Daily Lumina News 022323

According to a just-released report from Excelencia in Education, colleges in Puerto Rico were able to survive despite a financial crisis, natural disasters, and the COVID-19 pandemic by adapting their programs and offerings, recruiting adult learners, and changing admissions and enrollment standards.
Findings from the study may offer solutions for U.S. colleges facing enrollment shifts and financial constraints.

The Academic Pipeline Exchange is an open access database charting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in businesses, organizations, and institutions of higher education across the nation.
While the full database is only in its initial stages, Curtis Byrd and Rihana Mason are already working to turn their idea into a nationwide standard.

Nowhere in higher education has the loss of students been felt more acutely than at community colleges. And while community colleges are seeing a very small increase in freshman enrollments, it doesn’t recover the enrollments lost over the course of the pandemic.
A new survey provides fresh insights about the lives of community college students and their decisions to maintain enrollment or stop out.

The dean of Harvard Medical School was emphatic when he announced that the school would end its participation in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. Other schools soon followed, with officials citing flawed methodology that hurts equity efforts.
But the exodus also calls attention to the lack of other reliable and easy-to-find information to help consumers make one of the most consequential and expensive investments in their lives.

The long pause on federal student debt bills has been a relief to millions of students who borrowed tens of thousands of dollars to finance their education. That cushion is about to end in a matter of months.
Many are waiting anxiously to see if President Joe Biden's plan for mass student loan forgiveness will survive legal challenges. For some, it would mean instantly becoming debt free even as payments finally resume for others.

'It’s amazing how much you can accomplish if you don’t care who takes credit.'
After 19 years, Holiday Hart McKiernan, J.D., retired recently as executive vice president, chief operating officer, and general counsel for Lumina Foundation. In this commentary, she reflects on the importance of leadership and service—plus the power of a sense of purpose.