Daily Lumina News 051921

It has been an unprecedented academic year for higher education.
On Future U's final episode of the season, the hosts reflect on how the pandemic reshaped the college expectations and lives of students and families, revisit the stories that made headlines, and look ahead to next fall.

Adult learners are widely diverse in terms of age, work and life experiences, and family and civic obligations. For many adult students, the time it takes to earn a degree, including an associate degree, can be overwhelming.
An incremental credentialing system offering “credentials as you go” recognizes learning as it occurs in stages. The idea has attracted interest because of its potential to more quickly help those hurt in the economic downturn. That’s especially true if they are also high-quality credentials—those that lead to good jobs and further education.

After a 10-year moratorium, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are once again accepting proposed earmarks from lawmakers.
This time, however, the provisions come with several reforms that could make higher education institutions prime recipients of the funding.

When schools and child-care centers shut down last spring, 5.1 million American mothers stopped working for pay. Today, 1.3 million of them remain out of work.
Their losses are more than economic. Across backgrounds and careers, they describe a loss of identity.

In an academic year shaped by a global health crisis, faculty members have encountered plenty of students who are grappling with mental-health issues.
But a recent report shows that, despite their willingness to assist students in distress, professors don’t know as much as they’d like about how to get them the help they need.

With millions of students and a variety of programs, community colleges have a lot going on. Yet all this teaching and learning isn’t always as well recognized or as thoroughly studied as the work taking place at four-year institutions.
The Community College Practice-Research-Policy Exchange plans to change that. The new effort will solicit ideas from the faculty and administrators who run community colleges day to day, convey those insights to higher ed researchers, and then deliver their analyses back to educators.