Daily Lumina News 101221

Nationally, white students at public colleges are two and a half times more likely to graduate than Black students, and 60 percent more likely to graduate than Latino students. In some states, the graduation rate gaps are particularly acute.
Many reasons contribute to these gaps. Remedial education, financial challenges, and even just a jarring campus culture can stymie students.

When Michaela Martin began a two-year degree at a community college in Oregon, she did so as a single mom to her young son. To attend class, she needed someone to help watch her child. Unfortunately, the childcare center on campus had a two-year waiting list.
Martin calls student-parents the invisible population on college campuses. Six years ago, she took steps to elevate their voices.

A steady stream of surveys last year revealed drops in undergraduate enrollment, by 3.6 percent in the fall and 4.9 percent in the spring. Beneath those top-line numbers, many questions remained unanswered: How did different states, regions, and locales fare? Which colleges and universities, specifically, experienced gains and losses?
A new review of more than 3,000 institutions across regions and sectors offers answers.

Lots of people give big gifts to colleges and universities. Most of these donors have very specific ideas about how the money will be spent. So do Tom and Cathy Tinsley—sort of.
Instead of funding a specific program or endowing a particular faculty chair, the couple is giving $100,000—no strings attached—to all six professors who earned tenure at Colby College in 2021. Could their idea be the new donation paradigm?