Daily Lumina News 042121

In the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, guilty on all counts in the death of George Floyd, the verdict stands as a historic moment in the nation’s quest for racial justice. It is a decision we should treat with solemnity and gratitude.
Still, a just verdict in a single, high-profile case is not the achievement of justice. Floyd’s murder should remind us of the magnitude of the task ahead—the work still needed to realize a society in which people’s skin color no longer significantly predicts how they will fare in life.

Lorna Hofer and Kerry Stager are much more than instructors in business and accounting at Lake Area Technical College. They're also highly involved advisors who go the extra mile to make their students feel a sense of belonging.
Between them, Hofer and Stager keep close tabs on 80 students—not just academically, but personally. It’s a dual role embraced by every faculty member at the South Dakota college.

An increase in anti-Asian hate crimes is leading Asian and Asian American student groups at colleges across the country to renew their activism and advocacy efforts and demand more accountability from school leadership.
Among other things, students are calling for the establishment of Asian American studies programs, expansion of mental health services for Asian American and Pacific Islander students, increased resources for cultural centers, improved processes for reporting hate and bias incidents, and more.

President Joe Biden promised to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt during his 2020 campaign. Now, a few months into his presidency, more than 415 organizations are urging him to use his executive authority to cancel all federal student loan debt.
Several higher education leaders talk about the effects of student loans on recent graduates—and how the outsized debt burdens shouldered by Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Native American people further deepen racial wealth divides.

The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the leadership of college presidents at every turn, with many struggling to communicate amid a fluid and fast-changing set of circumstances outside their control.
David Gergen, advisor to four U.S. presidents and several university presidents, discusses leadership on college campuses in these challenging times.

College-bound high schoolers are making their final deliberations ahead of May 1, the national deadline to pick a school. That day will signal the end to an admissions season marked by a global health crisis, learning disruptions, and the elimination of standardized testing requirements at many colleges and universities.
Lisa Przekop of the University of California, Santa Barbara offers insight on what counselors looked for in applications this year, the topics they saw in students' admissions essays, and how the admissions process itself might have actually improved in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.