Daily Lumina News 051320

At the beginning of 2020, several troubled colleges were moving forward with plans to shore up their finances and strengthen their institutions. Although their turnaround tactics varied, they often included attempts to grow enrollment, reduce operating expenses, and garner more donations.
Then the coronavirus threw some of those plans out the window. Three college leaders share how the crisis is affecting ongoing efforts to revamp their operations.

The pandemic didn’t create inequities in higher education. It exacerbated inequities already there.
Some schools are ramping up efforts to better connect with students and target assistance to those in need. For example, when Compton College offered technology products and free meals on campus, many students were wary of going outside and didn’t have the means to pick them up. As a result, Compton mailed laptops and mobile hot spots to students’ homes and partnered with Everytable to deliver healthy meals.

Guatemalan native Melody Klingenfuss describes the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as her “cloak of protection.” In a matter of weeks, she and thousands of other DACA recipients may learn if that cloak goes away.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule sometime before the end of June on the fate of DACA. The coronavirus could influence that decision. More than 200,000 DACA recipients have been deemed to be essential workers, including 28,200 nurses, personal care aides and medical assistants, among others.

Two education visionaries—John Katzman, founder and CEO of Noodle Partners, and Ben Nelson, founder and CEO of the Minerva Project—discuss how COVID-19 might transform higher education and what institutions should be doing in response.