In this week’s roundup:
Princeton University is facing a U.S. Department of Education investigation as a result of addressing systemic racism, COVID-19 continues to affect college finances and enrollment, and COVID-19 dashboards might be failing to provide true transparency.
Stay tuned for our weekly roundup on what trends we're seeing across institutions, how individual colleges and universities are responding to them and what national policy changes are affecting higher ed.
Week of September 16 - 23
- Changes in the CDC’s COVID-19 testing guidelines could complicate some colleges and universities’ virus testing practices.
- COVID-19 dashboards are coming under closer scrutiny with a new website grading institutions’ widely varying efforts at transparency.
- As the fall semester gets rolling in earnest, students are sharing their “definitely weird” experiences returning to campuses under coronavirus safety protocols that sometimes change in response to outbreaks on campus.
- The fight continues between students disciplined for violating COVID-19 rules and the institutions that punished them.
- Students are also continuing to argue for tuition cuts for courses moved online due to pandemic campus closures. A recent survey found MBA students are particularly unhappy with the cost of their degrees during the pandemic.
- College towns are the new COVID-19 hotspots, making them less appealing to retirees, who previously enjoyed the amenities colleges offer their communities. Data suggests tens of thousands of new cases are linked to campus reopenings.
- As the pandemic continues to exacerbate financial troubles in higher education, there are signs that it could be hindering the free higher education movement.
- Only 26% of colleges and universities met the traditional May 1 deadline for building their class, and the majority of institutions hadn’t done so by July 1, according to an Inside Higher Ed survey, suggesting that the pandemic may have shifted the number of schools taking advantage of the NACAC changes.
- Equity in admissions — or lack thereof — continues to raise concerns as an audit by the state of California found the University of California showed favoritism that led to wealthy white students with connections to secure acceptance letters they may not have earned.
- Princeton is facing a DOE investigation after its president announced plans to address systemic racism at the institution.
- Greek life is reckoning with its role in perpetuating systemic racism on college campuses.
