Daily Lumina News 060723

For many residential colleges, the eagerness to return to “normal” following the pandemic coincides with a growing demand from some students for virtual learning.
While adult learners have long preferred such flexibility, more 18- to 24-year-olds also want online courses—as well as hybrid courses, where they can attend a class in-person one day and virtually the next. Some are disabled students; others are students with jobs or caretaking responsibilities.

A proposed ban by the U.S. Department of Education to limit when colleges and universities can withhold a student’s transcript could help thousands of students, if not more than a million, access their credits and resume their college education, experts and advocates say.
The move comes as more states are restricting colleges and universities from withholding transcripts when a student owes money to the institution. The proposed federal ban, however, would only apply in some cases.

What’s the best way to help community college students who want a four-year degree?
If legislators in California approve a universal guaranteed admissions program, transfer students will, for the first time, have access to all nine campuses in the University of California system. That includes three of the most selective schools: UCLA, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Diego.

Blanca Collazo was 16 years old when she first applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in Phoenix. Today, Collazo is unsure of her future as she anxiously watches and waits for a ruling in a court case in Texas that could end DACA.
This month marks 11 years since DACA first began. Collazo hopes the anniversary and the court case will inspire Congress to finally provide recipients with a pathway to citizenship.

Many people in and around higher ed fail to understand the nuances of how accreditors operate and the role they play in supporting—or constraining—institutions.
Barbara Brittingham, former president of the New England Commission on Higher Education, offers insight on the subject with a history of accreditation, the purpose of accrediting agencies, and how these entities might evolve in the not-so-distant future.

After a more than three-year reprieve, federal student loan bills will restart within months. As a result, 40 million Americans with education debt will likely have their next due date in September.
Throughout the pandemic, the Biden administration has been working to overhaul the federal student loan system, meaning borrowers may notice a number of changes in place or on the horizon when they begin repayment. Here are three of them.