Daily Lumina News 041321

Rutgers University in New Jersey was the first, and since then more than a dozen residential colleges have followed. The University of Notre Dame; two Ivy League universities, Brown and Cornell; and Northeastern University in Massachusetts are among those requiring students to have a COVID-19 vaccine when they return this fall.
As vaccines become more widely available, it's likely that many more colleges will add their own mandates. Thirty-seven states are now vaccinating all people ages 16 and up, and by April 19, all states in the U.S. will join them.

Every day, more colleges and universities are joining the movement requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Some states are taking actions to complicate those decisions, but what do potential students think? The answer, according to a new survey, is that the vast majority of students are open to the requirement. And their parents are just fine with such a decision.

In a routine familiar to millions, class began when the three high-schoolers shut the doors to their bedrooms, opened their computers, and logged into Zoom. But it was almost dark outside, just after 7 p.m. The students had just finished up full days of manual labor: one as an electrician, one as a painter, and one in a restaurant.
The night schooling program in northern Virginia is one of myriad ways school officials nationwide are trying to reach students most powerfully affected by the pandemic: low-income students, those whose first language is not English, and kids whose families lost jobs and financial stability because of coronavirus-driven economic shutdowns.

The pandemic prevented most first-year international students from coming to America last fall—the number of new foreign students in the United States fell by 72 percent in 2020. Now, colleges are concerned that the rise in anti-Asian discrimination and violence could make international students, 70 percent of whom are from Asian countries, think twice about coming to the United States.
At the same time, colleges are wrestling with how to support current international students, for whom studying here may have been a hard introduction to racism.

The pandemic forced Brittany Adnoff to make an impossible choice: continue pursuing a college education or devote her time to helping her daughters, age 8 and 9, successfully make the transition from public school to home schooling.
Thousands of students across California’s community colleges wrestle with the dilemma of whether to attend or stay in college during the pandemic. Some delayed their education to care for children and family members. Others had to take jobs or add hours to support their families. Some dropped out of courses in frustration after encountering problems logging into online classes.

College loan relief has once again surfaced on a national level as legislators propose different amounts of debt forgiveness for student borrowers. But loans are more than a policy issue or financial matter.
Once a college loan is taken out, borrowers must navigate a complex process of paying it back. In Pennsylvania, more than 1.7 million residents have unpaid student loans, totaling $61.5 billion. For many former students, carrying tens of thousands of dollars in debt seems inevitable. Four Pennsylvania borrowers reflect on their experiences.