Daily Lumina News 112723

New attention is being devoted to career services by universities—even top universities, whose students likely won’t have trouble finding jobs—as consumer demand gets louder for a tangible return on investment for a degree.
That’s driving colleges to beef up career services staffs and budgets, promote career directors to the highest levels of leadership, and start offering career advising to students from the time they put down their first-year deposits.

A critical staffing shortage is plaguing the cybersecurity and health-care industries today, with more than 650,000 open cybersecurity jobs and more than a million job openings in health care.
In this interview, Patrick J. Murphy of Task Force Movement discusses why transitioning service members, veterans, and military families are the perfect fit for these in-demand careers.

The federal student loan system is in the teeth of a grinding crisis, with millions of borrowers dogged by default and its consequences, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. In the past decade, the number of federal direct loan borrowers in default has more than doubled.
Now, as borrowers slowly return to repayment after the pandemic pause, the Biden administration has unveiled a plan to turn this tide of defaults and help borrowers back into good standing. But the clock is ticking to reach millions of the system's most vulnerable borrowers.

In too many rural areas, workers lack access to affordable training pathways that lead to high-quality jobs. Addressing this reality is the premise of Reach University, a non-profit institution that gives workers in school settings the chance to earn a debt-free bachelor's degree in education.
Mallory Dwinal-Palisch, chancellor of Reach University, explains more about the school's grow-your-own program, including its innovative enrollment, apprenticeship-style training, and unique funding model.

Tansheka Riggens, 39, is one of roughly three million Floridians who attended college but never earned a degree or certificate. These "some college, no credential” students make up roughly 18 percent of the state’s population age 25 and over, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
That might change thanks to a program designed to help learners get back on track and into the workforce with a job-ready degree.

College presidents have long had to balance the rights of students, faculty and staff to speak freely, protest peacefully, and debate civilly while also ensuring their campuses are safe spaces open to free exchange of ideas and political and religious perspectives.
Doing so was never easy, but it has grown exponentially difficult since the start of the Israeli/Palestinian war. Four university presidents offer personal reflections about the growing challenge of deciding when and whether to weigh in on controversial domestic or international affairs.