Daily Lumina News 120423

Florina Caprita was just six credits shy of her degree from Ashworth College when a family emergency forced her out of school. To make matters worse, the mother of three young children fell behind on her monthly tuition payments, which had steadily increased from $25 to more than $200.
Last spring, Caprita got an opportunity to earn a degree at a different college. The problem? Ashworth, an unaccredited, for-profit school in Georgia, refused to release her transcript until she paid—in full—the more than $2,200 that she owed. This practice, known as transcript withholding, could get harder to enforce in the future.

Millions of students who begin their college journey believe they’ll finish in four years. In reality, fewer than half of them will make it to the four-year finish line. Consider this surprising number: At more than 100 U.S. colleges and universities, not a single student graduated within four years.
This episode of College Uncovered digs deep into the world of graduation rates, plus what some colleges are doing to help students save time and money.

Some faculty members at Chatham University are exploring the option of unionizing, seeking “a seat at the table" with an administration that’s deciding how to patch a multimillion-dollar budget deficit.
Ten faculty members, with and without tenure, are forming an organizing committee for the early-stage effort for full-time faculty. Through casual conversations and a few virtual information sessions, they hope to educate their colleagues on the process of unionizing and the benefits they believe representation could bring.

Auner Barrios Vasquez is chasing the American Dream. But it hasn't been easy. An estimated 17,000 people in California don’t qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program because of decisions by the Trump administration and the courts. But many more people like Barrios Vasquez—nearly 100,000 Californians—are ineligible for other reasons.
That reality is creating new dilemmas for students around employment, financial aid, and the threat of deportation. In response, some California colleges are stepping up to help with creative—and occasionally controversial—strategies.

Are career services important? Yes, say college-goers and graduates alike. Studies show that certain career-focused experiences, including having at least one college or university official initiate a conversation about career options, significantly boost students’ confidence about their career preparation.
Even so, many students don't engage with career services. A new survey finds that about a third of students—even those graduating in 2024—haven’t interacted with their campus career center. There’s also a mismatch between the services students say career centers should offer and what services they’re actually seeking out.

Eight years ago, the president of Sweet Briar College abruptly announced that the more-than-century-old school would shut down. Horrified alumnae rushed in to save the small private women’s college in Virginia—and they did.
Now, after a national search, one of those women, Mary Pope Maybank Hutson, will be the school’s 14th president. This is her story.