Daily Lumina News 121423

Details matter. Smart shoppers wouldn’t dream of buying a car or other big-ticket item without taking a close look at what they’re getting—gas mileage, safety, reliability. Education should be no exception.
But some people are getting the wrong message—the wrong advice, as it were—from those who misunderstand or misrepresent the importance of learning. There’s a rising tide of skepticism today about education beyond high school, and it has serious consequences, writes Lumina Foundation's Jamie Merisotis in his latest column for Forbes.

When it comes to ChatGPT, colleges are still hammering out large-scale plans and policies governing how generative AI will be dealt with in operations, research, and academic programming. But professors have been forced more immediately to adapt their classrooms to its presence. Those adaptations vary significantly, depending on whether they see the technology as a tool that can aid learning or as a threat that inhibits it.
In this interview, professors describe their experiences with AI—and what they want to happen next.

Labor unions are experiencing a comeback moment in the United States, and community college partnerships with labor unions could unlock new avenues to support working adults in search of upskilling and reskilling as the job market changes.
A new brief from AFL-CIO's Working for America Institute offers insight on the role of organized labor in worker education and training, principles for effective partnerships between labor unions and community colleges, and examples of partnerships in action.

The first time Kunlyna Tauch gained access to a computer of his own occurred in prison through a bachelor’s degree program offered by California State University, Los Angeles.

Tauch was incarcerated at the age of 18; he's now 35. He says when he works on his laptop, he can now see a future. He describes that future—and the potential of college-in-prison programs to change lives—in this essay.

The newest Fresno City College campus, West Fresno Center, has become a beacon of hope for a community that faced decades of strategic redlining practices and limited opportunities and resources.
Campus leaders say the long-term vision for the college is to create a space that not only disrupts the school-to-prison pipeline in the area but also more deeply connects West Fresno to the rest of the city.

After the fall of affirmative action, legacy preferences quickly became the center of increasing scrutiny. Now, for the first time, new research shows just how widespread the practice may be.
Nearly 600 colleges consider whether applicants' parents, siblings, or other relatives attended the institution to which they are applying, according to data published this week by the National Center for Education Sciences. More important, the research says the practice extends far beyond the Ivy League.