Daily Lumina News 042524

Community college students need more career guidance from their institutions, according to a new report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement.
The survey shows that many community college students are unaware of the demand, skills, and earnings potential in their fields of study.

For college senior Nana Ampofo, an unconventional book club inside the Cook County Jail has transformed her career ambitions.
The student-led volunteer effort started years ago as an offshoot of a DePaul University program offering college credit classes at the jail on the city’s southwest side for students and detainees. The book club, with a new cohort each academic quarter, tackles books that resonate personally with group members who are nearly all Black or Latino.

Student-parents disproportionately give up before they reach the college finish line. Fewer than four in 10 graduate with a degree within six years, compared with more than six in 10 other students.
Forty-five percent of student-parents who drop out cite their need to provide child care as a significant cause, a recent survey shows. A new online tool offers additional insight into the child-care challenge with information on institutions that accommodate student-parents.

Rural colleges—which include community colleges, religious and other private liberal arts colleges, branch campuses of public universities, and tribally controlled colleges—play a key role in providing an affordable and accessible entry point into higher education in communities that need them the most.
This video explains how researchers and policymakers define rural colleges, as well as why it is important to support these institutions.

Stackable and alternative credentials are gaining popularity and growing in use as today's learners demand more flexible, relevant educational pathways.
In this interview, higher-ed thought leaders discuss whether traditional colleges and universities will adapt their curricula and their delivery models to supplement degrees with certificates and short-term credentials—and what may happen to those that don't.

As administrators at Columbia University continue to negotiate with pro-Palestinian student protesters, similar demonstrations are spreading and intensifying to more than a dozen schools across the country.
The Israel-Hamas war has become a major flashpoint at colleges and universities, many of which are now grappling with how to balance free speech protections with student safety at a moment of rising antisemitism and Islamophobia.