Daily Lumina News 060923

As a young child who had recently arrived in Nevada from Mexico with her family, Liz Aguilar knew she was going to college. She told her parents to save the money for her quiceñera—the big coming-of-age celebration that Latino families host when a girl turns 15—and use it for her college education.
The quiceñera never happened. Neither did the college fund. Aguilar had a secret, one that made her college dream seem more impossible the closer she got to high school graduation.

In Wisconsin, the postsecondary credential completion rate for Native Americans in 2019 was 26 percent, well below the state average of 55 percent. One of the primary barriers in Indigenous students’ success is a lack of cultural relevance in the postsecondary curriculum. Students do not see themselves reflected in the institution or its programs, advocates say.
Nicolet College is working to make sure they do.

This week, President Joe Biden vetoed a Republican-led resolution that would have struck down his plan to forgive more than $400 billion in student loans.
Despite the veto, Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is far from secure. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to issue a ruling on the program's legality before the end of June.

One day there was school and the next day the classrooms were closed. The class of 2023 were high school and college freshmen, still getting used to their new normal. Suddenly, nothing was normal.
Three years later, the federal emergency is over. But these students are, still, the class of COVID. More than a dozen seniors at colleges and high schools share their hopes for a new start.

Employers across the country face a growing need for talent, while millions of potential workers are left disconnected from the economic mainstream. Year Up is determined to address this challenge head on.
In this interview, Year Up's CEO Gerald Chertavian explains how his organization is helping young adults in underrepresented communities find a pathway to economic mobility.

Higher-ed unions had their most active academic year in recent memory. A series of strikes led to changes that graduate students and faculty members touted as big wins: better wages, more benefits, and improved working conditions.
The conflicts stem from a convergence of trends in higher education and the broader U.S. economy. Among them: colleges’ growing reliance on contingent faculty and a cutthroat academic job market, as well as soaring living costs and a burgeoning labor movement.