Daily Lumina News 060223

Hands-on training and student engagement are the norm at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona. Whether it involves using 3-D printing technology to revolutionize the way homes are built or offering vineyard-to-bottle education with programs in enology, leaders at Yavapai are investing in opportunities for the future.
Learn more about the innovative work happening at Yavapai College in this special series on the many ways community colleges keep the flame alive for students and their communities.

A college degree is one of the country’s most effective anti-poverty strategies, yet public programs actively restrict education, contends Carrie Welton of The Institute for College Access & Success.
In this interview, Welton shares her personal journey into the student parent field—plus the resources, supports, and programs that she believes can help other student parents achieve their dreams.

Republican politicians have found a new target in their efforts to reshape higher education: accrediting agencies.
The intricacies of accreditation policy are not usually the fodder of presidential campaigns. The accreditation process is complex, lengthy, and mostly opaque. But the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump—say they plan to harness the wonky process to set higher ed straight. Experts are skeptical.

The year's National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education began under somewhat inauspicious circumstances. Campus diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are under attack across America, with lawmakers in several states passing bans on DEI offices and programs at public universities.
But in what felt like a mark of defiance, one of NCORE’s earliest panels focused instead on what’s going right.

More Historically Black Colleges and Universities are benefiting from an increase in financial gifts recently, particularly from corporations and corporate foundations. Some have received a new look from companies amid the reckoning over racial injustice spurred by the killing of George Floyd.
But the colleges also have been pitching themselves, emphasizing their ability to deliver returns on the investment in student mobility.

The online-program-management company model may seem like an easy win for colleges, but for many students, the courses are more of a raw deal. The companies' aggressive recruitment tactics often pull in as many students as possible by promising convenience and a well-paying job after graduation.
Instead, many students find themselves shouldering a huge debt load from a program that is a pale imitation of the in-person learning experience. While it's not always the case, experts say some OPMs are offering online students a worse education for a sky-high price.