In this week’s roundup:
The Biden administration is looking to include undocumented students in the emergency relief aid, HBCUs are seeing record admissions numbers and college sports are feeling the heat from all angles.
May 6 – 12
- The Biden administration is going to issue a regulation letting undocumented students receive some of the emergency aid given to colleges and universities.
- College-access groups are offering innovative new ways to help students and their families tackle the complicated FAFSA, including drive-thru help, virtual guidance, hotlines and incentives.
- Enrollment managers who have already spent years braced for the “demographic cliff” of declining high school graduation rates got more bad news this week: the U.S. birth rate fell by 4% in 2020, marking the lowest number of births since 1979 and the sixth consecutive year of decline.
- Despite the long odds created by the pandemic, some historically Black colleges are posting record admissions numbers.
- Though infections are still present, cases of COVID-19 are slowing down at colleges and universities. Still, with most students among the last adults to get access to vaccines, campuses are holding firm on safety measures and restrictions.
- Judges have dismissed many of the more than 300 cases of students and parents demanding tuition refunds for shifts to virtual learning during the pandemic.
- Parents of the students at University of Massachusetts at Amherst who have faced disciplinary action for allegedly breaking COVID-19 protocols are claiming that they will file a lawsuit against the university for the suspension of these students.
- With four states “poised to allow players to make endorsement deals,” the NCAA is encouraging governing bodies to approve rules that could change the state of college athletes’ bank accounts forever.
- For the University of California, Berkeley, and pretty much every other institution with an athletics program, this sports season was one many are glad to see go but happy to have had it happen in the first place. The only thing is: college sports have many issues coming their way, including the aforementioned payment of athletes, gender and racial equity and financial concerns.
- A community college in Florida took the challenge of the pandemic and turned it into an opportunity to bring hands-on education to more students across the state.
- While the prospects of financial health looked dim for virtually everyone at the beginning of the pandemic, “doomsday” never came for many. Instead, federal relief, layoffs, pay cuts and the choice to bring students back have helped higher education institutions stay above water throughout the pandemic.
ICYMI: Check out episode 5 of On The Yard, hosted by our VP and Managing Director Ashley Northington, where she and Rust College President Ivy Taylor talk about collaboration and partnerships at HBCUs.
