Daily Lumina News 040723

This academic year, public colleges in Washington state were required to provide training for faculty and staff on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism—a new mandate based on a 2021 state law.
As colleges’ diversity efforts face possible bans in some states, lawmakers in others are doing the opposite: They’re aiming to affirm these programs through legislation.

Last week, leaders from a dozen colleges came together to address two of the most persistent challenges in higher education: improving student outcomes and lowering the cost of a bachelor’s degree.
Their proposed solution is an unconventional one—to create a three-year bachelor’s program equivalent to a four-year college degree. Unlike other three-year options that exist on the market, their proposal isn’t focused on accelerating bachelor’s degree programs but rather redesigning them to fit within three years.

Raised in a “very liberal” home in Houston, Edward Blum has spent the past two decades quietly reshaping American civil rights law.
His more recent efforts focus on eliminating race-based affirmative action in college admissions. This interview explores the legal and policy beliefs of the Republican candidate-turned-stockbroker-turned-conservative policy activist.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom met this week with students and faculty members from the New College of Florida, the liberal arts institution embroiled in Gov. Ron DeSantis’s higher education overhaul and the country’s culture wars.
In a post about the meeting on Twitter, Newsom pointed to an “all out assault on public education” in conservative states: “Books banned. Teachers silenced. Students intimidated.”

Incorporating virtual reality in career exposure and job training isn’t new. But for Nevada, it’s the way the state is fueling this resource that first attracted a state legislative grant and then federal funding.
Today, the Silver State is using its libraries as the hub of VR education, experience, and exploration for careers.

Jacob Heinzl says the weight of his student loan debt seems to be slowing everything down. He’s put off his dream of going to nursing school partly because of his loans. He doesn’t want to accumulate more debt.
As Heinzl defers his plans, thousands of Pittsburghers like him are in the same boat as they wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is constitutional.