Daily Lumina News 081423

Repurposing shipping containers into dormitory accommodations for 100 new micro-apartments. Accommodating students in hotels. It's all part of the unconventional solutions that some colleges are taking when faced with enrollment figures surpassing their housing capacity.
And the challenge isn't going away, predict some college leaders.

In late June, Alliance University’s governing board voted to close the 140-year-old institution at the end of August. The decision came just days after Alliance’s accreditor, Middle States Commission on Higher Education, announced plans to pull the Christian college’s accreditation, in part over concerns about its finances.
College closures are nothing new. But pundits are closely watching whether they will pick up as the higher education sector faces a slew of issues, including rising operating expenses and changing demographics.

History, philosophy, religion, languages, literature, and the arts are the core of a liberal arts education that academics say prepares students to confront complex challenges in life. But college enrollment in the humanities has been falling for years, causing some institutions to do away with many liberal arts majors.
In the face of such challenges, advocates of the liberal arts are undeterred. According to several New England college presidents, the humanities are not dying; they are, however, in need of a public relations boost.

Across the country, there’s a growing shortage of workers in skilled trades. The nation’s carpenters, electricians, and plumbers are getting older and hanging up their hard hats for good. Meanwhile, throughout the state of Oregon, homeless people are struggling to find safe and secure shelter.
A new program at Lane Community College aims to alleviate both of these challenges.

As with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling a year ago—which set off a cascade of legislation restricting women’s access to abortion—conservatives are now wielding the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action in higher education to advance another cultural goal: ending Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs.
Their actions have been fast and furious, writes Sheryll Cashin, a law professor at Georgetown University, in this op-ed.

Unlike credit card, medical and other consumer debts, student loans don’t automatically disappear in bankruptcy. Debtors need to take an extra legal step—both challenging and costly—known as an adversary proceeding.
But more people in bankruptcy are beginning to use a legal process introduced by the Biden administration that is supposed to make the ordeal easier, fairer, and more transparent by establishing clearer legal standards and allowing debtors to present their case on a simplified form.