Daily Lumina News 020321

Leaders of academic medical institutions, including historically Black and Hispanic-serving institutions, are addressing issues of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in their communities through research and personal outreach.
Experts point to a wide range of reasons for higher rates of vaccine hesitancy among Blacks and Hispanics, including the medical profession’s sorry legacy of mistreatment of Black people, the fear vaccination could be used for immigration enforcement purposes, and the inequities minority communities continue to face in terms of access to health care.

How are colleges and universities handling the 2021 spring semester during the pandemic? Some have shifted their start dates, while others plan to continue with remote learning. Several will offer both in-person and remote options.
College leaders from three different institutions in New York reflect on plans for the spring semester, including access to courses, testing protocols, dorm life, and more.

Last fall, universities were accused of enabling the pandemic’s spread by bringing back students who then endangered local residents, mingling with them in bars, stores, and apartments. So the University of California, Davis is trying something different: providing free testing, masks, and quarantine housing to tens of thousands of people who live nearby.
It has also trained dozens of graduate students to help with contact tracing and hired some 275 undergraduate ambassadors to combat health disinformation and hand out free masks.
Public health experts say the initiative is the most ambitious program of its type in the country and could be a model for other universities.

Up until the Great Recession in 2008, the higher education sector had experienced strong periods of enrollment growth as it expanded capacity to meet the demand of new students each year. Growth then turned into stagnation. Enrollments dipped. Previously built-out “seats” at institutions became unfilled capacity. Meanwhile, the cost of education on a per-student basis continued to rise.
To reverse this cycle of declining institutional health and growing higher education costs, supply and demand imbalances must be better addressed. Lumina Foundation's Brad Kelsheimer explains in this podcast.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, writes in this op-ed that President Biden can and should move quickly to double the maximum Pell Grant as a way to bolster higher education opportunities for more students.
Mitchell challenges policymakers to “be honest about where we are” in terms of helping increase college access, and he warns that “we risk squandering several decades of progress in providing opportunity to low-income and minority learners at the precise moment we must recommit to equity and justice for all.”

Coding boot camps have long been viewed as the antithesis of traditional higher education. But recently, more of them are joining forces with colleges and universities.
The coronavirus pandemic may accelerate the trend. Many laid-off workers are looking to gain new skills, and boot camps and other short-term programs can provide a quicker way to earn a credential than enrolling in a degree program.