Daily Lumina News 071923

For decades, a handful of individual states and schools have been offering financial assistance to Native American students. A new wave of offerings this past year—spurred in part by growing land rights movements and a larger focus on racial justice—shows the programs are becoming increasingly popular.
But in nearly every iteration of these programs—old and new—only some Indigenous people benefit. That’s because the U.S. government does not formally acknowledge the status of an estimated 400 tribes and countless Indigenous individuals, thus shutting them out of programs meant to reduce barriers to higher education.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of race-based affirmative action in college admissions is putting pressure on prominent colleges and universities to abandon another preference suddenly much harder to defend: a boost for applicants whose mother or father went to the school.
The “legacy” preference is drawing fire from the White House, Capitol Hill, and ordinary Americans who see it as a hereditary and therefore unfair benefit that tends to help wealthy and white children of alumni more than low-income students and applicants of color.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed nearly everything—including how young people think about higher education and work.
That’s according to the latest “Question the Quo” report from ECMC Group. One of the study's biggest takeaways: Teens believe some form of postsecondary education is more necessary than ever. They also expect to be lifelong learners, with plans to pursue additional education or training in a new career or field within 10 years.

In 2013, the computer science department at the University of Texas at Austin started using a homemade machine learning algorithm to help faculty make graduate admissions decisions. Seven years later the system was abandoned over ethical concerns.
Despite the criticism lobbied at systems like the one used previously by UT Austin, some universities and admissions officers are still clamoring to use artificial intelligence to streamline the acceptance process. And companies are eager to help them.

A lack of child care keeps millions of parents from entering or remaining in the workforce—and the pandemic has only exacerbated this issue. The crisis is especially acute in predominantly Black and Latino communities.
But an equally devastating consequence is that it makes enrolling in and finishing college nearly impossible for millions of parenting students. Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder and CEO of Generation Hope, offers insight on what schools can do to help student-parents earn a degree and get a leg up on the socioeconomic ladder.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision was quite clear: Schools can no longer consider the race of a student in making admissions decisions, even as just one factor among many. But the decision did carve out one notable exception: Students may still discuss how race shaped their individual life experiences and identities.
As admissions officers at selective institutions around the country begin reviewing their admissions processes, one Massachusetts college already has a head start on how it plans to maintain diversity.