Daily Lumina News 041823

While almost every sector of higher education is seeing fewer students registering for classes, many trade school programs are booming.
Many young people who are choosing trade school over a traditional four-year degree say that they are doing so because it’s much more affordable and they see a more obvious path to a job. But that doesn’t necessarily mean these students won’t later go on to earn a bachelor’s degree.

When someone calls from prison, everything stops in this film class at University of California-Santa Cruz.
The class is a collaboration between Georgetown University and University of California-Santa Cruz in which teams of students focus on a single wrongful conviction case. The Georgetown students research and fact find while the Santa Cruz students create a documentary. In some instances, the students’ work can even help pave the way to freedom for those behind bars.

The expansion of Pell Grants to more incarcerated people offers an opportunity to make college in prison more available while also maintaining best practices in a rapidly growing field, writes Mneesha Gellman of Emerson College in this essay.
Such practices include little things, like the labels used to refer to students, and big things, like ensuring that those who draw Pell Grants enroll in rigorous programs where they get a quality education and earn a degree.

As Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida state legislature race to re-shape higher education with bills restricting DEI efforts, limiting tenure protections, and banning the teaching of controversial subjects, the silence from Florida’s public college leaders has so far been deafening.
In the wake of these ongoing attacks, current and former college presidents from other states weigh in on what Florida presidents should do.

Certain fundamentals will shape the races as candidates strategize about how to win the White House in 2024. To do this, they will have to account for at least one major political realignment: Educational attainment is the new fault line in American politics.
Americans have always viewed education as a key to opportunity, but few predicted the critical role it has come to play in today's politics.

It’s a common refrain that higher education’s commitment to diversity is performative. But there isn’t a blueprint on how to overcome barriers and turn platitudes into practices.
A pair of new papers studying how to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in medical schools and medical-residency programs tries to bridge that gap, offering administrators across higher ed ideas for change that might stick.