online learning experience.

When the University of Southern California’s campus closed in the wake of the coronavirus, going to class took on a different look for junior Andrea Alba.
Alba, who is a first-generation low-income student, now shares a room with her two brothers in her family’s two-bedroom house. Meanwhile, she has a payment due for her dorm room and dining services.
Alba and classmates like her are facing a lot of uncertainty and a slew of extra costs these days. Universities are working hard to respond. But for students who rely heavily on campus resources like food, housing, and healthcare, there is a growing list of needs.