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Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.

June 11, 2025

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Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.

Natasha Singer, The New York Times

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OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has a plan to overhaul college education—by embedding its artificial intelligence tools in every facet of campus life.

 

If the company’s strategy succeeds, universities would give students A.I. assistants to help guide and tutor them from orientation day through graduation. Professors would provide customized A.I. study bots for each class. Career services would offer recruiter chatbots for students to practice job interviews. And undergrads could turn on a chatbot’s voice mode to be quizzed aloud ahead of a test.

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Undocumented Students in Limbo, Questions Remain as Texas Restricts In-State Tuition

Milla Surjadi, The Dallas Morning News

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Viridiana Carrizales spent last week speaking with panicked undocumented students and their parents. She met with students who were worried about affording their summer classes and a mother who vowed to get another job. Then there was a chemical engineering student who proposed taking one class a semester instead of three, and parents asking what scholarships their children should apply for.

 

A day after Texas ended its in-state tuition rates at public universities for undocumented students, Carrizales, co-founder of a Dallas-based nonprofit dedicated to improving immigrants’ educational experiences, heard the same question over and over: Will we be able to pay for college?

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Politics, ‘Belonging’ Drive College Choice

Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed

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From the rise of artificial intelligence in college classrooms to the rapid politicization of campus life, higher education has changed dramatically in just the past few years. So have the ways prospective students choose their future alma maters, according to a new report from enrollment management consulting firm EAB.

 

The report, which draws from three recent surveys of roughly 40,000 high school and first-year college students, found that students’ priorities in choosing which colleges to apply to are evolving, as are the best practices for reaching and recruiting them.

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A New Way to Help Some College Students: Zero Percent, No-Fee Loans

Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report

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Joshua Alferos was just two semesters away from earning his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering when he ran out of money. Then he heard about a new, experimental program run by philanthropies and private businesses that would loan him what he needed to finish school at zero interest and with no fees. The debt wouldn’t come due until he earned a minimum salary, and his employer would likely help him pay it off.

 

One of the best parts of the program: the money goes back into a pool to replicate the same support for future students.

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How International Student Declines Could Impact the Bottom Line for Pittsburgh Colleges

Maddie Aiken, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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College consultant Scott White sees international student enrollment as the “lifeblood” of the financial health of many universities.

 

But between recent threats to Chinese student visas, temporary revocation of thousands of international students’ records, and a travel ban on nationals from 12 countries that went into effect this week, colleges in the Pittsburgh region and across the United States could see the Trump administration directly or indirectly impact that lifeblood.

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'My Future Is in This Book': Nebraska's Prison Education Programs Transform Lives, Face Hurdles

Ryan Luetkemeyer, Nebraska Public Media

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Rudy Valentino Johnson has spent much of his adult life incarcerated. A program launched in March 2024 allowed him to leave the Community Corrections Center in Lincoln and take classes at Southeast Community College. After nearly two decades, Johnson finished his prison sentence, finally getting the education he craved inside the Nebraska prison system.

 

Johnson's journey to earn an education behind bars wasn’t straightforward. Over the years, the 45-year-old says he's watched as prison staff confiscated his college materials, disbanded study groups—labeling them as “gang activity”—and expressed overall disapproval of incarcerated people getting an education.

HUMAN WORK AND LEARNING

One Year In, What Has ‘the Anti-Harvard’ University Accomplished?

Christa Dutton, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Four Ways Colleges Can Prepare for an Uncertain Future

Lilah Burke, Higher Ed Dive

Teacher Apprentice Programs Are Spreading Like Wildfire

Carl Smith, Governing

Views: Too Many Credentials, Not Enough Value. Let’s Change That.

Greg DeSantis and Meena Naik, Jobs for the Future

EQUITY IN EDUCATION

Why We Need Black Voices in Tech

Marybeth Gasman, Forbes

Groups Sue Mississippi Education Boards Over New DEI Law

Candice Wilder and Devna Bose, Mississippi Today

HBCUs Depend on Federal Funding. Their Leaders Are Walking a Tightrope on Trump’s DEI Attacks

Cheyanne Mumphrey, The Associated Press

Opinion: Black People Have a Reason to Distrust Doctors. Ending DEI Won't Fix That.

Maya Dunson, The Columbus Dispatch

FEDERAL POLICY

All the Ways the Trump Administration Is Going After Colleges and Universities

Elissa Nadworny, NPR

U.S. Universities Are Moving to the Right. Will It Help Them Escape Trump’s Wrath?

J Oliver Conroy, The Guardian

Preserving the Federal Data Trump Is Trying to Purge

Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed

STATE POLICY

Legislators Approve Transferring UNO to the LSU System. What Happens Next?

Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator

Indiana’s Degree Cuts Threaten Access for Working Adults

Joe Ulery, Public News Service

What Each Utah University and College Is Eliminating Under State-Imposed Budget Cuts

Courtney Tanner, The Salt Lake Tribune

Virginia Lawmakers Reject Latest Youngkin Appointees to University Boards

Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury

COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY

States With the Most College Debt at Graduation

Elliott Davis Jr., U.S. News & World Report

Texas Lawmakers OK Tuition Relief for Students in High-Demand Fields

Lily Kepner, Austin American-Statesman

Student Loans: Borrowers See Balances Surge Despite Forbearance Promise

Suzanne Blake, Newsweek

Commentary: Here's What Improving College Affordability Means for Latino Students in Illinois

Jennifer Juárez and Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro, Crain's Chicago Business

luminafoundation.org
Daily Lumina News is edited by Patricia Brennan.

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