Daily Lumina News 091620

When Isabella Moles started classes at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, she was a star student. She had two jobs and a car. Scholarship money from the school provided a temporary resolution to her most vexing problem: food and housing costs she couldn’t afford because of rising tuition and inadequate financial aid. Then came the coronavirus.
Ever since the pandemic began closing down most American colleges, more financially struggling students are left with no place to live or eat.

Twice a day, every day, Linda LeMura walks through a neighborhood near a college campus in Syracuse, New York. She knocks on the door of every student residence to ask how the semester is going so far.
LeMura is the president of Le Moyne College. She's also the students' neighbor. She moved into a house near campus to make sure students follow the college’s new COVID-19 precautions. So far, it seems to be working.

As colleges start classes in new ways, online, in-person, or a hybrid, a familiar question is being asked again: Is college worth it? Are there jobs on the other end? And other questions: Do you remember shop class? Do you know how to make anything with your own hands?
A four-year college in Charleston, South Carolina, is connecting those dots—and teaching traditional skills to carry students through life.

A college reform movement may be gaining ground, but there's still much room for improvement.
A new report provides the first national baseline data on student and faculty perceptions of guided pathways practices. While guided pathways work is underway at a growing number of campuses, it is too early for most colleges to see significant change, according to the report. But improvement in engagement is one early indicator.