Daily Lumina News 070720

Scholars and activists are debating—sometimes with themselves—whether the ongoing protests happening throughout the world could be a watershed racial moment for higher education.
Will student uprisings this fall lead to deeper changes than those achieved by the anti-racism protests that shook campuses five years ago? What will it take to really address the role universities play in perpetuating racial inequality?

Regional public universities confer nearly 40 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in America each year and as many as one-fifth of degrees overall. They are particularly important in providing higher education access to minority students—and they play an enormous role in supporting their local economies. They also are struggling to survive.
But if these schools pull through this period, they could be pivotal to a robust and equitable post-pandemic recovery.

College students across the country have been warned that campus life will look drastically different in the fall, with temperature checks at academic buildings, masks in half-empty lecture halls, and maybe no football games.
What they might not expect: a lack of professors in the classroom.

As protestors marched across the United States in June calling for racial justice, college students and recent graduates amplified their cries on Instagram. Through dozens of new Instagram accounts, they are sharing, often anonymously, what it’s like to be disrespected and harassed for being Black on campus.
They’re also highlighting resources for such things as learning about white fragility and which college courses can prepare students to open their mind and check their biases.