Daily Lumina News 081320

Higher education's response to the pandemic, especially the move away from in-person classes to online learning, is highlighting larger questions about the high price tag on a college degree.
Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University, is a leading voice in that debate. He offers his insight on this episode of "Rethinking College."

As stressful as it always is for students applying to college, this year it's all that—and then some—for the admissions officials trying to decide whether to admit them.
Because of the pandemic, many students will be applying without standardized test scores and several other metrics that admissions officers at selective schools have long relied on. As a result, colleges are scrambling to figure out what else they might consider instead.

Hundreds of college leaders announced early this summer of their intention to reopen campuses for in-person instruction in the fall. That's quickly changing.
Many colleges have now reversed or altered their reopening plans in the past several weeks after taking stock of COVID-19 testing availability, student and faculty safety concerns, state regulations, and the worsening public health crisis.

The pandemic cost colleges billions to shift to remote education in the spring, and together they’ll spend (or lose) billions more this fall as that shift continues. The adverse impact on students, especially those who are low-income and the first in their families to attend college, is incalculable.
Still, one thing has become obvious: As colleges begin adapting to this new paradigm, some of their changes may clearly be for the better.