In this week’s roundup:
Colleges and universities are making decisions about masking on campus, college admissions essays are shown to have a strong correlation with wealth and Native American activists push higher education institutions to do more to atone for previous wrongdoings.
May 27 – June 2
- Colleges are loosening their mask mandates – with caveats.
- Colorado became the first state to ban “legacy admissions” at its public universities. Governor Jarid Polis also signed a bill lifting the requirement for applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores.
- Research from Stanford shows that the ACT/SAT are not the only part of the admissions process that favor wealthier applicants – in fact, they found that the application essay has an even stronger correlation with family income.
- Native American activists are pushing colleges and universities to do more for Indigenous communities to atone for past wrongs.
- A new bill from congressional Democrats would allow college athletes to unionize, making it possible for students from across universities to band together and organize unions within athletic conferences.
- A major benefit of online learning is the ability to share course offerings, which is exactly what community colleges in the League for Innovation are doing.
- A Hechinger Report investigation found that 49 states sent unpaid student debt to costly private debt collection agencies, making debts even harder to pay off.
- Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand are giving $1 million to Morehouse College to support students in journalism and sports-related fields of study. The gift is part of Jordan’s Black Community Commitment, an anti-racism initiative.
- Pennsylvania continues the work of funding programs meant to reduce sexual assault on campus, with over 70 institutions receiving grants for their sexual violence prevention strategies.
- College students from more than 80 institutions have joined a coalition, Cops Off Campus, advocating for changes including abolishing campus police departments, cutting budgets and disarming officers.
- Howard University will name its College of Fine Arts in honor of actor and alumnus Chadwick Boseman.
- The rise in remote workers has the potential to reshape college towns, and these colleges are betting on the trend.
- Experts say that President Biden’s recently announced plan to address the racial wealth gap is missing one major component: student loan forgiveness.
ICYMI: Check out our latest episode of On the Yard, where we sit down with Robyn Merrick, Ph.D., to talk about how HBCUs dealt with the pandemic and what the fall may look like.
